Heading Home

Our mud berth held us firmly fixed in place, with Robinetta only floating off two hours either side of high water. The first high tide of the day was at 03:30, and while some boats left then we decided to have a lazier day and take the afternoon tide home.

We helped clear up the Little Ships Club, and got a cooked breakfast in exchange, then Julian had a look at Robinetta's stem post. He had put in some ronseal wet and dry rot hardener yesterday after we got to Maldon, and hoped it would have stabilised the hole, but the wood was still very flaky. He tipped more in, hoping it would harden in the two hours promised on the tin, then worked on the piece of oak we had brought with us to make a peg to fill the hole.

I cleared up in the cabin, and as the tide came in I began to hear water trickling in through the hull by the bows. Not a comfortable noise! The stem post repairs were not going well either; it looks as though we should get Robinetta out earlier than we hoped and work on her ashore.

We were floating by 14:00, and decided to leave even though high tide would not reach Maldon until 16:10. There was enough wind to make against the tide, and we would reach West Mersea with plenty of time to get onto our mooring.

Robinetta was floating, but when we cast off to back out we realised that she was floating in her hole; the mud at the stern held her in place. Julian ploughed through it, and we were off down river.

I got the bowsprit out and the jib raised for a run down river. We left the reef in the main, and the staysail covered and made relaxed progress (about 2 knots against the tide) until passed Osea Island when we turned to a broad reach and the tide began to help us. We sped up to 5.5 knots, and had a lovely reach down to West Mersea.

The wind began to pick up by Bradwell, and the sun went in. We got the sails down by Mersea Quarters, and the tide was running hard against us as we headed up to out berth. It suddenly felt a bit grim, then I took my sunglasses off, and it wasn't so bad!

We picked Worm up from our mooring and tidied Robinetta up before heading home. This was probably our last sail for a while, a lovely gentle end to a hard season.