New ( to me) boat collected

We duly left Brighton on my old boat in a 6 and rising and bounced most of the way to Dover, sitting in the seaward side of the "marina" complex for the night ( due to a proposed early start) awaiting the engineer who was to pass fit the new boat. He arrived and we took off early and, traversing past margate sands and through the fishermans gat in the Thames estuary, we progressed on to Lowestof. The weather for the second lap was good and upon arrival at Lowestoff we initially waited in the trawler dock (what Trawlers) for the road bridge to open and then waited on the yacht club pontoon overnight, where an honesty box was the act of the day. (The yacht club being unmanned until the weekend) you worked out your own mooring fee and placed it in a tin safe (Halfords) and taking a key you treated yourself to the excitement of Eastern Lowestoff.

P.G. entering the Broads
soon to be gone :((




We had to spend the night there as the lock into the broads was being maintained and was to only open twice that day and we had missed the second lock-in. The highlife consisted of a trip to the fish and chip shop and a couple of Cokes and an early night, to the sound of a gentle hum from the boats "silenced"generator. In the morning we were called up on the VHF and requested to attend the lock opening which we duly did and we entered the broads proper. Our appointment at the boatyard was for 14-30 and we were in good time however we arrived at a swingbridge that had broken down and we sat and sat only to be told on the VHF by a frustrated bridge operator that the maintenence men couldnt fix it and that a "Man from London" had been called and was on his way. The bridge itself carried the Great Yarmouth to Lowestoff two carriage train and was the least likely subject of maintenece I have ever seen, it was red rusty and when it finally opened (we were late collecting my new boat) the pivot wheel and locking devices underneath it, were also in the same rusty state as the rest of it. In fact it looked like a prop from the film "A Bridge too Far" anyway we eventually got through and made it to the boatyard about 16-35.

We duly moored up and transfered "my stuff" on to the new boat and gave over the papers and recieved a few and with all transactions completed and the engines and engineering of the new boat accepted by the engineer, we loaded with fuel and set off back. darkness was approaching so we deemed to make it as far as possible to the sea using Great yarmouth as opposed to Lowestoff as our exit point from the Broads. the usual road bridge would not open that night so we finally (much to the annoyance of the harbour control) moored inbetween the two bridges just before the Great Yarnouth harbour entrance to give ourselves the best chance of getting out when it opened in the morning. this meant spending the night against piles in a strong flowing river on spring tides so we would rise and fall about four metres over night. I set the springs so that we could do that without any real problem and then went in search of some bread and milk (which we were short off) Our mooring being right in the heart of Yarmouth outside the customs building, my first port of call was a bistro run by an great gentleman with a lilt of Irish in his brogue who insisted that not only should he let us have the bread and milk I`d asked him for that I also should have bacon and eggs for breakfast and bottled water ( in case the vessels water supply was tainted in some way) cheese and ham. I settled up with him (an amount that was far too low for what we had recieved but he wouldn`t take a penny more) and started back to the boat. Upon arrival the engineer had recieved a call and had to return to Dover as a matter of urgency and at 11-30 he caught a cab, the two hundred plus miles, back home arriving at 04-00 in the morning.

One of the many hundreds
of miles of the broads wetlands

At 09-30 the roadbridge opened and we duly left moving down the harbour channel to a bad weather forcast for our trip back to Dover or Ramsgate whichever we decided later on in the journey. Upon reaching the sea and the sands at the mouth of the harbour we moved through the channels and into the now unprotected sea proper turning South for home. We had wind over tide and about 29kts of wind on the nose. the sea was fairly lively and with a new (to me ) boat I had concerns that the tanks may not have been as clean as they might be and that crud from the tanks might block the filters and cause the engines to stall (OK I had spare filters for just such a situation and quite a few of them too ) I didnt really want to have to have my head stuck down in the engine room whilst the boat climbed two metre plus waves and then slammed down into the following troughs. Cautiously we progressed and having passed Lowestoff by some fifteen miles the weather started to turn even worse. Having labelled Lowestoff as a secondary or alternative port of arrival for exactly this reason , along with Felixstowe and other possibilities on the route we turned back, just before the crest of a suitable wave spinning her around on the crest, surfing down the other side and into the same route of entry from the previous days and back into Lowestoff .

