Orford and back

Last week I had a few days free so went out on the boat with the intention of heading north on the tide. After a night at anchor in the Roach entrance I set off on the ebb early on Thursday morning. I made it all the way to Harwich on the tide and while I had some 3G I downloaded the chartlets for Deben and Ore entrances. The Deben entrance looked too tricky with a SW F5 wind and so I continued to the Ore. This is the first time I have entered the Ore and it was with some trepidation that I approached the Orford Haven buoy. It all went well but the effect of sailing against the tide crabbing towards the shingle bank then suddenly being with the flood up the river and between shingle banks was dramatic. I motored up the river with the engine idling and doing 6 knots. There were quite a few boats at anchor and they were from all over the world; USA, Netherlands, Germany, France and Belgium. I made it to a mooring buoy in Quay Reach before the end of the flood.

 


I used to work on Orfordness when I was a transmitter engineer for the BBC and we had an evening meal out on the Lady Florence, nice to see it was still is service even if it did come a bit close! 


The next morning I set off to head up river on the flood. It really is a beautiful area, spoilt by the transmitting station that was the Project Cobra Mist building. I think Babcock are due to dismantle the station and antennae but not sure when.


At Aldeburgh there are some beautiful boats. I think that this one is a local class, Loch Long One Design. 


Further up river past Aldeburgh there are some traditional motor boats that caught my eye. 

One sailing boat caught my attention, I wonder what she is like to sail?


I made it as far as Iken Mill before the tide turned and so did I. It was a lovely gentle sail / motor back down through Aldeburgh and Orford to the entrance. I only just made it with around 0.6m clearance as I was ejected out into the North Sea at 7 knots. 

Just behind me a Westerly ran aground and I heard the call to Humber Coast Guards but couldn't do anything as there was no way I was going back in even if I had the power to stem the tide. I waited around and a couple of other boats were in attendance on the river side but like me couldn't get close. It left a bad feeling to see it and not be able to help. 

I had a good run south but tide and wind pushed me out towards the Eastern limit of the Harwich deep water channel. While I was out there I took the opportunity to take a closer look at Sealand.



I didn't make such good progress heading South and so ducked into the Colne for a few hours sleep. The coast guard and RNLI had a busy day. Someone was air lifted from a racing yacht in the Kings Channel and there was another boat aground on the Maplin sands.

I had a great sail back on Saturday morning through the Raysand Channel and up the Crouch.

Croatia Charter Report

There is a report from my recent holiday in Croatia in the cruise reports page.

Horta to Santa Cruz

A new cruise report post of my trip aboard Arctic Smoke from Horta in the Azores to Santa Cruz in the Canaries.

Water Works

A couple of main artery issues have taken their toll on me this year so far. My aging ITT SL400 wouldn't pump and my 1/2" BSP coupler between the seacock and engine inlet rusted through. To be fair the 'plumber' did a reasonable job on fixing both. The pipe coupler is now stainless steel and bedded in jointing compound. My heads have a shiny new compact marine unit mounted on a sheet of engineering polypropylene. Only set back was that the sheet of poly was translucent white so shows the old mounting holes. Also, the inlet seacock's position is meant that the new unit couldn't be mounted as far inboard as would have been ideal but it is OK.

The seacocks looked OK and all work was completed while I was afloat so obviously the 'plumber' avoided flooding me.  

Yacht delivery, Netherlands to Sweden

A new cruise report for the recent yacht delivery I did to Sweden is posted in the Cruise Reports page. A great trip via the Kiel Kanal.

River Colne Cruise Report

Check out a short report about my trip up to Colchester in the cruise reports.

Why no posts?

A tale of woe unfortunately, I feel very neglected. Since the family trip at the beginning of the summer there have been very few signs of il Capitano. A mixture of problems at work and poor health have conspired to prevent him from making his way over to see and sail me. Anyway, he is feeling better and doesn't have a job so what is stopping him, apparently contracting work in the USA has.

There were a couple of short trips, one to Colchester on a spring tide and another to The Walton Backwaters so hopefully he'll find time to write these up.