G
Guest
Guest
Picking up where we left off three weeks ago on the MBM Dutch Cruise. We’d left the boat in Belgium for a week and came home by ferry. After a week at work flew back the following Saturday to Brussels, by which time Kim and most of the fleet had sneaked home without us. Late Saturday afternoon and the weather looked Ok ish at Blankenburge to do the next leg down to Nieuwepoort. All going fine until about 15 mins to run when the skies opened and to say we got drenched would be an understatement. Viz disappeared (no radar and put the GPS down below out of the rain, BTW how waterproof are they?) so we slowed down and edged inshore, to the 3 metre contour and just kept following the depth sounder with my wife in the cabin shouting, “right a bit, right a bit” from the GPS rolling road. Eventually the harbour wall appeared ahead and of course at that point the rain stopped so that was all alright.
Sunday was too rough to do the next bit. On Monday we were joined by another straggler a Princess 30DS that had come down from Breskens that morning and a Phantom 43 from Blankenburge for the run back to Ramsgate. Following the Belgian and French coasts it was a bit bumpy so we (Fairline Mirage) and the Princess decided to divert to Calais, leaving the Phantom to speed off home on his own.
Tuesday was glorious. We locked out of Calais at 1:30 French time, and came across to south of the Goodwins, up inside the Goodwin Sands to refuel at Ramsgate. The two of us then carried on up the Thames for a way, with the Princess heading for South Dock and us aiming for Shotley. Now this was our first real trip alone and it went great…ish. I inputted all my waypoints as buoys, yes I know buoy hopping’s the chicken way to do it but it seems logical to me. I only made one real howler. I’d put in the wrong coordinates for one of the buoys and we ended up at an East Cardinal that I was expecting to be a North. Fortunately it didn’t cause us any problems apart from a few heart-stopping moments when I looked at the chart and thought of what could have been. Got into Shotley OK and spent a good night there after I’d double-checked all the subsequent waypoints. Wednesday we did Shotley to Lowestoft and stayed at the Royal Suffolk and Norfolk Yacht Club and planned to do the final leg, some 75nM to Kings Lynn next day. Worked out the arrival time for KL and it just didn’t seem right, so to double check their tide times ‘phoned the Harbourmaster at KL on the off chance I’d worked it out wrong, only to be told in passing that they’d moved the navigation channel from the one marked on the chart, but they kindly faxed me a new update. Interestingly I went to the Admiralty chart agent in Lowestoft and their “up to date chart”. didn’t have the new channel on it either. How up to date are they?
The big problem with Kings Lynn is that there’s not a lot of water except a couple of hours either side of HW and the earliest we could get to KL from a tide point of view was 7:15 pm which wouldn’t give us enough daylight to get to the lock at Denver Sluice another 19 miles up the Great Ouse.
So Thursday saw us toddling at 12 knots round the coast of Norfolk in a flat calm. Didn’t see any other boats, but we did have a Great Tit land on the windscreen 3 miles off Sheringham which took a look at us, jumped down on to the steering wheel, had another look at us, hopped on to my wife’s arm and promptly had a kip for ten minutes. When it woke up it hopped over to my hand and ate my bloody sandwich, thieving bugger must have been a yottie in a former life, they’re always on the scrounge for something.
Got down to KL’s number 3 buoy at half seven and followed a FV through the buoyed channel. It’s a bit exciting ‘cos the channel certainly twists and turns something rotten and we were down to a metre most of the way in. Got in to KL and found the mooring buoys a mile or so upstream where we planned to spend the night. By now the tide was really roaring in and after 15 minutes unsuccessfully trying to pick up a buoy in the dark, we lost the boat hook and were in a “bit of a pickle”. Called the HM and asked if we could tie up to a FV and they very kindly offered us a mooring alongside their Survey Boat, so we made the mile trip back in to KL with the river in full flood. Both engines virtually wide open; we made 4knots against the tide. Some flood.
Next morning saw us complete the last stretch to the lock, again early on the flood. You can’t leave it too late ‘cos of the low bridges and of course can’t go too early for fear of grounding. Went aground once but just waited ten minutes for the tide to lift us off and 11:00 saw us ready to lock through into the river. Course by now I’m a well experienced sea boater so rather than take the easy route straight onto the locked river, took the 15 mile short cut to Earith along the New Bedford Level that would save us the best part of a day through the non tidal river via Ely. Again we had to keep waiting for enough water, but 1:00 saw us back in our home waters.
