Walton Backwaters

The forecast for the whole weekend said "light winds" so I did not have much confidence that we would get anywhere when we went to Robinetta on Sunday. We bumped into Melvin on the pontoon, and he said he was just back from Walton backwaters, motoring all the way because the wind was too light to sail. None the less we decided to head out because the wind had risen in the afternoon yesterday, and might do the same again today.

We were out of the Marina at 1205, just before low water, and got all the sails up including the top sail. That did give us enough speed to sail; Robinetta does well in light airs and what there was was in a good direction for Walton, so we headed out as we had planned. The sky was clear blue, and warm (especially for September), all in all a good day to be on the water.

There were quite a few boats taking the rising tide into the Backwaters, and several were already anchored at Stone Point. We were just there to explore though, so we sailed on after all the other boats had put their motors on. Tacking into the Walton Channel while motoring yachts kept clear of us was fun, but hard work. One eye on the yachts, one on the boays, one on the depth gage, one on the GPS plotter, keeping track of the wind direction, all in a narrow channel we'd never been in before.... I was helming, with Julian as skipper navigating and tacking the jib.

We did not go far up the Walton Channel, just up to no 11 buoy, because the wind was virtually on the nose. We gybed round and headed out again, then went up the Hamford Water for a short way. Julian took the helm for that; much easier sailing than tacking into the Walton Channel which had exhausted me!

The wind got up a little as we headed back towards Shotley, and we were very broad reaching all the way. All in all a lovely afternoon's sailing. I don't know how many more we'll get this year!