Autumn Cruise - Day 6

Plan was to get under way at first light however I misjudged how much before sunrise first light would be and we were maybe half an hour later away than we could have been.

Under way at 06:30 under sail with a very light breeze from the West. By 07:30 the wind had dropped even further and swung round to come from about East North East leaving us creeping along at 1 to 1.6 knots towards the Inner Crouch buoy which we reached at 07:56.

It took another half an hour to reach the Crouch buoy then the same again to get to Outer Crouch No.3. An hour after that, with the tide having turned against us, it was engine on, furl the genoa and get going motor sailing (in truth, mostly motor and not a lot of sailing) at 10:00

By 10:44 we only reached Outer Crouch No.2 making just 1.6 knots at nearly full throttle against a very strong tide. Progress not helped by the steep chop we were having to bash through, conditions that Brigantia isn't overly fond of at the best of times.

We took a short cut over the top end of the Buxey sands to cut off the corner and by 12:50 we were, at last, under sail up the Wallet making 2 knots over the ground.

By 14:00 we were off Clacton close hauled making 4.4 knots. Two tacks towards the Gunfleet saw us past Frinton and making 6.2 knots with the help of the tide and a stiffening breeze.

A check on the chart and the tide tables suggested we would have enough water to cut across the corner and head straight for Walton No.2 buoy and this we did albeit with a bit of a diversion when it got too shallow for comfort and we cut North to find some deeper water.



At 19:30 in the approached to the Backwaters we fired up the engine and motored in to Stone point where we anchored at 19:50 in the very last dying minutes of daylight. The last mile or so we used the nav lights for the first time ever!

After a tidy up and a meal, we checked the forecast - it doesn't look good for Saturday with Westerlys up to F7 so unfortunately it looks like an early start in the morning and back the way we came again without any chance to explore the Walton Backwaters.