So I was looking at the weather and thinking where would be nice to avoid the prospect of more seering heat.
In spite of reservations over me doing this trip I would like to make reference to the following points
1) The safety measures which I have taken.
2) The fact that the skipper boat is very stable
3) I lived with the risk of falling off the boat while I was singlehanding the solitaire for several years
4) The benign state of the weather
5) The fact that the wind conditions were absolutely superb for this journey with a good chance of a favorable reach in both directions on the journey
6) While I would have liked to share this trip with someone the fact of social separation meant that the only crew that would have been possible would have been Gill but for a number of reasons she was not keen
7) I would like to acknowledge my son Matthew’s balanced assessment of my plan to make this trip
So really gentle conditions were on offer for both days .. all leading to a possible unbeatable opportunity for a 72 year old so sail a 60 year old boat for 40 miles over an exceptional couple of days and through two interesting river entrances
The Plan
Safety
Oars
Sail
Petrol motor
Electric motor
2 mobile phones ( Vodafone and EE )
Vhf
Lifejackets
Spare glasses
Navionics ( for entrances )
Tuesday summary : low 1100 , high 1800, sea current south to north drift until 11
High tide in river 5.45 am low at 11 am
On water Ramsholt by 9 probably 8 because of Ramsholt mud
Arrive felixstowe at by 10 use motor and sail
Bit of South to north coastal current until 11 arrive ore at 11 enter at flat low ( use sail and wind ) (low wind ) ( sail and motor )
Low tide at 11
Up river to Aldeburgh with current by say 3 to 4 high tide at 6
Back Wednesday
Wind light northeast
Wednesday summary, ore low tide at noon , high tide at 7 pm, north to south drift after noon
Leave Aldeburgh at 9 3 hours to ore with tide and wind , out the ore on the last of the ebb at noon
Beginning of north south current with wind at sea and motor 1.5 hours to felixstowe
Arrive Felixstowe 13.30 lunch
Arrive Ramsholt as 1500
So Tuesday
Arrived in good time
George allowed me to use the slip and we were away
Harbourmaster's map at the ready
Bawdsey Manor
Into the Ore
Orford Ness
Someone taking a picture of me :-
actually a film :-
Then a stop for lunch at Orford
And then off to Aldeburgh
Managed to NOT go aground here as I did with Bertie in 2018 :-
Racing at Aldeburgh
A Drink at the Aldeburgh Yacht Club :-
Thanks Matthew ! :-
The plan was to take my electric folding brompton bike as well so as to return home on Tuesday night and to get back for the return journey on Wednesday. But Gill very kindly offered to ferry me from Aldeburgh and back again early Wednesday morning so as to catch as much of the falling tide in the river as was possible.
It was a glorious trip both there and back … some of which Gill was able to share with me as Gill drove to Orford and saw me steaming up the river ( on motor ) from the river bank .. and we had a meal at Aldburgh in a pub in the evening ….. she brought me all the way back for 8.30 on Wednesday but unfortunately forgot the packed breakfast for the beach and discovered that Aldeburgh had a dearth of coffee places in the morning unless one queued for ages in non separated conditions ..
I am apologizing for the really bad photography as was single handing all the way with one hand on the rudder ..
Wednesday
The Alde in the distance
Pride of place on the Aldeburgh main pontoon ( for one night only c/o Andy the chief boatman there )
Left the Aldeburgh club main pontoon Wednesday morning without undue delay as the club was really busy with Junior sailing week . Got clear of the moorings by engine and then went to hoist the sails only to realise that the end of the main halliard was at the top of the mast so had to proceed to the nearest reasonable ground where i could beach and tip the mast to retrieve it . That turned out to be Orford where there was a small hard next to the quay with mission accomplished I was able to revers the boat back out to the river and continue under sail.
Quiet here apart from this :-
and out of the Ore and into the sea and back to Felixstowe where I took a breather.
An anchor would have been handy for beaching :-
And back to Ramsholt for lunch
Very Swallows and amazons-ish but quite a lot of wind and next to an ex WW2 research establishment .. the kind of things that don't get outlined by Arther Ransome
Lessons learnt
I relaxed the rules I use when in the Laser of keeping phones in Aquapacs and other stuff in waterproof boxes with stuff slipped into a rucksack … kept the rucksack on top of the cover away from the floor of the well .. in the last leg of the journey the rucksack was on the floor of the well and it filled up with nice salty ware destroying a blackberry ( I have spares ) am not dealing with the effects of salt water in the usb port of my android .. fortunately it has some waterproofing so have covered up the microphone port and washed the usb port with fresh water and its now drying in the airing cupboard …
The phones when on Laser are attached to the lifejacket and held over my back between the wetsuit and the lifejacket. And the satellite based rescue device and the VHF should be similarly protected and attached.
I was using the android phone to run navionics with an Anker powerbank to keep it powered up and these two should also be protected n an aquapac as well
I would also have emergency numbers in quick dial files on the blackberry (Vodafone ) and the andoid on EE.
I noticed that there was 4g coverage all the way round from Ramsholt to Aldeburgh which was fun for whatsapp and also a rather good safety feature.
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