Final Photos

Brightlingsea Harbour

Sunset at Brightlingsea

Early morning slip out of Brighlingsea

Goodwill at Brightlingsea

Grain power station

Playing in the Shipping Lanes

Monty the sunk ammunition ship off Sheerness

Stray Cat heading for grain Chimney our navigation mark into the river Medway

Triffids at Thamesport

Hoo Marina

Malcolm and rod on stray Cat

Home!

Today we made it back to Hoo – a little later than planned! We had a cracking sail from Brightlingsea and did not get rained on for a nice change. Strange being back – rather liked it out there! Might even have to go back…. ….

A big thank you to everyone who sponsored us. Goodwill raised £1500 and between the 3 boats that made it we have raised 5K for Leukaemia Care.

Lowestoft to Brightlingsea

Crossing Harwich shipping lanes

Jonathan Livingstone seagull is back

Orfordness

Cranes at Harwich awaiting next meal of containers

Harwich gets a little busy

Then there were 2!

Mark had to return to work yesterday so st Jarna has bneen left at Lowestoft to be reclaimed at the weekend. We left Lowestoft at 5am and had a relatively tame motor to Brightlingsea. I think we now call anything under a force 6 – tame!! Plan is 3am start to brave the Maplin sands and the rest of the seal territory to make Hoo by tomorrow’s midday high water. We have eaten what scraps we have left (if you believe that you will believe anything), but still have supplies of ballast!! Stray Cat claims to be a ‘dry’ boat – needless to say Goodwill is not! We saw dolphins today off Orfordness. We have seen surprisingly few on this trip. Here at Brightlingsea we are in the middle of nowhere but the Oyster Catchers will ensure we do not get much sleep!!

Grimsby to Lowestoft

Activity at night on the windfarm

Cargo of rocks for sea defences

Approach to lowestoft at night

St Jarna arriving at sunset at Lowestoft

Made it to Lowestoft – again!

We left Grimsby at 4am this morning and covered 101 miles to reach here – Lowestoft. For the first day we had a little bueski and even sun though still definately needed jumpers! Who has the summer, cause we certainly dont! Large swell out there today, but at least we glided over most of them rather than climbing up and falling off white crests with not a lot of control. We saw a few other yachts out today in the area of The Wash all trying to make their way south. The group scattered today – the 3 boats sometimes virtually out of sight of each other. Gremlins on the VHF did not help communication! We miss our friendly puffins they don’t seem to come this far south. The lobster pots continue to harass – today we had 2 white ones that flew away and one black one that swam away! With fair winds we might get home this week, but if the past 3 is anything to go by ……

Grimsby Photos

Crossing the Sunken Shipping Channel to get to Grimsby Lock

Entrance to Grimsby lock at low water

Our pot of gold was the 5K raised by our 3 boats.

Rod awarded the lobster pot trophy for his catch on the way up!

Spurn Head in the torrential rain

Stray Cat sneaking in Grimsby Lock

Why we ran for shelter at Grimsby again!

One step forward two back

Succeeded in escaping Scarbourough and heading for Wells by Sea but after 12 hours of cork screwing in a following sea in force 5′s and torrential rain we turned right and Spurn Head into the River Humber to seek shelter yet again. We failed to find a safe anchorage so continued up to Grimsby Harbour (Home of the seal in earlier photos. Here we found two other boats sheltering who are also trying to go south! A friendly yacht club, hot showers and a tumble air dryer were sourced though not in that order – we were just too wet!

The current plan is to review the situation at midnight and if a weather window run for Lowestoft – 18 hours.

Scarborough Pics

Now we have Pirates to contend with!

Sadly it did not live up to its reputation

Is it time to build an ark?

After a day of sun (just) it is now pouring again – half expecting the local fauna to arrive in 2′s! Scarborough is still a very active fishing port with trawlers landing catches throughout the day; the seafront covered with carefully stacked ….. lobster pots. Freshly caught prawns were a real treat, but the local fish and chips were a disappointment.

The crew of St Jarna including baby Cloe are due back tonight and Rod returns tomorrow. Friday looks good for the run to Grimsby. The tides for getting home are not in our favour and most sailing is going to be at night. On it’s own that isn’t a problem – it is avoiding those unmarked lobster pots that lurk just below the surface.