The first perfect day of the year

Alison's brother-in-law Pete fancied a day out. High water was around eight in the evening and we didn't expect to start early so I concocted the idea of going to Bradwell for dinner.

In fact we were a little earlier than we had feared but when we got to Robinetta we found her hard aground. This was not expected. We had been told we might touch at low water springs but this was neaps! In fact we were aground for a full hour either side of low water. The main reason was that the wind was from the east, so we were lying between the buoy and the bank, not into the channel. But according to the UK Tide Gauge Network there was more water on that low tide than either the one before or the one after.There was a small effect due to the high pressure - about 30 cm at Harwich, less at the other places I looked. So we will have been aground for at least 4 hours and probably more in the last 24.

The prevailing winds are westerly so this won't happen most of the time. But its not what we were promised.

We had lunch, scrubbed the weed off and bent the fore-sails on. We didn't really have to wait long after we were ready before she was afloat, but we had to take care motoring off the mooring to keep away from the mud!

We raised sails around the Mersea Quarters cardinal and beat out towards the east. She felt heavy and sluggish at first but much better later, so I think we had a fair bit of mud stuck to the hull that gradually washed off.

We had a lovely sail, marred only by the continued absence of readings from the depth gauge. This meant we took shorter tacks than we probably needed to but it didn't matter. The weather was lovely and there was a gentle sailing breeze, enough to make progress against the tide without raising the top sail.

Eventually we decided to head for Bradwell. As we got near I called them up on the VHF to see if they had anywhere for us to tie up but they were full up. Not surprising given the perfect weather, but they didn't come across as very friendly.

We headed back to West Mersea. The wind had veered so we were able to broad reach all the way up the Thorn Fleet into the Ray and pick the buoy up under sail. Pete helmed, Alison was forward with the boat hook and I just called the turns and got the sails down once we were stopped. A good pick-up under sail always feels like a real accomplishment.

We had a lovely dinner at the Oyster bar. A perfect end to a perfect day.