Back to the Stour

Graham had tried to get Jacinta’s engine working again, but failed, so we towed her down to Felixstow Ferry. It became obvious that Robinetta’s engine is not powerful enough to tow a boat of the same size when working against the tide, so we gave Jacinta’s tow to Bona, a much larger boat, to get her out of the Deben.

We left Felixstow Ferry at 1015, and motored out of the Deben against the tide (not a good idea, it felt like we were hardly moving forward even at full throttle). Once out from between the sand banks and away from the tide race we raised sail and headed back towards Harwich.

The wind dropped to nearly nothing at lunch time and we had to motor sail into Harwich Harbour, but it picked up again as we sailed close hauled up the Stour, and we picked up a buoy at Wrabness under sail. It seemed a bit shallow, and when I worked out the tide calculations I realised we would ground before low water, so we had to drop it and motor off to find another one.