Written by Bob Legg.
Very sorry you and Brian were not able to join us this weekend for a
sail. In the event it was just Mike and myself so we
joined forces and took Magic Dragon. We had to clean her up a bit first
as the birds seem to move up river this time of year and make an awful mess.
More worrying was a lot of sand and mud on deck deposited there by the
wakes of ferries from the newly opened terminal at
Having loaded our gear aboard and cleaned up we set off at 1pm for a
pleasant sail down the Orwell on the ebb. When we reached the sea we intended
to turn right into Walton Backwaters for a quiet night as it gets dark so early
now but it was such a pleasant sail and the tide would soon start to flood up
the Wallet which would be a shame to waste so we headed for Brightlingsea.
It was an interesting experience for me as I haven’t done any night
sailing on purpose before. Conditions, given that it was mid October, were
ideal. A fairly clear night, gentle breezes, on the nose of course, only the
occasional spit of rain, a fair spring tide and bally cold. Mike was
happy to navigate as we tacked between the beach and Gunfleet
sands and even found time to cook a stew and endless cups of tea, what a gem! I
hogged the tiller and fruitlessly tried to spot the unmarked lobster pots off Frinton. Once I had accepted that it was quite pointless
trying to see where we were going I really enjoyed sailing MD, watching the
phosphorescence sparkling in the wake and
spotting buoys and the few ships about. It’s a mystery to me why the Lords of
the admiralty bother to mark the charts with Martello towers which are dwarfed
and hidden by blocks of flats and ignore features like
By the time we reached the Colne there
was enough water to cut the corner into the river and we reached Brightlingsea just after midnight finding the last
available space on the pontoons in mid stream.
After a short lie in and Mike’s excellent scrambled eggs we set off out
of the Colne against the tide for the first three
hours but with the wind behind us. It fell so light that even with the
spinnaker up we made barely any headway. There wasn’t
enough wind at times for the spinnaker to lift it’s sheets which hung lazily
kissing their reflections in the water while we stretched out in the sun
anxiously watching black clouds on the horizon which the weatherman had
promised would precipitate heavily on us. He was wrong about that and the force
four north westerly but we weren’t complaining as the spring ebb soon set in
pushing us steadily back up the coast.
At nightfall we were off the Naze again and
heading up towards Harwich when the breeze shifted towards the north so we
would have the pleasure of tacking into Harwich and up the Orwell in the dark.
Mike stowed the spinnaker and hoist the genoa before
slipping below for more navigation and to prepare beef stew and dumplings
washed down with mugs of steaming tea. (These talents should all be
included in the RYA competent crew syllabus!)
At night Felixstowe and Harwich docks are a blaze of lights, many
moving and flashing and obliterating the feeble lights on buoys and the
navigation lights on the ships which are best spotted by the fact that their
huge bulk eclipses other lights as they pass by. The vast size of the ships and
cranes on the Felixstowe side gives you the illusion that you are much closer
to them than you think you are. The consequence of this is that you run the
risk of running aground on the shallow patches on the Harwich side because you
think you are near the middle of the harbour when in fact you are closer to the
beach at Harwich.
Having safely negotiated the harbour we tacked up the Orwell with the
flood tide behind us, and just enough wind to fill the sails. We only met one
ship and were able to stay in the channel and avoid the moorings both sides. It
needed a lot of concentration to spot the empty mooring buoys in the pitch
black and our night vision was often spoilt by firework displays. Passing under
the
We picked up my mooring at 1am on Sunday and decided to drive home and
surprise our wives. It sounds romantic but the real incentive was the heaters
in the cars as we were both frozen.
We broke no records for passage times this weekend but I reckon we
spent 25 hours sailing in 36 hours on the water, didn’t set foot ashore and
drank no alcohol which shows what can be done when the East Midlanders
don’t turn up!
* * * * * *
Thinking about the lobster pots mentioned above these can be a bit of a
worry. The only time I have seen them marked with a flag is at the Platters off
of Harwich (in the middle of the recommended yacht track) and then only one of
a dozen or so was marked with a black flag. Quite useless and
very inconsiderate. Perhaps the answer at night is to avoid any area on
the chart which shows a deep rock or wreck? Is this practical or might they be
elsewhere as well? I have seen one yacht with his propeller caught up on
one during the day and the problem would be worse at night. Have you any
thoughts?