Seaways Passage Race

This race is usually from Wrabness/Harwich to the Deben but for the Jubilee Cruise it is from Walton No 2 to the Nass beacon, with a Packing Shed seafood lunch to follow. The wind was unpredictable and with a latest finish of 2 pm and 20 nm to go at Robinetta speeds we needed a good 7 hours in hand for the passage. Starting at 5 am would give us an hour of ebb to get out of Hamford Water and round the Naze to pick up the flood down the Wallet.

But this also meant coming out of Walton at low water, and Pennyhole Bay almost dries, and we were coming up to a super spring tide.

If we sailed all the way out to Pye End before turning we would be safe. We would also be travelling an extra two miles compared to turning at the No 2 buoy. According to the chart, we would be aground if we did that. I programmed a turn into the chart plotter about a third of the way between the No 2 buoy and Pye End and then out to the Pennyhole race mark. That should have seen us clear.

We left right behind Witch and Bona. Both have Titchmarsh as their home port and both draw more than us. Witch draws 8’ and did, indeed head for Pye End. Bona draws less and turned straight for the Wallet. I hung on for a little and then followed Bona out.

Alison kept watch on the depth and whenever it dropped below 2’ we turned to port a bit. It worked a treat and we got out past Walton Pier without difficulty.

For a while it looked like we would be able to reach down the Wallet but the wind veered a little and it turned into a long beat. The lift we got from the tide made each tack really long. The first one took us past Holland on Sea before we got close to the Gunfleet and the second one got us past Clacton.

Another two took us into the Blackwater. There, we tried keeping in the river to get the most lift from the tide, which made the tacks shorter. We got to the Nass beacon at 1:45pm, with 15 minutes to spare, so we were last, but our judgement of how long we needed to allow was pretty good.

We headed in to West Mersea and motored up to our own buoy. It was a little annoying to pass the Packing Shed where people were already eating.