The entry into the narrow harbour was challenging to say the least and a fast entry with the swells behind caused us to surf at up to twenty four knots I flicked the vessel round at the last minute to avoid a beam sea and possible rolling, and shutting down at the last minute, entered the Lowestoff harbour (we had already called up the harbour controll and new that nothing was coming out, in that sea?) I steered the vessel into the Royal Suffolk Yacht club and with the wind pushing us off the pontoon moored in between three sailboats on my stern and a catmaran on my bow with no more that two metres clearance on my bow and stern. several fellow boaters took my lines but the owner of the Cat just stood and worried that I might hit him (at one point I had my bow anchor over the stern of his boat but well clear of hitting anything, at this point he waved frantically for me to go astern, but in fact from the flybridge I could see better than him where I was going. Messeur the Chat ( yes he was french) later told me that he was glad that stinkies would be loosing derogation on red diesel, and was really pissed off when I told him that I would never soil any engine of mine with sub standard red diesel and always used white road diesel and that my last purchase was over £1,000-oo ( Ok so I lied but it was worth it to see his face) . The yacht club was excellent and very friendly with great facilities and we spent two days in residence, leaving before we should have, and out into, you guessed it, Bad weather again this time I elected to take a straight line South across the Thames estuary towards the Goodwin Sands bouy the course taking us between the side of the main shipping lane and turning point into Felixstowe, and a sand bank, (so the navigation had to be fairly accurate) before finally Turning into Ramsgate.

Again we were bounced about with much water and spray "over the top" at one time we were completely submerged in a wave but she rose without any fuss, however the flybridge was uncovered and it would seem that water makes its way into the vessel through the roof of the wheelhouse in an area under the flybridge console, it then runs along the underside of the fly deck and down the windscren pillars and into the side decks and along to anywhere it can find a way out so I have a couple of issues to sort fairly urgently, if not the least I should make a point in heavy weather to run with a fly cover (having repaired the split in it from previous heavy seas) to sealing any ingress points of which I am sure there aren`t too many.

We arrived in Ramsgate fairly roughly and with a severe crosswind again had to carry out a three sixty turn between moored boats deep in the marina so as to be able to face outwards (to escape when needed) against a pontoon which we were now being pushed on to (for a change) by the wind. Its amazing how many people appear to watch when the likelyhood of a colision is likely to take place (it didnt) however it was tight and she performed beautifully and we duly moored for the night. Later on three seventy foot steel sailing vessels took shelter on the other side of the pontoon and had obviously had enough battering like us.

We didn`t go into Dover and continued on to Brighton the next day. Progressively our wipers packed up first the port slowed right down and stopped next the starboard one became restricted in its action and later the middle one stopped working altogeather. As we approached the entrance to Brighton Marina the (drivers side) Starboard one gave in altogeather and with the crashing seas and spray I had little or no vision throught the fore windows. I negotiated the vessel as best I could by using the side windows respectively untill through a brief respite in spray I spotted the entrance about one hundred yards away, only to see what I thought was the red dreger coming out (well thats what it looked like) in fact they were dreging in the protected entrance and as I was approaching, it looked like they were moving foreward when they were actually moored.

I hit ( figuratively) the entrance square in the middle and once behind the shelter of the wall took a deep breath and congratulated myself on a trip nearly finished. I progressed around to the fuel pontoon before going to my berth and filled her up with red diesel. Once done, I reversed her ito my berth and proceeded to take off the Davits and twelve foot Passaserelle, which I had transported to my store for future action. (Home is the sailor home from the sea) not a very enjoyable trip but a very successful one, Like flying every landing you walk away from is a good one ! I had a good trip :o))