Category Archives: TheBigSailHome

Some nice easy sailing north up the east coast of Yorkshire.

I knew when passage planning that this section of the voyage would be fairly straightforward and so it has proved! Long straight coastlines and following winds have sped us up the Yorkshire coast from the Humber to just north of the Tees.

Easy rolling from the Humber to Bridlington

We had a nice easy day on Wednesday, with a 40-mile reach up the coast to Bridlington. With a push from the tide we were sitting comfortably at 7 knots for some stretches, that’s quite a bit for a wee boat and the miles passed quickly.

Bridlington is an interesting wee harbour. It’s really a fishing harbour with a few pontoons. Like my home port, it dries out at low water. We had a nice meal in a local pub (the harbourmaster warned us off the Harbour Inn!) then settled in for the night.

Unfortunately we settled with a steep lean to port as the previous boat had left an awkwardly-placed hole in the mud. Calum barely noticed as he had a couple of drams in him and the angle was tipping him into his bunk. I had to remake my bed on the floor, luckily there was just enough room!

Slightly tired to Scarborough – and the joy of seeing some family

I wasn’t feeling the freshest after my night on the floor but we soon set sail for Scarborough. Wind conditions were similar again, so the miles passed quickly and we were soon power reaching into Scarborough bay.

Once in the harbour, I met my sister and her family who come here each year for their hols. It’s quite the resort and I sampled the top tourist treats including a lemon top, a go in the cliff railway and some very nice fish and chips. This was all very restorative but it was quite a long tramp back to the boat.

Like Bridlington, and many other Yorkshire seaside towns, Scarborough has a ‘pirate ship’ which looks a bit odd but seems a popular attraction.

A long chug to Hartlepool

On Friday it was another 40-mile hop up the coast. There wasn’t very much in the way of wind, so most of the day was motoring. With a bit of experimentation I’ve found the optimum speed for motoring – the trick is to get near your hull speed with the revs as low as you can. This means you get a good solid cruising speed without using too much fuel.

With our ears ringing a bit from the engine we were glad to get to Hartlepool, a large marina with lock gates to enter. This was a bit pricier than Bridlington and Scarborough but provided a slightly more comfortable experience with shore power and sheltered waters. We celebrated our smooth progress up the Yorkshire coast with a mighty curry, a nice break from fish and chips.

Now it’s onward to Amble, a mere 80 miles from home!

A warm welcome in Southwold

We had a pleasant day’s sail from Harwich up the coast to Southwold, with a strong following wind and favourable tide speeding us along at 7 knots at some points.

Southwold was a nice comfortable distance, and my friends Miles and Karen promised us a warm welcome at the Southwold SC BBQ. The entrance was a little tricky, probably an extra hot madras on the spiciness scale: low tide, little depth, big following sea getting pushed over the bar. We were very glad to have local knowledge (in the ‘hug the harbour wall, aim for the fisherman’s hut with the blue door on the far shore when you reach the second-to-last ladder’ vein) this detail helped us keep on track and avoid the shallows.

It was strange but lovely to step straight from a tricky harbour approach to a warm welcome from old friends. Southwold Sailing Club is in a lovely setting and we had great chats with some members. Folk were very impressed at our plans, but couldn’t offer much insight about The Wash ‘we don’t really go north of Lowestoft!’ We were to find out why the next day.

We had a sunny morning in Southwold, and I was delighted to meet Aunty M who gave us a great stock of baked provisions! We waited for the lunchtime tide to help us along the coast. We set off in great sailing conditions, aiming for a passage anchorage at Sea Palling or maybe as far as Wells.

Reaching along in the sunshine, I had more than a few ‘this is why I’m doing this’ moments. Which was important, because there were fewer of these in the next 24 hours…

Sea Pummelling

One of the biggest challenges in Norfolk is that you have a long stretch of lovely coastline – and basically no harbours! My boat is a bilge keeler drawing 1m, so can get in more or less anywhere. But after Norfolk, you have Wells-next-the-Sea with access around high water only, then nothing until the Humber. So a real headache!

I thought I’d found the answer in Sea Palling, a passage anchorage near Happisburgh. A passage anchorage is usually a quite open anchorage in a shallow bay, offering minimal shelter but a feasible spot to get a few hours’ rest or wait for the tide to turn. Sea Palling looked like it fitted the bill for this.

Reader, it did not! The wind stayed fresh from the south overnight, and we spent an uncomfortable 5 hours wide awake, while clinging to our bouncing bunks, listening to everything in the boat clanking around.

So at 3am we called it quits – with the tide now turned, and rest impossible we decided to head north for the Humber. A mere 77 miles away! Raising the anchor in the dark went nice and smoothly and we were soon underway.

