paulburton44
New member
I have been sailing the Wash for 20 odd years now. The last 8 years I have owned various yachts but this season I have gone back to dinghy sailing. I have been in the Wash in most conditions. I have been out a few times this year in my Wayfarer sailing dinghy, and was planning to end the season with a sail to Brancaster where I would take her out and home for the winter. The first date forecast a force 8 so we cancelled and I took my kids Topper to Rutland and and had a cracking sail. The next date was Friday 16th Oct, yet again the forecast had a ocasional 7 in it so we canceled the night before. Then I had a sudden thought, the wind was due to be north-ish so why not have a blast up the Lincolnshire coast and back. At 6.30am we were at Boston lowering the Wayfarer mast in the dark ready to head out of the lock. The level was late as usual and we didn't get out until 8.00ish. We got told the even the fishermen weren't going out. We stopped on the new EA pontoons and got the mast up and sail set and we were off down the Haven on an out going tide. We had an uneventful sail down to Tabs Head when the wind hit us. We pushed on out the the cut channel to Black bouy where we reached over into Clayhole and put a reef in the main. Phil, my crew is about 15 stone and I am around 16 stone so we had plenty of wieght in the boat. It was hard going, every wave come over the foredeck, the self bailers were working flat out but we still have water over the floor boards. We had a good force 6 with a typical short sharp Wash chop but found if we kept close inshore is was managable. We stopped for lunch around midday and a Mars bar has never tasted so good. There was not a single other boat in sight. I hope the pictures show how deserted it was.
The thought did run through my mind a couple of times....." what if "
We both had dry suits, bouyancy aids, gloves etc. We had GPS, flares, vhf, a phone each, anchor, compass, chart, spare clothes and towels in a dry bag. We had an outboard engine with plenty of petrol and a set of full rowing oars with rollocks.
We had to be back at Tabs Head by 2.30pm to get us back to the lock. At 12.30 we left Sculridge 8 miles to Tabsheads. We didn't want to go onto a dead run incase we gybed so we broad reached and did a couple of gybes under control. 1 hour later we were at Tabshead an hour early, so we heade out again. We were sailing faster than the waves, we would surf on top of one the surf down into the next wave. We were constantly moving our wieght around to stop the bow burying into the next wave. We hit 12.8 knots and saw 10knots most of the time on the GPS. We cover over 30 miles. This, in a 16 foot open dinghy.
It is not easy taking photos in those conditions. I slept well that night
edit....sorry for the spelling.
The thought did run through my mind a couple of times....." what if "
We both had dry suits, bouyancy aids, gloves etc. We had GPS, flares, vhf, a phone each, anchor, compass, chart, spare clothes and towels in a dry bag. We had an outboard engine with plenty of petrol and a set of full rowing oars with rollocks.
We had to be back at Tabs Head by 2.30pm to get us back to the lock. At 12.30 we left Sculridge 8 miles to Tabsheads. We didn't want to go onto a dead run incase we gybed so we broad reached and did a couple of gybes under control. 1 hour later we were at Tabshead an hour early, so we heade out again. We were sailing faster than the waves, we would surf on top of one the surf down into the next wave. We were constantly moving our wieght around to stop the bow burying into the next wave. We hit 12.8 knots and saw 10knots most of the time on the GPS. We cover over 30 miles. This, in a 16 foot open dinghy.
It is not easy taking photos in those conditions. I slept well that night
edit....sorry for the spelling.
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