NealB
Well-Known Member
Having had a variety of different bases for the last twenty years or so (Solent, Mediterranean, Isle of Man, Tamar), yesterday, Joscelyn and I completed the last leg of the delivery of our old Comanche catamaran to her new home in Burnham.
What a welcome back!
Without a doubt, this last leg proved to be more challenging than the rest of the trip (which started three weeks ago, in gentle, summer conditions, on the Tamar). South coast pilotage is certainly a doddle compared to this sand bank dodging malarkey of the East Coast.
We left Ramsgate at 0430 yesterday morning, and initially enjoyed a lively reach northwards in a fresh, and veering, southwesterly breeze, in bright, dry, conditions.
Eventually, we headed West along the Barrow Deep, to enter the Crouch, with the flood spring tide. Predictably enough, things became considerably more lively, with the breeze now almost in the west, accompanied by heavy, squally, showers, chucking up a typically unpleasant Thames Estuary, wind against tide, chop.
We didn’t want to hang around, so the puny Yamaha 9.9 outboard, in combination with the tightly sheeted, reefed mainsail, was called upon to get us ‘in’ with all haste (I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that I didn’t bother with the motorsailing cone, but it seems that the rest of you east coasters were sensibly dry and snug ashore somewhere, as we only saw one other boat out all day, and she was a mile or so away, close to the Foulness shore).
By 1400, we were on our new home mooring, off the RCYC, and by 1500, we were enjoying a well, deserved celebratory drink in the clubhouse (neither of us daring to ask why we’ve swapped the deep and blue waters of the west country, for the brown puddles in this neck of the woods).
Anyway…..I’m looking forward to exploring the old haunts of my youth.
If you see us around, do come and say ‘hello’…… on the stern, written large, is ‘Comanche 32’, though the boat's name is actually ‘Aileen’.
What a welcome back!
Without a doubt, this last leg proved to be more challenging than the rest of the trip (which started three weeks ago, in gentle, summer conditions, on the Tamar). South coast pilotage is certainly a doddle compared to this sand bank dodging malarkey of the East Coast.
We left Ramsgate at 0430 yesterday morning, and initially enjoyed a lively reach northwards in a fresh, and veering, southwesterly breeze, in bright, dry, conditions.
Eventually, we headed West along the Barrow Deep, to enter the Crouch, with the flood spring tide. Predictably enough, things became considerably more lively, with the breeze now almost in the west, accompanied by heavy, squally, showers, chucking up a typically unpleasant Thames Estuary, wind against tide, chop.
We didn’t want to hang around, so the puny Yamaha 9.9 outboard, in combination with the tightly sheeted, reefed mainsail, was called upon to get us ‘in’ with all haste (I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that I didn’t bother with the motorsailing cone, but it seems that the rest of you east coasters were sensibly dry and snug ashore somewhere, as we only saw one other boat out all day, and she was a mile or so away, close to the Foulness shore).
By 1400, we were on our new home mooring, off the RCYC, and by 1500, we were enjoying a well, deserved celebratory drink in the clubhouse (neither of us daring to ask why we’ve swapped the deep and blue waters of the west country, for the brown puddles in this neck of the woods).
Anyway…..I’m looking forward to exploring the old haunts of my youth.
If you see us around, do come and say ‘hello’…… on the stern, written large, is ‘Comanche 32’, though the boat's name is actually ‘Aileen’.
