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23/06/08 |
Finally Off!! With strong winds forecast for
Sunday I decided to stay in Ramsgate until Monday. The weather
was perfect for the first day, a decent breeze pushed me across
the Thames which then dropped off so it meant motoring into
Harwich. It was great just to get going, Padiwak performed great
as normal and with around 45nm we arrived in Harwich 10hrs after
leaving Ramsgate. Photos are leaving Ramsgate, Traffic at
Harwich and Padiwak in Shotley Marina. Thank you to all at
Shotley for the mooring and the very good food at the Shipwreck
restaurant (especially Sarah!)
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24/06/08 |
Another day where lots of progress was made,
coming from Harwich in Suffolk up to Lowestoft in Norfolk. I
left at about 1.00pm to catch all of the tide up to Lowestoft,
with fairly strong NE winds it was a beat all the way up and was
a bit lumpy at some points so that's why I haven't taken many
pictures as every time the camera came out so did the waves and
the spray. We arrived quite late so haven't seen much of the
harbour but all in all a good day. Photo of a Lighthouse Ship at
Harwich with quite a cool sign on the side.
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25/06/08 |
Day off today, with strong winds forecast I
didn't fancy thrashing round to Wells-next-the-Sea which is
quite a long way so took the opportunity to catch up with emails
and updating the website. Lowestoft is has a nice beach and lots
of shops quite close to the harbour which is handy. The absence
of many fishing boats is quite worrying as the harbour used to
be a thriving fishing port. It is currently the Squib national
championships held by the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club
and with well over 50 boats its quite good to watch them racing
just off the harbour. Thank you to Royal Norfolk and Suffolk
Yacht Club for the mooring. I'm hoping to get to Wells tomorrow
if the weather looks right, the tracker was being a bit
temperamental but I thinks its working ok now so keep looking at
it. Pictures are of Padiwak in Lowestoft and the Squibs racing.
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27/06/08 |
Left Lowestoft around 11.00 to catch fair
tide all the way round to Wells-next-the-sea, aiming to arrive
at about 21.00, anchor up, have something to eat and wait for
the tide at midnight. The plan worked brilliantly although the
weather decided to play games. It had been rather blustery all
day and as the cloud increased so did the wind. From Cromer it
was very windy and made conditions difficult with quite a rough
anchorage but as promised Wells harbour master ventured out in
the middle of the night to guide me into the harbour. Entering
at night with the harbour masters help was fairly uneventful and
I was very glad to get in out of the worst of the weather which
had built up out at sea. Wells-next-the-sea probably the nicest
harbour we have been into so far and I would recommend it to
anyone visiting the North Norfolk coastline. The service from
the harbour was absolutely brilliant and I enjoyed every minute
of my stay there. Whilst there we met many new people and were
astonished by how resilient and determined people in Wells were
to go crabbing even late in the evening and pouring down with
rain! On route my autopilot had a fault which meant it was
unusable so before I went anywhere that needed to be sorted out.
After a few phone calls the problem was quickly sorted. A
big thank you to Paul Williamson (Commercial Marine Comms),
Andrew from Seamark Nunn and all at Raymarine for their
assistance. I would especially like to thank Wells harbour for
the excellent stay and would recommend the harbour to anyone.
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