Saturday was terrific. We’ve got a sort of convention on the river, when you’re working through locks we all chat to each other and the standard opening gambit is always, “have you come far?” Well, to say that made my day would be a bit of an understatement. “Depends what you mean by far”, says me, ”Holland, Belgium, Calais, Ramsgate, Harwich, Lowestoft and Kings Lynn, for us. How far have you come?”
So for us a great summer. We’ve learned a lot, had a terrific time and are now totally converted to sea boating. For those of you thinking about doing something slightloy more adventurous, well what more can I say?
Sunday was too rough to do the next bit. On Monday we were joined by another straggler a Princess 30DS that had come down from Breskens that morning and a Phantom 43 from Blankenburge for the run back to Ramsgate. Following the Belgian and French coasts it was a bit bumpy so we (Fairline Mirage) and the Princess decided to divert to Calais, leaving the Phantom to speed off home on his own.
Tuesday was glorious. We locked out of Calais at 1:30 French time, and came across to south of the Goodwins, up inside the Goodwin Sands to refuel at Ramsgate. The two of us then carried on up the Thames for a way, with the Princess heading for South Dock and us aiming for Shotley. Now this was our first real trip alone and it went great…ish. I inputted all my waypoints as buoys, yes I know buoy hopping’s the chicken way to do it but it seems logical to me. I only made one real howler. I’d put in the wrong coordinates for one of the buoys and we ended up at an East Cardinal that I was expecting to be a North. Fortunately it didn’t cause us any problems apart from a few heart-stopping moments when I looked at the chart and thought of what could have been. Got into Shotley OK and spent a good night there after I’d double-checked all the subsequent waypoints. Wednesday we did Shotley to Lowestoft and stayed at the Royal Suffolk and Norfolk Yacht Club and planned to do the final leg, some 75nM to Kings Lynn next day. Worked out the arrival time for KL and it just didn’t seem right, so to double check their tide times ‘phoned the Harbourmaster at KL on the off chance I’d worked it out wrong, only to be told in passing that they’d moved the navigation channel from the one marked on the chart, but they kindly faxed me a new update. Interestingly I went to the Admiralty chart agent in Lowestoft and their “up to date chart”. didn’t have the new channel on it either. How up to date are they?
The big problem with Kings Lynn is that there’s not a lot of water except a couple of hours either side of HW and the earliest we could get to KL from a tide point of view was 7:15 pm which wouldn’t give us enough daylight to get to the lock at Denver Sluice another 19 miles up the Great Ouse.
So Thursday saw us toddling at 12 knots round the coast of Norfolk in a flat calm. Didn’t see any other boats, but we did have a Great Tit land on the windscreen 3 miles off Sheringham which took a look at us, jumped down on to the steering wheel, had another look at us, hopped on to my wife’s arm and promptly had a kip for ten minutes. When it woke up it hopped over to my hand and ate my bloody sandwich, thieving bugger must have been a yottie in a former life, they’re always on the scrounge for something.
Got down to KL’s number 3 buoy at half seven and followed a FV through the buoyed channel. It’s a bit exciting ‘cos the channel certainly twists and turns something rotten and we were down to a metre most of the way in. Got in to KL and found the mooring buoys a mile or so upstream where we planned to spend the night. By now the tide was really roaring in and after 15 minutes unsuccessfully trying to pick up a buoy in the dark, we lost the boat hook and were in a “bit of a pickle”. Called the HM and asked if we could tie up to a FV and they very kindly offered us a mooring alongside their Survey Boat, so we made the mile trip back in to KL with the river in full flood. Both engines virtually wide open; we made 4knots against the tide. Some flood.
Next morning saw us complete the last stretch to the lock, again early on the flood. You can’t leave it too late ‘cos of the low bridges and of course can’t go too early for fear of grounding. Went aground once but just waited ten minutes for the tide to lift us off and 11:00 saw us ready to lock through into the river. Course by now I’m a well experienced sea boater so rather than take the easy route straight onto the locked river, took the 15 mile short cut to Earith along the New Bedford Level that would save us the best part of a day through the non tidal river via Ely. Again we had to keep waiting for enough water, but 1:00 saw us back in our home waters.
Saturday was terrific. We’ve got a sort of convention on the river, when you’re working through locks we all chat to each other and the standard opening gambit is always, “have you come far?” Well, to say that made my day would be a bit of an understatement. “Depends what you mean by far”, says me, ”Holland, Belgium, Calais, Ramsgate, Harwich, Lowestoft and Kings Lynn, for us. How far have you come?”
So for us a great summer. We’ve learned a lot, had a terrific time and are now totally converted to sea boating. For those of you thinking about doing something slightloy more adventurous, well what more can I say?