Wrung out in the Wash

Taking on a very long day of sailing after little to no sleep isn’t ideal, and I was struggling with being knackered and feeling quite daunted by the long passage across the Wash and wondering if we’d ever get to Yorkshire, never mind Scotland. The sea conditions weren’t helping, a lumpy following sea pushing the boat this way and that, and light following winds meant the boat wasn’t really getting in the groove. My morale and motivation were both on their lower settings.

At times like this I joke with Calum ‘do you want to buy a boat?’ And he usually retorts with ‘hey, shall we close the loop back round to Plymouth when we get to the Forth?’

Thankfully we did easily fall into a one hour on, one off watch pattern and we both got some rest through the day. Also, Calum is a helming and snack-making machine! This did wonders for my morale and I’d probably still be bobbing about in the Wash feeling sorry for myself were it not for his encouragement. Also, the wind filled in through the afternoon and we started to make good progress for the Humber.

We needed our wits about us for the approach, with multiple shipping channels hemmed in by shallow water and strong currents. But it all went smoothly and we were soon heading for Tetney Haven. This is a small mooring spot on the south of the Humber maintained by Tetney Haven YC. The approach is down a narrow and shallow channel so I’d emailed ahead to check for local info. A kindly club member then called back with lots of info and offered us a loan of his mooring buoy for the night. Thanks Stuart! After a long 24 hours battling across the Wash, this was the perfect haven and we settled in for a much-needed rest.

The updates seem to have settled on about one blog for every two days’ sailing, which is hopefully enough if you’re keeping up at home.

Cheerio Dover

Back on Thursday, we’d been storm (and lurgy) bound in Dover for a couple of days, sitting tight and fixing things while a couple of days of strong north easterly winds blew through. The wait was a bit frustrating but Calum got a big chunk of remote work done, I appreciated the chance to rest and got a fair few things working nicely on the boat – always satisfying.

We set off on Friday with a fair wind for a straightforward sail to Ramsgate. We checked in with Dover Port Control to make sure we were clear to leave the harbour, and they said ‘yes, if you make your way to the eastern exit with all possible speed’. So we made our break for it and about 5 minutes after we cleared the exit a couple of DFDS ferries swept out of the exit. You can see why they need all vessels to check in before moving!

The sail to Ramsgate was nice and restorative – sunshine, following winds, helpful tides and not too long a distance. It was a very pleasant return to sailing. The only excitement was a strong tidal current and some ‘back to front’ buoyage on the way in. But this was all clearly noted in the pilot book, so we were well prepared.

Ramsgate is a really interesting place, with the town centre very close to the harbour and lots of interesting old streets. This might have been a more interesting place to stay than Dover. We refreshed ourselves with ice cream and a nice Greek meal.

A big day – crossing the Thames

The rest was important because we had a big day on Saturday – crossing the Thames estuary from Ramsgate to Harwich. This was a pretty long day with some complicated pilotage. So complex, in fact, that it has its very own pilot book, Crossing the Thames Estuary. This guidance was very welcome, as it took a lot of the head-scratching out of calculating a lot of different tidal flows and helping us choose our ideal departure time to catch the best tides.

We had to wait until 1130am to leave, which gave us a few hours of pent-up excitement, which Calum managed by double-checking his gear and popping out for a bit of last-minute food shopping, while I had a doze and listened to Radio 3.

Before long we were out in the sunshine, close-reaching north for our first waypoints. The wind was a bit more on the nose than forecast, but a good strength so we sailed along nicely. Part of our route took us through the London Array, a huge offshore wind farm. This was a really cool bit of sailing!

Much of our attention was watching the traffic in the shipping channels, by eye and by AIS. Luckily visibility was excellent, so we were able to see the big ships coming from far away and make sure we were in safe water or clear to cross.

One of the surprising things about the Thames estuary was just how shallow the water got this far out – apart from some big dredged channels, it is full of sandbanks, and the tidal flows sweep you north east and south west at various points. I would not want to sail it on a foggy day!

As we passed through the wind farm, the wind started dropping so we motor sailed to keep to our passage time. This was important to make sure that we hit the tides right and made Harwich before dark.

We motored up the Essex coast and found safe shallow water west of the main channel. We had to time our approach carefully as a large ferry was on its way in. Again, keeping to safe water just outside the channel saw us right.

We were glad to see Shotley marina at the end of a long but straightforward day. We celebrated our passage with a toast and some boil-in-the-bag curry.

