A mixed weekend

So his plan was to sail me down to the Roach on Friday evening, anchor in Brankfleet then motor / sail round the islands south of the Roach the next day and back to Bridgemarsh before the low water on Saturday afternoon. My predictions were several groundings, get stuck in the racing boats on the Crouch and finally miss the tide. I am not saying that I have little confidence in my owner but history does have something to do with my pesimistic view of his abilities.

As it turned out I couldn't have been more wrong. We had a very gentle sail down on Friday evening passing Baltic Terminal

and the Stella yacht Polaris of Burnham

Anchored south of Branklet Spit, echo sounder wasn't working so he chucked 15m of chain over the side and it seemed to hold. Spent a pleasant hour re-wiring the sounder and VHF which now work fine. Then he had a beer and slept reasonably well until the wind got up. At 8AM on Saturday we set off down the Roach against the wind and then via Yorkfleet Creek and Narrow Cuts to Havengore bridge. Although the fool seemed worried about depth and the sounder and almost everything else the trip was fine, only managed about 2 knots into the wind which was force 4. At Havengore Bridge he turned round the end of Rushey Island and headed for Suttons Boatyard. Then sailed back up past Potton Island along Yorkfleet back into the Roach. This was one of those creek exploring trips that can go one way or the other. It went really well, although it took about 2 hours to get to Havengore from where we'd anchored, it only took 30 minutes to get back into the Crouch.

From there it was head into wind again and motor back to Bridgemarsh through the racing yachts etc. Things were going very well so just off Baltic Terminal I decided to throw a spanner into the works. My exhaust broke in two just by the cooling water injector!!

To his credit the fool didn't panic, he checked to see how much water was coming in and then sailed back up Cliff Reach and into Althorne Creek. Some idiot had anchored in the entrance which made things a bit tricky. Back on engine for the final approach so plenty of pumping the bilges and low revs and we made it back in.

Alround, a good trip but I guess it will take him a while to sort out the exhaust problem.

I suspect that he'll try some sort of home brew fix but I doubt if it will work for long!!