Through the Spitway, just...

By 7am we started preparing the boat for sailing, in case of a fair wind. The 7:10 forecast came on the VHF and the Force 7 was only expected in the south of the area! Where we were the wind had abated from 5-7 to 5-6 so we decided to go. We cast off at 07:35, following Deirdre down river. She already had her sails up, while we raised them under way as normal, and we never caught her up. We were sailing well by 08:00 though, on fully reefed main and jib, heading out of the Crouch as close to the wind as Robinetta would sail. I had the helm and decided sail trim while Julian navigated and did all the deck work; we kept that division all day, and it worked well.

Emma Hamilton motored past us just after we tacked between the Crouch and Outer Crouch buoys, and hopefully took our picture in the swell. The seas were not too bad until we were past Ridge at 09:50, but after that they got up a bit more and knocked Robinetta back. She was making a lot of lee way too, so we put the engine on to compensate after 10:00, and it stayed on the rest of the day. The top sail was rolling about in the lazy jacks, so I asked Julian to tie it to the boom so we would not lose it.

We got to Whitaker 6 at 10:25, and saw Cormorant catching us up. She had spent the night at Fambridge, and like us used the tide to help her down river. She doesn’t have an engine but caught up with us, without needing one. We sailed in company up to the Whitaker channel buoy, then we tacked together at 10:51 towards the Swin Spitway buoy. That was when everything got very difficult. It should have been possible to just sail into the Spitway on that course, but the seas made it absolutely impossible to get past the buoy. The flood was running now, pushing us west onto the Buxey and we tacked about for 45 minutes, making very little headway even with motor assist. Robinetta's port winch kept slipping which made hauling in the jib sheet in on that side very tiring and we had a couple of nasty moments when the angle of heel got a bit worrying and I couldn't hold her on course. I would have felt totally incompetent, except Cormorant could not make the buoy either; after three or four approaches Cormorant gave up, and turned to run back towards the Crouch. That was her only option without an engine, but Julian decided we should persevere.

The jib would not furl head to wind, I turned Robinetta onto a short run and we tried again. It turned out the Wykeham Martin gear was jammed, so Julian had to go on the foredeck to get the jib down. We were already wearing our life jackets, but Julian got his safety strop, and tied himself on; the first time we’ve felt the need for that precaution on Robinetta. It turned out that the furling line had taken a turn around the bottom of the spool but Julian did not spot it at the time, and had to lower the sail and lash it down on the foredeck.

We finally got the jib down, then motored head to wind to get the main down. I asked Julian to tighten the topping lifts to raise the boom out of the way, but they would not shift, so after that I had to keep ducking under the boom. Luckily I did not need to shift from one side of the boat to the other very often, and it did mean I could just stretch up to see over it when I needed to.

We had managed to get within forty metres of the buoy at one point, but it took nearly an hour to motor back that close after our short run, and we did not reach it again until 12:44. Julian offered to make lunch, but I only wanted a slice of bread and butter and an apple. Without a gimballed stove, there was no way to heat water for tea, but I could not have spared the concentration to drink one anyway. Julian raised the staysail to try to steady us, but the wind was too strong, so we kept it slack while we crept up on the Swin Spitway buoy at less than a knot under full engine. The seas were huge (for us in our 22 footer anyway) and confused. Robinetta’s gunwale went under the water at one point with the pressure of wind on our slack stay sail, and steering was an aerobic exercise until we were past the Swin Spitway buoy. I really regretted Robinetta’s flat seats as I slid around all over the weather side, but it was possible to brace myself against the other side with my feet, and I never felt in any danger, despite the times when the spray broke over the coach roof, and the gunwale was only four inches clear of the water.


I finally spotted the Wallet Spitway buoy and had something to steer for, on a course where the stay sail could work (even though it was still slack). We went from 1 knot to 4, and with the staysail steadying us steering became less of a battle. Julian had to go back to the foredeck to tie down the jib which had worked lose, and was surprised by our progress when he came back to the cockpit. He tried hauling the staysail halyard tight, but unfortunately our lee way meant I had to round up to make the buoy, and I could not hold Robinetta on the course. We had to slacken the staysail again and bash through on the motor. The seas around the Wallet were as confused as those around the Swin, and it took us until13:30 to work clear of the Spitway.

Julian gave me a course to steer once we were clear of the Spitway that still made it impossible to use the staysail, but as soon as we were far enough into the Wallet to be safe from being blown back onto the Buxey Sand we turned northwest and could “sail”. It’s amazing how much easier everything becomes once Robinetta is doing the job she was designed for; once Julian hoisted the stay sail properly we throttled the engine back to save fuel and still made 3-5 knots depending on how hard the wind was gusting, and he stopped worrying about us getting onto our mooring before the tide turned against us.

The seas moderated after we passed Knoll (not very close) and Julian wondered if we should put the main sail up again, but the stay sail was enough for me, and we were both too tired to want to work harder, so left it alone. We only had to tack once, to clear NW Knoll at 1427, and I pretty much kept us on our outward track without trouble. The relief when I finally spotted the Nass beacon was immense. Once we were past it at 1533 I suddenly realised my neck was getting stiff from being in one position too long. That normally happens after only an hour of sailing, proof of how much I had to move around to keep her on course!

I handed the tiller to Julian, and he threaded his way through the moored boats. It felt like a long way to our mooring in the Ray Channel, but I picked it up at 1606, and we tied on with two mooring lines. I put the kettle on while Julian tidied the foredeck, and we had a very welcome cup of tea, the first since seven in the morning! The wind was still blowing hard, and it was very cold, with no shelter on the top of the tide, but the water started draining while we tidied the decks and by five we had shelter. I discovered why the topping lifts would not work when I found the sail tie we had used to secure the top sail to the boom jammed into the main sheet block so the sheet would not run. I had to unthread the main sheet to free it, not something we would have wanted to do while under way in rough seas!

Neither of us was in a hurry to get in the dinghy, so we pottered around getting Robinetta tidy, after which Julian heated up some soup and we had soup and sandwiches for afternoon tea. We repacked our bags, and left a lot of things behind so we only needed to make one trip in the dinghy, then finally left Robinetta alone on her mooring at about six, after the hardest day’s sailing Julian and I have ever experienced.

Robinetta does not have a wind speed gauge, so we can’t be certain what winds we were actually sailing in, but the gauge on Cobmarsh Island, West Mersea, recorded gusts up to force 7, and average wind speeds of force 6 about the time we started trying to get into the Spitway. It’s good to know we can handle that sort if wind, but if we’re going to make a practice of it I want storm sails!