More north wind in Lowestoft

Saturday, left Harwich at a sensible time of 12:20 after getting our auto pilot sorted by a local engineer called Ollie.  So with much relief we have nick named the beast 'Ollie'.  With little wind to start with we motored up the coast with a strong tide under us. At 16:00 the wind came in and we were able to lay a good course but as usual, it went more to the north and we had to lay off the rhumb line.  A good wind however but not in the ideal direction and in due time realised the tide was turning against us, so on with the motor. Nearly came a cropper on one of the off-lying sand banks off Lowestoft until Alice injected logic into what seemed to me confusing pilot book directions and back tracked into clear water.  Arrived at Hamilton Dock Marina at 20:30.  A very quiet Marina with porter cabin facilities.

Sunday, a day of rest, walked to the most easterly part of Britian (10 minutes away) and captured it on the iPad.

Alice nearly the most easterly person in Britian.

Another short hop of about 35 miles

With the wind in the north until Tuesday, savouring the delights of Lowestoft for another day. 

East Coast reached

A good day today.  A steady force 3 but NE ish so sailed all the way and just put in one tack going up Black Deep which is between the sand banks on Sunk Sand and Long Sand.  The AIS shot doesn't show that as it must have been out of range for a period. So left Ramsgate at 09:50 and arrived off Harwich at 16:00.  Loads of wind farms around the Thames -makes it feel quite built up.  Sailed past Pin Mill where I used to sail on the river Orwell, with the rest of the family about 50 years ago!  Moored up just past Pin Mill and we think we will walk to the Butt & Oyster pub tomorrow for lunch.

London Array Wind Farm

So ticked off the Thames Estuary today which is a significant mile stone.

Pin Mill

Today has been rest day - no sailing today although Alice did some rowing.  Did some clothes washing and walked to the Butt & Oyster at Pin Mill, and had lunch.  Lovely walk through the woods and fields of corn and poppies.  I have this ongoing issue with my newly installed auto pilot as it has never been commissioned or calibrated and I'm trying to get my head round the 150 page handbook.  It still doesn't work correctly as today I did some more sea trials in the river.  Went round in circles (slower circles this time!)

Tomorrow off to Lowestoft.

The Butt & Oyster at Pin Mill

Ramsgate

Another short hop from Dover to Ramsgate of about 15 miles.  Left Dover east entrance into a lumpy sea. It was a good force 4 but wind against tide so slightly uncomfortable.  Dover is a very busy port with ferries in and out constantly and we booked our slot but had to get a move on to clear out of the way of the ferry following.  With a strong tide under us, up to Ramsgate, we ate up the miles quickly. So little motoring today, just 1 tack out to the west of the Goodwin sands then a tack onto starboard and up the channel to Ramsgate.

Ramsgate is a great town and much more vibrant than Dover.

Inner harbour - we were moored in the outer harbour.

Dover

Starting with a bright, sunny but windless day we started early by motoring again!  Fortunately we had just taken on diesel to top up the tanks (£100+). So had a bit of a sail when the wind came up and tacked into Hastings and then motered to Dungerness and with the breeze coming up with a F3 we were able to sail for a couple of hours to Folkstone, put tack in and with the tide now against us we plugged the tide up to Dover. We don't think much of Dover, no fish and chip shop open at 8pm!

Scenic Dungerness Power Station

P.s. When going back to the boat in Sovereign Harbour, the evening before, we had a brief encounter with a seal in one of the locks.  It dived down, not to be seen again!

Our first lock

Another windless and sunny day on the south coast. After a bit of shopping and boat sorting in the morning, we ventured forth at about 14:30 on route to Sovereign Harbour, near Eastbourne. Not a great distance but another nibble at the big plan.

We had to lock into the harbour so this was our first lock of the trip. It didn't go totally to plan but it's a massive lock so we motored back and forth until we got it right!

We need the practice!

Good to see the American part of the family are watching the blog and the AIS track. Hope we don't get criticised for our slack tacking angles when these arm-chair sailors are viewing the AIS.

Today's track

A short sail to Newhaven

After a quiet night in Brighton we topped up with water, charged the batteries and arranged for Anita (my niece), Tim, Mikey, Frankie and Tamsin to come down to Spring Breeze. After tea and coffee and a guided tour we all decided to sail to Newhaven (apart from Tamsin). The wind, of course, was dead on the nose so we decided to plug into the wind, under power, for the first half of the trip and when Newhaven could be laid on the starboard tack we cut the engine and had a wonderful sail in about a force 4, to the harbour mouth. You can see the plan worked on the AIS screen shot.

All in the aft cockpit, Frankie steering with his feet.

Newhaven Marina is great. Very friendly and helpful. As I called them up from Brighton before leaving, they followed our AIS track and were on the pontoon ready to greet us and take our lines.

We are off at last

On the day of the Round The Island race, we decided to start our adventure.  With very little wind we left our mooring at 12:15 and pointed our bow right at Cowes having decided to go anti-clockwise round the UK.

Ready to leave

The wind did pick up nicely between 14:00 and 17:00 and had a decent beat up to Owers but with the wind falling very light after that and with the plan to reach Brighton, we put the engine on and motored the rest of the way, arriving in Brighton at 21:00.  No dramas and not a lot to report.  We motored for 5 hrs out of a 9hr trip and the engine performed a treat.

Copy of our AIS route for the day