It feels great to be finally heading up the East Coast – a lot of big sailing days behind us. But the next few days will involve some more head-scratching over passage planning, with high water in the middle of the day and ports few and far between. We’re likely to be doing a bit of anchoring. I suspect Calum will clear out a supermarket of provisions so apologies if you are looking for lettuce or halloumi in the north Suffolk area in the next few days.

If you’ve been reading earlier posts you might be wondering how I’m getting on…

The short answer is that I’m making progress but solo sailing is pretty knackering! I managed about 160 miles across 4 days of sailing but some of these were quite long at 13 hours sailing.

That’s a long day if the boat needs lots of hand steering (which it sometimes does). So I’ve been getting in quite late and lacking in energy for blogging.

So what’s been happening?

I set off from Portland Harbour heading for the Isle of Wight, and started off on an easy morning’s sail where I could tie off the tiller and potter about. Things got a bit dicey off St Alban’s head and Durlston head where I got stuck near a tidal race – not fun! But in the evening I made it to Studland Bay for a tranquil night on a swinging mooring.

On Wednesday I opted for a split day – a short sail up to Yarmouth in the Isle of Wight for a lovely afternoon with my dear friend Stefan. He’d been planning a bit of a sail but ended up getting sucked into boat logistics – helping me track down some petrol (marinas on the island were all out so we had to head inland). It was a real tonic to have Stefan’s company and his help was invaluable.

Then a night sail down the Solent with a hairy moment as my electrics went out – quickly rectified with an emergency power bank. Although it was a short sail the entry to Portsmouth needed a lot of concentration with a tricky channel and two big ferries swooshing out as I made my final approach in the small boat channel.

I tied up next to an IMOCA 60 – these are high speed racing boats that people race singlehanded round the world. It made my boat look tiny!

Thursday was a straightforward but long sail solo to Brighton. I made good use of a tidal push through the Looe channel and sailed along nicely. The afternoon went slowly though – it felt like the GPS was showing ‘3 hours to Brighton’ for about 4 hours! And wind running across tide meant the boat couldn’t steer herself so it was another steerathon.

That’s left me wondering how feasible multiple long solo days are. Each one is doable but the tiredness builds up.

But I finally made it to Brighton marina, the biggest in the UK. My friends Calum and Dick are joining here which will bring lots of fresh energy (and cooking!)

Dick and Calum had a gentle introduction to sailing with a very sunny motor sail round Beachy Head. We’re now in Eastbourne, where the wind is increasing and going right on the nose which might slow our progress towards Dover and Ramsgate. We’ll aim for Rye today with a strong headwind forecast.

I’ve done about 240 miles now, 160 of which solo. Not bad! But it’s taken a few days longer than expected. That’s adventures for you.

Another double update, time in harbour and WiFi is hard to come by!

Friday was a fairly chilled day, with a fair amount of motoring in light winds and some snoozing on deck (for Will). It definitely felt like a restful way to travel round the coast. Things got a bit more interesting as we headed into Exmouth harbour. The tide runs very strong here – that means a channel that constantly shifts, and a weird beach where the water drops to about 7 metres right from the edge of the sand.

We picked up a visitor’s mooring buoy, this needed a bit of concentration with 4 knots of tide flowing! But once you know which way it’s going you can use it like a virtual anchor to ‘hover’ the boat while your crew lasso the buoy.

Then Will got packed up for what turned into a very complex departure. It was a bit like the riddle with the fox, the goose and the cabbage and the boat (or whatever it is). To get his lift home Will had to negotiate a water taxi about to finish for the day, and a cash-only ferry service back across the river. I ended up getting a water taxi man to take a tenner to Will!

I had some minor engine trouble seen to by a friendly local engineering firm.

The boat felt more spacious with Will away, but I soon missed his company. Now I have to wash my own dishes! I was also feeling a bit daunted by Saturday – my first solo day in this boat, and a very long sail round a notorious tidal race at Portland Bill. I don’t mind saying that I wondered if this was such a wise plan after all…

I took my mind off things by tackling a few maintenance jobs, including fitting a new nav light and battling with a few bits of rigging.

The river Exe by moonlight was very beautiful.

Saturday – solo epic to Portland

Another fairly early start, swooshing down the Exe on the tidal flow into Lyme Bay. The day started well with some ‘champagne sailing’ – sunshine and fair winds. If this persisted it would be a smooth 13 hours to Portland.

With a passage of this length, you can’t avoid hitting bad tide at some point, so my plan was to take the worst of the tide out in the bay where it would be weaker.

As expected, things got windier and lumpier through the afternoon, building up to F5/6 with big waves pushed up by the tide. Helming became a bit of a full-body workout that lasted for about six hours. I hove-to occasionally to take a break and sort out food. Despite the lumpy conditions, the boat sailed brilliantly, even as we hit some bigger waves off Portland Bill.

