Flaming June!

We cast off our mooring at 1130, and headed down the Ray under engine while Julian bent the staysail onto its mended clubfoot. The weather was dull, with very little wind, but we raised the main once we were clear of the Nass, and motored towards the Spitway buoy.

We saw another gaffer over on the Bradwell side, and as she seemed to be heading for the Spitway I thought she must be going to the Fambridge  Rally too. By 1230 the breeze had freshened enough to let us make 3 knots (with the tide under us) , so we turned the engine off and sailed. The other gaffer pulled away from us steadily after that! (turns out to be Deirdre, and they were motor sailing)

A bermudan yacht, called Chantilly sailed up and past us, hailing Julian by name and taking photos. We didn't recognise them but it turns out it was Julian's colleague Dave who raced with us on the Crouch in 2010 on his friend Bernie's boat. They sailed with us to and through the Spitway, which we cleared by 1415. They then sailed past us and disappeared.

The wind went even lighter, and died by 1430, and with the tide now against us we turned the engine on, and headed for Ron Pipe. Julian went below as he was not feeling well, and it began to spit with rain.

The channel to the north of the Swallowtail is buoyed now, but the visibility decreased, and I was very glad of the cockpit mounted GPS and the depth gage to help with the navigation.

The wind began to freshen again and I loosened off the main sail. We were running at 3 knots, so I turned off the engine at 1505. Having it on had warmed the cabin up nicely!

We ran all the way to Burnham, gybing occasionally to stay on course between the buxey sands and Foulness. There were seals hauled out on both, and we saw one in the water. We were making 6 knots once the tide turned and the wind got up a bit. A lovely sail, marred only by the weather. Poor visibility, drizzly rain, and cold for the time of year.

The gaff span jumped out of its lower cleat position at some point, possibly on one of the gybes. It was not a huge problem as the span was still held at the top, but we could not set the sail well, so once we reached Burnham we went head to wind, got the sail down, re positioned the gaff span, and raised sail again for the reach/run up to Fambridge. We tied up on the pontoon at 1900, fitted the half made sail cover I've been working on this week, and went to get something to eat.