Ladies Helm

We woke up early, not sure if our anchor was dragging or not. It probably wasn't, but it did last year, and rather than worry about it we pulled it up and across the river to a vacant mooring before having breakfast. We were close to Gwenili there, and the way the both boats moved on the moorings made me glad we'd been anchored peacefully close in shore all night!

We left the mooring under motor, and raised sail in the river. The top sail sheet escaped and went half way up the mast, so we had to get the sail down again to retrieve it. I was not intending to use the top sail, but I did not want to rule out the possibility since the forecast was all over the place W or NW, backing W or SW 4-5.

We made the start on time, once again first over the line (I think). Julian and I have both been working on our starts. We might have the slowest boat in the race but that shouldn't stop us getting the best start we can!

We made good time to the entrance to the Stour, with several boats still behind, but our first attempt to round the Shotley Horse failed. We had to go well past it as the tide was running against us, and we held our starboard course, with Ro an Mor just behind on our port side, into the line of boats who were coming back to try to clear the buoy on port. We had right of way, but the boat bearing down on us had nowhere to go because of boats on his other side. We could not bear away because of Ro an Mor, so the only thing that could be done was to tack round. Ro an Mor did the same, and the three of us ended up running back towards the Orwell, having not managed to clear Shotley Horse.

Robinetta was sandwiched between the two boats so I deliberately slowed her down, then headed back towards Shotley Horse but I could not get round it after that; not matter how far I tacked across the Stour I could not get Robinetta sailing fast enough to beat the tide. Marie of Itchenor was in the same posistion and the two of us tacked helplessly back and forth until we both decided to give up and put the engines on.

We made the buoy with engine assist then headed up the Stour to see how the other boats were doing. Many of the smaller ones retired, not able to beat the flood with the available wind, but then the wind got up again.

Soon after the wind got up to started to rain, then there was hail, and thunder, and a squall. We had to turn onto a run to furl the jib, and once we were heading back down the Stour with the wind and tide in our favour (and the hail on our heads) it felt insane to turn back around and follow the race.

So we headed back to the Orwell, where the sun come out. We picked Worm up from the mooring where we had left her at the start of the race and went into the Suffolk Yacht Harbour where we had a pontoon berth booked and could get a hot shower....

We headed to the Light ship at 1800 for a scheduled briefing. The race end cut off was 1900 though, and we knew the race was running late so were not really surprised when no briefing happened! We had a good natter about the amazing weather changes during the day, and ate with a lot of other gaffers..... a good evening!