I saw very few other boats out in the bay, not surprising since I was about 12 miles offshore. I was hearing radio calls from the English and French coastguard at one point.

I’d planned things to hit the start of the tidal gate, reaching the Bill just as the tide turned in my favour. I was bang on with timing, but it took a good hour or so or the sea to properly settle down. But once it did, I got about 4 knots of favourable push from the tide, right towards Portland. My top speed was 9 knots, not bad for a wee boat! As things flattened out I was able to cut the corner a little and head directly for the harbour, rather than taking a big detour round the tidal eddies.

Just as I was taking in the sunset and congratulating myself for getting through a big day nice and smoothly, the engine sputtered to a halt about 20 metres off the dock. I hoisted the main and sailed alongside, luckily another friendly boater was there to grab my lines.

A downside of long days at sea is that when you arrive, everywhere has ‘just closed the kitchen’. So I scarpered off to Lidl to grab the makings of a feast about 10 mins before they closed (I have some solid but basic tins on the boat, for any worried family members reading).

How did I feel overall about the day? Well pleased that I got through a big day of testing sailing feeling fine and with no major dramas. I think my slight apprehension was justified, but it helped me keep focussed.

Portland is a funny place – a massive harbour and marina, a Royal Navy gunnery range, Chesil Beach, and then a no-mans-land of container parks left over from the Olympics sailing venue.

Sunday – and rest

Today Sunday was chasing down a marine engineer, and hopping on a bus to Weymouth to get some more supplies. Realising that I can give myself a rest day (or two) while I sort things out has been a relief. My stubborn self was trying to think of ways to keep pushing on, but now I’ve taken a step back and remembered that this is supposed to be fun!

We’ll see what tomorrow brings with an engineer and time to rest in the meantime.

(PS if you’re interested in some stats, we’ve sailed over 115 miles / 16% of the way to Fisherrow)

Thanks again Will, you’ve set a very high bar for crew! ☕️ ❤️

A quick roundup of the last few days, getting ready in St Germans and on to Plymouth for some rig checks.

Q. What’s the first thing you do when you get on board a boat you’ve just bought?

A. Get your mate Will to cut some massive holes in it…

Day 1 – frantic boat prep and a gentle drift down the river

Amongst a few key things to sort before we set off was putting in a pair of new hatches for the cockpit lockers. Will, a pro carpenter did it brilliantly. And they got a good old sluicing in the choppy seas on day 2 so I’m glad we did it!

I’ll be honest and say it’s been pretty frenetic getting everything ready, even with massive support from Matt who was selling the boat, and Will, my stellar first crew/carpenter/chef/cheerer upper extraordinaire.

Tuesday and Wednesday were a funny mix of a massive push to get everything loaded and key things fixed, while soaking up the lovely weather and generous hospitality (which extended to home-made Cornish pasties). Matt and his family generously put us up, and have been receiving heaps of nautical gear over the last few weeks.

On Wednesday afternoon we finally got sailing – with a hired life raft arriving with 5 mins to spare 😅 and we had a nice gentle cruise down the Lynnher and Tamar. Entering Plymouth got a bit spicier as we gave nuclear subs and the pair of chain ferries a wide berth.

We were glad to get moored up in the marina, with some last minute drama as the engine conked out on final approach.

Day 2 – a bumpy ride to Salcombe

We woke up early on Thursday, straight into more jobs – Will was tracking down some screws and sealant to finish the new hatch covers, and I headed to a chandler’s for a few last items. It was strange being the smallest boat in a large marina full of massive blue water cruising yachts.

The team at All Spars gave our mast and rigging a quick MOT, spotting and fixing a few minor issues. A quick lunch in the marina and then off to Salcombe.

It was a short and fairly speedy passage to Salcombe (we averaged 5kts) but seas were big as solid south west winds pushed big waves into the shallower water. No one was seasick but it was a close run thing for Will. We didn’t get many photos in the wilder bits as we were either hanging on or trying to keep the boat pointing the right way in 2m waves.

It was great to turn into the calmer waters of Salcombe Harbour, especially after a jammed furler added a bit of spice as we crossed the bar. After the bouncy bar crossing, I got my wires crossed and radioed the harbour channel asking for ‘Falmouth harbour’ – we could hear them chuckling as they replied.

We picked up a nice visitor’s buoy in the harbour, then waited quite a while for a water taxi ashore. So late in fact, that nowhere was serving food! Salcombe is a funny place with massive amounts of well-to-do boat borne tourists.

You could tell the pub staff had been busy! So back to the boat for a late night cookup, and a much-needed sleep.