Off to Fambridge

The weather looked a little dodgy for the May Day weekend, but we decided to go to the Fambridge rally anyway, as it would be our first sailing event with the gaffers this year. It was also our first trip out from West Mersea, so I was a little worried about how we would load Robinetta up with food and bedding, and the other bits and pieces we needed for a three night stay on her.

Julian took the Friday off, and we worked on the wooden dingy together for most of the day, before heading to West Mersea at six. The car seemed quite full, so we were expecting to need two trips to get everything across. Julian filled up the inflatable dingy and headed out with most of the luggage, while I took the car round to West Mersea Marine where we would leave it for the weekend. Finding a space to park was not easy, and in the end I parked near a caravan (which I must not do again, because I accidentally blocked someone in despite being careful). I then headed back to the pontoon to wait for Julian. Unfortunately I had asked him to bring the big box of paint/varnish back from Robinetta, which meant that I should not have taken the car away when I did.... After a walk back to the car with the paint box I got in the dingy with the rest of the luggage, and Julian and I headed out for our boat. We got there just before it got totally dark at nine o’clock, and I heated up some bean stew and bread for dinner. After that we planned the passage, and decided to try to leave at 06:30 next morning.

I slept awkwardly, and ended up with a stiff shoulder, and consequent headache, which did not lift until the afternoon, but that was not going to stop us, so we cast off the mooring at 0650, and Julian took us down the channel. It was two hours before low water, so there was very little water, and a lot of boats sitting in it. West Mersea is a crowded place! Because of leaving so early we did all our sailing prep while under way, so we were not really sailing until 08:00, having eaten breakfast and put all the bedding away while moving. We knew the winds would vanish in the afternoon so we made the most of what we had, with full sail including the topsail. We were in the Spitway by 09:30, being very careful to keep in the centre of the channel as it was low water. Last night I had written out a list of buoys to look for, and after we left the Spitway I expected us to head for Whitaker 6. Julian did some panning around on the GPS chart and started heading straight for the Whitaker beacon. That felt wrong to me, so we had a look at the paper chart, and compared the depths on that, the GPS chart, and Robinetta’s depth gauge. The GPS chart has some serious issues with its depths, so Julian soon changed course to the one we’d decided on last night!

I helmed for some of the time, but the head-ache would not go away, and once we were well into the Whitaker channel inside Foulness sand Julian suggested I should have a lie down, and try to sleep it off. That felt like a plan to me, so I went down and shut my eyes while Julian helmed in the increasingly light winds.

A while later I heard Julian laugh, so I went on deck to see why. We were getting near a buoy we needed to honour, so he had tacked, and discovered that even with all sails up the only reason we were moving was the tide. After tacking we were supposedly heading in a different direction, but the GPS reported that nothing had changed in our vector; we had cleared the buoy but we were drifting sideways down the channel at a knot and a half! That ended our sailing for the day, and we furled away the jib and put the engine on to give us steering way. I took the helm while Julian made himself a sandwich, but I did not feel like eating, and after Julian finished I lay down in the cockpit to soak up the sun while Julian helmed again.

Once we got to Cliff Reach, where the river runs NW, we did try sailing again, but there was not enough wind to steer us, so we motored the rest of the way to Fambridge in bright sunshine, eventually tying up alongside Toby's and Hugo's new boat Janner on the yacht club pontoon at about 15:00. It had been a totally pleasant day up to that point, but rain was forecast, and by 1600 it began to drizzle. I should have thought about putting on the cockpit cover, but getting on and off Robinetta with her cover up is a pain, even though Janner is a good boat to more alongside height wise for us.