2012 Summer Cruise - day 3

We had a rather disturbed night due to an anchoring mishap leaving us high and dry and leaning over at quite an angle for several hours.

Last night, as we turned the corner into the reach where we intended to anchor, we encountered one yacht already anchored there at one end leaving a vast expanse of space for us to use.Motoring a hundred yards or so beyond them, we picked our spot and turned in towards the bank. It being all but slack water, the anchored yacht was lying across the river into the wind which was blowing at ninety degrees straight off the bank.

Following the principle of always anchoring into whichever is stronger, the tide or the breeze, I asked Rik to motor us slowly towards the bank until the depth gauge read 5 metres at which point I'd let go the anchor. This we duly did and having gone astern to dig it in we ended up sitting there fat and happy in 8m of water.

A large steel ketch give into view and proceeded to anchor between us and the other yacht. We were mystified as to why he motored into the bank as we had done but then turned parallel to it, motored forward, then backed up before dropping the hook. Of course, what he was doing was motoring the length of his swinging area with an eye on the depth before laying his anchor in the middle if the length he'd made sure was clear of nasties.

If we'd done that, we wouldn't have swung out of the deep water onto a solid lump of mud of just the right dimensions to park Brigantia on! Spending the wee small hours at a severe angle of heel hoping and praying that we wouldn't fall over completely was not our idea of a peaceful or restful night!

I shall be wise to that one in future. No doubt I'll find something else to get wrong!

Orford Ness lighthouse

Despite this mishap, we were up and away before half past eight and back on our track northwards. As we motored out of the River Ore, we initially encountered a foul tide and very little wind so continued on under power.

By nine thirty we were sailing dead before the wind in a modest breeze. So much for the forecast F4 from the South West. As the day wore on, the breeze strengthened but stayed resolutely behind us. Never the less, despite a certain amount of rolling, we had a storming sail making close to hull speed through the water at times.

We experimented with poling out the genoa using the tatty telescopic boat hook and this worked a treat for a while until the end of the pole gave up under the strain. Without a doubt this is something worth further thought although the cost of a commercial whisker pole is a bit prohibitive. Typically, of course, they sell a lightweight pole quite cheaply in the US which would be ideal for our purposes but not in the UK

The breeze was really picking up from astern and eventually we rolled up the genoa altogether and sailed on under main alone to cut the horrible rolling that gets on your nerves after a while when sailing downwind. Even so, if we'd slept properly the night before I'd have been very tempted to press on through the night as originally planned but fatigue was bound to set in so we laid a course for Lowestoft harbour.

A couple of miles out, around two thirty in the afternoon, we started the engine and I went "on deck" to lower and stow the main (we'd already rolled up the Genoa half an hour earlier to cut the rolling as the breeze had really picked up now.

It was a sunny day so I wasn't wearing foulies. It was however sufficiently roly poly that I reached for a safety line and clipped on. Good job too because just as I heaved the mainsail down we were hit by a sudden thunderstorm. With no warning at all the wind strength went up several notches and the sea went from a bit lumpy to seriously rough.

Frantically signalling to Rik to keep her bows on into the waves, I clung on the the mast whilst the main flogged out to leeward. Nothing I could do about that, there was no way I could get hold of it and haul it inboard. It would have been equally stupid to try and get back to the cockpit.

Stormy weather

I became intimately acquainted with significant quantities of North Sea whilst Rik got quite thoroughly rained on as we turned tail and ran away from the harbour entrance. As Rik later said, it seems counter-intuitive to motor away from the harbour but in that sort of situation, your far safer standing back out to sea than trying to get into a narrow harbour entrance with very solid things to hit all around you.

We were making slow headway through some rather big waves - at one point, from my perch on the cabin roof, I was looking down, down and even further down as Brigantias' bow reached out into space over a terrific wave trough. Down she went and as the bow dipped it crossed my mind that waves come in sets and what goes down must surely come up again. Sure enough, the bow plunged into the face of the following wave and threw a heap of water across the deck to add to my woes. Brigantia however took it all in her stride and showed no signs of being overwhelmed which was quite a confidence booster.

Eventually, as the storm cell blew through, I was able to scramble down through the forehatch and regain the cockpit via the cabin! Some while later we managed to get the main under control and some ties on before turning back towards the harbour.

Lowestoft Harbour entrance

We finally made port nearly an hour and a half later than would have otherwise been the case having lost exactly 1 hour and 20 minutes running off and then clawing our way back to where we first started. Nailing her to the pontoon and putting away just the essentials we beat a hasty retreat to the club bar stopping to chat briefly with another skipper who'd been caught by the storm cell as well.

Beer!

He, stout fella, joined us in the bar for a couple of beers and a mutual "I don't believe it" session despite having spent about 27 hours at sea single handing down from Grimsby. He headed off for some well earned rest and we stayed put! We'll be back on board shortly and hitting the sack no doubt as we're both just about out on our feet. We think tomorrow is going to be a stay put and sort out day as the cabin is a complete shambles after this afternoon!

Later, Rik pulled up the weather radar data on his smart phone and we could see the thunderstorm cell develop from nothing just inland of Lowestoft before shooting out to sea, giving us a damn good thrashing and then fizzling out to nothing not much more than an hour later. The general comment around the yacht basin was that it took everybody by surprise and was a most unusual weather event.

The mad dash back offshore - the track log illustrates how fortunate we were that the best direction to head in to cope with the sudden rough seas was also the best direction to head in to avoid shallow water and sandbanks (something which was a cause of great concern to Rik at the helm as neither he nor I could see the chart or the plotter, I had other things on my mind at the time!)