2012 Summer Cruise - day 11

We finally got out of Southwold! It has been a lovely place to spend an extended spell in port but enough is enough. An early start was dictated in order to catch a fair tide southwards so we slipped our lines at twenty past seven and motored gently downriver on the last of the ebb tide.

Once clear of the harbour, it was up with the sails and off with the engine. A fair tide was good, a foul wind was fairly inevitable! Conditions were good though and we settled down to enjoy some brisk sailing in the sun on a sea that wasn't trying to get into the cockpit.

Rik spotted a porpoise frolicking in our wake. It was only there for a minute and we couldn't get a photo but it was a special moment - some people never see one at all.

As seems to be the way of things, by lunchtime the wind had got up and so had the seas. We rolled up some Genoa to calm things down only to set full sail again an hour later. Three quarters of an hour after that it was heave on that furling line and reef the damn thing again!

We made a tidy job of sailing across the bar and into Orford Haven. With the wind behind us now, we rolled away the Genoa and skated down the first reach of the Ore under main and tide alone! As we approached the divide in the river around Havergate Island, we started the engine and stowed the main before taking the right hand channel towards Orford Quay.

It being a pleasant afternoon we decided to explore up the River Alde and take a look at some if the recommended upstream anchorages. Alternatively we might be able to pick up a visitors mooring buoy.

We did see one visitors mooring below Aldeburgh but that was it and the anchorages above and below the mooring fields looked horribly exposed. With no pressing need to go ashore nor the inclination to inflate the canoe in order to do so we decided to go back down to our anchorage of the previous week.

We considered looking at the Butley River but the conditions off Abrahams Bosum looked good so we duly dropped the hook, this time ensuring we wouldn't sit on a lump of hard stuff in the middle of the night!
However, an hour later and after dinner had been cooked and eaten, the wind had kicked up quite a swell in the Ore which was coming around the corner and making life uncomfortable.

Nothing for it but to up anchor and shift the few hundred yards into the bottom end of the Butley River. Although very narrow, its a beautifully sheltered anchorage and we settled down again just as the rain started.

Ideally, we'd have put our feet up now but there was work to be done. With the cockpit tent erected, lighting arranged and the sailmakers kit retrieved from its locker, we dropped the Genoa and hauled its soggy unpleasant mass into the cockpit.

Several feet of stitching had come away along the edge of the UV strip and left unrepaired the whole lot would soon come adrift. A minor issue was the edge reinforcement around the tack cringle also needed stitching. A couple of hours with needle and palm fettled the job albeit only with some rough tack stitching. The UV strip needs replacing and the sail servicing this winter anyway, it can't be put off any longer.

We hit the sack just short of midnight with the anchor alarm set and an alarm call set for the turn of the tide.