It was another reasonably late start leaving Shotley marina and as we had motor sailed a lot of the way from pretty much Portsmouth we thought we would fill up with diesel and as the fuel pontoon was right near the lock entrance seemed silly not to and we wanted to check how much we had actually used, it took 47 liters after a quick calculation it looks like we only use half a litre an hour, anyway it was then into the lock which we were prepared for this time and then a nice motor out of the river mouth,
We thought that Lowestoft was only 35 miles away so it wasn’t expecting a long trip so as again we had little wind but we managed to get all sails up and we were sailing down wind with the main and head sail goose winged but as the wind was so variable it was a struggle to stop the main slapping across so after a few gybes we dropped the main and motor sailed with the head sail, we were going along nicely at about 5-6 knots so we were expecting to be at Lowestoft reasonable early, but a quick look at the charts and chart plotter showed that it was actually 42 miles so a 7 hour trip, we used the inner channel all the way past great Yarmouth and up the coast passed Aldeburgh and Sizewell power station, we think that when we come back along this coast we would like to anchor and go and have a look around as Aldeburgh looks a nice place, but as we have been on a timetable no time for unscheduled stops ha ha, as we were taking the inner channel it was a little bit worrying that we were so close to Lowestoft beach on the way into the harbour but all was good and we radioed the harbour masters and got clearance into the outer harbour we planned to go up the river so had to mess about in the harbour dodging all the wind farm boats waiting for the bridge to open at 19:00, once through we tried contacting the Haven marina but no reply so when we got up to see the marina there was a yacht cruising club marina with a massive sign saying visitors welcome so we dived into a berth two down from another sadler 34, after speaking to one of the members who was at his boat then showed us where the visitors packs were and the mooring payment was a honesty box so with the recommended payment for tiger lily was £21 and that’s with electric hook up great, after 7 hours sailing it was a quick training and an early night as we knew that the big on way tomorrow Lowestoft to Grimsby a 20hr trip so a good sleep ws needed, we worked out that we needed to leave at 17:00 the next day to catch the right tide, so after a little bit of a sort out on the boat the next morning we headed for a chandler for a chart and a few bits of food
Two Geordies Sailing 