This weekend had been in the planning for some weeks, so the weather was a totally lottery...
A group of us had agreed to meet up at Fambridge marina, well up the river Crouch, and have a BBQ on the shore.
And the weather turned out not too bad at all!
We had to time our departure and return around tide times given the fact that we were travelling along the coast, either directly into, or directly with the tide... so this saw us leaving Shotley at 08h00 Saturday morning, into a gentle F2, coming from the west...
By the time we'd left Harwich, it had increased to a F3 touching F4, and was across the beam all the way out to Walton headland, meaning that for the first time in a while, the engine could be off without us either drifting, freezing, or reefing down to tiny sails!... Even better, the sun was shining... and it was pleasantly warm... we shot down to Walton at a very decent speed
As we rounded Walton Headland, it became apparent that the wind angle was such that we could sail a single leg, without tacking all the way to the Spitway buoy, which marks the channel through to East Swin, or more accurately the top of the Whittaker channel which is the route into the Crouch.
What's more.... the wind even shifted just a few degrees, so that we could just free off the sheets a little, and suddenly Morgana was flying along.... with what had become a consistent F4, touching F5, we made extremely fast progress, and before we knew it, we were through the spitway, and entering the Crouch...
The trip up the Crouch was bang into the wind, so we dropped the sails and motored the last few miles up the river....
Even so, after exiting the lock at Shotley at 08h30, we were tied up in Fambridge at 13h00.... which for those that know the area, will be recognised as a very fast passage... the huge spring tide had helped enormously.... at times we hit 9.5kts over the ground travelling up the Wallet.... and rarely dropped below 8kts...
Tying up at Fambridge was 'interesting'.... with 2.5kts of tide ripping past the pontoon, and a slot just 3 feel longer than the boat, I tried to feery glide in.... but the wind direction made it very tough.... so in the end, I stuck the stern into the wind and tide, and reversed in.... well kind of... more swept in by the tide, but used reverse to slow her down as we went in.... not elegant, but it worked.... and we didn't hit anything!
The evening was a grand affair... a georgeous summer evening, and a real treat to just sit on the grass and relax with good company
Sunday was an early start.... up at 05h00.... I was somewhat dissapointed to see the tide already ripping past the boat.... we had a raft 2 deep astern, and one in front... again with no more than 2 foot of space at either end....
The tide was coming from the stern.... so after getting rid of the springs, we moved the bow line back to the centre on the pontoon, to stop her moving forward, gently engaged reverse to take the load off the stern line, slipped it, and let the stern sweep out into the river under the force of the tide.... as it swung out, we engaged hard astern, slipped the bow line, and exited under complete control.... perfect!
Just a few hundred yards up the Crouch, the main was out, and we were again flying along with a spring tide assisted sldeg ride...
in less than an hour, we had passed 'inner crouch' mark, which is where the land 'stops' (at least the land that never gets water over it anyway), and the genoa was unfurled, and the engine off.... for the two or three minutes that we had the geno out and the engine still running, we hit 10.4kts over the ground...
It was however, nice to have some silence, and we enjoyed a very pleasant sail out to Whittaker No. 6.
By now, the wind had built a fair bit, and we rounded up and stuck a reef in the main, and furled a few turns on the genoa.... as we headed for the Spitway, it continued to build, and before long we had a decent F5, but potentially for the wallet, it'd be right up the chuff.... at this point in time it was a beam reach... and we were flying again!
It wasn't however bad in the Wallet, as it was still a pretty flat sea... but it was very deep, so a certain amount of concentration required to avoid a gybe.... but again, not slow....
Before we knew it, we had rounded Walton headland.... and the gybe towards Harwich left us with the main doing all the work, and the genoa flapping and filling aimlessly, threatening to do damage to the sail... so we pinned the main in, furled the genoa, and motored the last 3nm into Harwich....
In and tied up by 12h30..... marvellous..... what a great weekend.... brill weather Saturday.... OK weather Sunday, but fabulous wind... not bad at all!
Miles logged 64nm
Miles this season 415nm
Miles since this blog started 4,312nm
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