Saturday 21 May 2016

On our way

With a fair forecast Eddie, Colin and I left Eyemouth at 5.30 on Sunday evening. A fair tide took us through the Farne Islands under engine and full main with a light west wind.
                                      Eddie in the Holy Island Sunset

An easy run down with little traffic found us off our planned stop at Whitby by 10 am. We were a bit early for the opening bridge so as the weather was fine we decided to push on to Lowestoft. A fair breeze took us on across the busy area off the Humber and past wind farms off the Wash to the mucky waters off Norfolk. With our pre made meals from Susan seriously scoffed we made into 
Lowestoft 40 hours from Eyemouth. Royal Norfolk marina was great for showers and a chance to stretch our legs. Steak night in Wotherspoons and a few beers was grand.
We planned to leave for the tide about 6 pm so firstly visited the restored Lowestoft trawler the "Mincarlo". We were shown round by an ex fisherman and really enjoyed it. Eddie and Colin very long suffering of my plunge into a sea of nostalgia! The elderly engineer showed us the AK diesels 60 year old 5 cylinder 500 horse power engine which looks as good as new. He must have enjoyed our interest as he asked if we wanted to see it running. It sounded like an orchestra, ticking over at 200rpm and full out at 320!


             Sweet music

More walks another museum and we had done Lowestoft we were off again. Thinking this would be the trickiest part of the trip with the shifting sands of the Thames estuary it was fine. A fair bit of shipping and a few course alterations round banks and wind farms saw us making good speed with 2 knots of tide past Ramsgate. We were washed out of the North Sea and into the English Channel to Dover.
There were no blue skies over the white cliffs but it was a welcome sight after 15hrs on the move.

Dover harbour is very busy with ferries but is well managed with permission required to move anywhere, all done in a very pleasant manner. A nice marina with pleasant staff provided good facilities at a reasonable price. Eddie left us on the train home and Colin and I explored Dover. We had about as bad an Indian meal as I've had at night. Next day bright and breezy! To go or not to go the same question. Forecast blustery SW 2.5 knots of tide and the busy Dover straight to cross, having seen Dover which is much less pretty than anticipated leaving was worth the effort. We left at 2pm to maximise tidal advantage in lovely sunshine and had a great sail of to Cap Griz Nez. A lot of very big and fast ships but we were lucky to get gaps between them. We got into Boulogne at the back of 7 and cooked 4 of the biggest pork chops I've seen. A shore day planned for Saturday and then see what the weather has planned for us.

No comments:

Post a Comment