Heading North

andythefiddler

andythefiddler

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I am hoping to head North up the East coast from Remsgate next week.

All the legs seem very long, yes I expected this to an extent.

We are 11 metres drawing 1.8 Metres.

Any advice gratefully received - other than don't do it!

Andy
 
If you are concerned about 6 to 10 hour passages then don't do it. You could do worse than read Concerto's posts about his round Britain trip and his progress up the east coast.
 
andythefiddler said:
Ha, yes, ultimate aim would be north Scotland.
Click to expand...

Then you have just got to bite the bullet, the coast is what it is. Whilst I can understand your desire to sail an 11M boat with reasonable winds should be able to average over 5knts so you will have a choice of waiting for favourable winds or using the engine on some of the longer passages.
 
Fr J Hackett said:
If you are concerned about 6 to 10 hour passages then don't do it. You could do worse than read Concerto's posts about his round Britain trip and his progress up the east coast.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the comment. For the OP this is the first post, which then links to the next. You will find them interesting and informative.

Round Britian day 1

The longest section is heading north from Lowestoft or Great Yarmouth. I went into Wells-next-the-sea, then to the Humber but there are no alternative ports if weather is bad. Otherwise most distances are between 35 and 60 miles. Easy day sails.

In Hartlepoool I chatted with 2 men sailing on a Euygene ¼ tonner who had left Ramsgate and heading for the Caledoian Canal.
 
It depends on how much of a purist you are. 5kn was the traditional planning speed for sailing, but with our 10m boat we generally aim to keep up to 6kn, using the engine if necessary, except with contrary winds. Even then, and with a bit of a slant we might manage around 5. This is mainly because we are in the post-retirement age group and need to keep fatigue at bay with only two on board. And also because our stock of pride is quite low.
 
If you want to do a trip round the UK, or just up the coast
I found a book by Roger Oliver titled "Sailing round the uk & ireland", extremely useful
It breaks down 2 circumnavigations that he did SH & gives details on each leg along with distances & reasons for the ports he chose.
Some advice on preparation of the boat, general planning, sailing, cooking & sustinence en route & how he dealt with the longer legs, where shorter ones were not practical.
The Charts ( a bit over the top on that one) pilot books etc. that he advises are useful.
I would have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone considering a trip round the Uk. Even if you are only an armchair dreamer it does give some interesting advice on aspects of passage planning etc.
I learned a lot from reading it before I made the plunge & even took it on the second trip
 
Just make sure that you use the tides as much a s possible, and particularly at pinch points where it flows faster. First example is N. Foreland. Come out of Ramsgate so that you take the N, bound flood to Foulgers Gat and time it so that you pick up the new ebb going N. to Harwich. Etc, etc
I‘m sure I’m preaching to the converted, but on the off chance that I’m not……
 
I did the Harwich to Edinburgh section of this a couple of years ago, and would thoroughly recommend it. As you have found, there are some fairly big gaps between ports. We only did one overnight hop though - from Lowestoft to Scarborough in about 30 hours. There are lots of threads on this topic so do search the forum. Some thoughts:

Do make time to visit the Farne Islands, especially at this time of year. We did Tynemouth (Royal Quays is lovely) - Farne Islands - anchorage near Lindisfarne in a day.

There are plenty of nice harbours, but few truly safe ones in an onshore blow. Choose your weather accordingly. Scarborough and Whitby face opposite directions which can help.

There are lobster pots continuously up the coast from at least Flamborough head to Dunbar - if sailing along the coast at night you would want to stay well offshore.

The RNYC pilot is the definitive guide and worth getting.

Finally if you want to make the detour up the Forth to Edinburgh then give me a shout, both clubs at Granton are very welcoming.
 
Charlie Boy said:
Just make sure that you use the tides as much a s possible, and particularly at pinch points where it flows faster. First example is N. Foreland. Come out of Ramsgate so that you take the N, bound flood to Foulgers Gat and time it so that you pick up the new ebb going N. to Harwich. Etc, etc
I‘m sure I’m preaching to the converted, but on the off chance that I’m not……
Click to expand...
Good advice, except to someone who has not done this before ( or someone who has done it many times) Fisherman's Gat is a better bet due to the navigation marks & the tower just to the NW of the Gat to give a nice position indicator. One can cross it diagonally in the absence of ships & the echo sounder will allow one to save some distance coming out heading N. The nib in the sand on the SE end will tell one when one is starting to enter it , allowing a bit of corner cutting there as well.. One does not have to follow the buoyage exactly, but it is nice to be able to see them.
 
Where do you want to stop? We did Hamble to Tarbert (ie up the West, not the East) in one leg in the autumn (as a delivery) because we didn't want to get stuck anywhere waiting for good weather (worst we saw was about f7 south of Ireland but it was behind us by then).
If the point is just to get there, then maybe it would be better not to waste time inshore where the navigation's trickier? If the point is to visit places on the way then plan around those visits?
 
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