Spring cruise - day 2

Funny old day really. We arose quite late to a bright morning with a moderate easterly breeze.

After a leisurely breakfast I did a bit of sorting out on deck and worked out a way of pressing the 4:1 tackle and jammer that's been kicking around in a locker since we bought the boat into service as a clew outhaul on the main.

Eventually, we got the hook up out if the Essex mud and motored up towards Suttons boatyard. After a while it all got too narrow and shallow for my liking so we turned around and headed back for the relatively wide open spaces on the River Roach.

With the wind from the East it was slow going tacking downriver against the tide. Some fiddling with the new clew outhaul and the luff tension got the main setting better than we've ever had it before. She was giving her best and a very good best it was too ask things considered but I was asking for miracles and I wasn't surprised to not quite get them!

Enough of that was enough so it was about turn for some downwind sailing with the tide. Approaching the moorings at Pagelsham, I turned into the wind to drop the sails and had to dash up to the foredeck to sort out the Genoa furler. I hadn't kept enough tension on the furling line when I set the sail and it had jammed itself on the drum.

With that sorted out and the main loosely stowed, we motored into Pagelsham pool for a look see. In theory, this is supposed to be a viable anchorage for shoal draught boats like us. However, even at the top of a fairly high tide there was nowhere with more than about 4m anywhere between the creek mouth and the start of the shellfish beds. Scrub that idea!

We pootled back into the Yokesfleet and dropped the hook for a break whilst we discussed plans. With the breeze getting distinctly breezier and the forecast for the remainder of the week looking a bit pants, I got on the shiny new VHF and called up Burnham Yacht Harbour to book a visitors berth for the night.

This not only gave us somewhere to go (and I'm coming to realise that I need an objective, somewhere to go to, somewhere to arrive at, rather than just faffing around) but also tested the new VHF! It works  :-)

Up with the hook again and off we went under motor. It was noticeably more choppy on the Roach than earlier in the day and once we made the turn around three Branklet buoy into the Crouch it got seriously roly poly. With the wind dead astern and the tide dead against us it was hammer down on the throttle and a firm grip on the tiller.

Brigantia doesn't appreciate a following sea and she tends to broach quite a lot although she's easily caught before things get too out of hand. Unfurling the Genoa steadied the ship and gave us extra boat speed at a lower throttle setting but as we approached the extensive moorings at Burnham I decided it was going to be more trouble than it was worth and put it away again.

It was with some relief that we approached the entrance to the harbour. Jane took the helm whilst I sorted out fenders and lines and then we made our grand entry whereupon I promptly parallel parked the boat 3 inches off the allocated finger berth. Of course, absolutely nobody was watching!

Jane headed into town for some sovereign cold remedy and a tubigrip bandage for my dodgy knee. Not sure what I've done but it's been getting increasingly painful as the day has gone on and a bit wobbly to boot. It's a very long standing dodgy knee and it does this from time to time.

Meanwhile, I checked in with the harbour master and then failed to resist the temptation to have a pint. Jane was slightly surprised to be hauled from the balcony of the 1st floor bar on her return! Showers followed before we repaired once more to the Swallowtail Bar for drinks and a very good steak

Tomorrow is another day. With rain and thunderstorms forecast, and a very windy Friday predicted, we'll probably head back to Fambridge in the morning. I need to sort out the flat tyre on the car and Foxes have emailed to say they have the tiller pilot I want in stock so I might go and get it and sort out the fitting whilst we're down here.