Lets start with Saturday …what a horrible, horrible day weather wise!! As bad as anything that Scotland or North East England chucked at us. There we were, leaving Wells …thinking …moving on, moving south …all that good weather to come…feels warmer already.
So we arrive at Lowestoft…and we get a Force 8 gale and torrential rain all Saturday.
We spent the day between the Royal Norfolk and Royal Suffolk Sailing Club ( that’s where we were in Lowestoft ) …a really nice side on berth and good facilities …and sitting inside a rocking Poli Poli.
Saturday was a complete wash out…except…. wait for it Mr. Garrett….Grimsby won again! That was the best thing which happened on Saturday!
Day 134, Sunday 7th October 2018. Lowestoft to Shotley Marina ( near Ipswich in Suffolk ).
Went to bed on Saturday night after a meal in the Harbour Inn. The strength of the gale outside on the pontoons nearly blew you over…and of course it was still raining…horizontal wetness!
The boat was rocking and being pushed on and off the pontoon…making all sorts of weird and wonderful squeaking noises…and even though we were sheltered by two stone harbour walls , the gale force wind went on screaming for most of the night.
Woke up at about 6am…and a surreal silence everywhere… the rain had stopped and the wind had eased to less than a puff.
This could only be in Britain… a horrible weather day followed by a day of sunshine, blue skies…and guess what ….no wind. Surreal it was.
We departed the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk at 9.15am after taking on diesel at the fuel berth. Sunshine yes, blue skies yes…but the previous days howling winds had built up a considerable swell in the North Sea…and this is what we met as we made our exit from Lowestoft Harbour through their entrance into a very uncomfortable swell. However, after negotiating the inner Holm sandbank…and three miles out to sea, conditions eased.
Turning south, it became quite pleasant ….passing Southwold ( a beach hut here goes for between £50,000 and £80,000 whilst in Wells it is cheaper…Mike looked it up on his phone as we went passed Southwold…another Chelsea/ Kensington type place I believe). Then passing the new and old Sizewell Nuclear Power Station …not so pleasant!
After a hot lunch of tomato soup, bread, followed by pieces of hot garlic bread and finished off with a hot steak slice and baked beans…the tide started to turn against us…so slow progress then onwards.
Once level with Orford Ness lighthouse at about 2pm…we started to work out a plan for the passage through the Felixstowe and Harwich shipping lanes. We spied the huge container cranes in Felixstowe from about 15 miles away..,, and a car park type arrangement for huge ships waiting to go into the two big ports.
It took for ages to navigate the shipping lanes ..in accordance with the harbour authorities strict instructions…..by now nearly 4pm and approaching low tide.
We finally reached the marina at Shotley which is located at the junction of two rivers … the River Orwell and Stour. The depth at the marina cill was 1.7m . No problem …keel up and we berthed in a nice, easy alongside pontoon by 5.45pm.
Mileage for the day : 48.4 n. Miles.
Mileage from Eastbourne : 2,517.7 n. miles.
Toby's sailing boat Poli Poli 