Brightlingsea to Stone

There was a lovely sailing breeze today, with no remnants of yesterday's squalls. We were heading for the Stone Sailing Club ready for tomorrow's East Cost Race, but there was a race today too.

The passage race to join the East Coast OGA summer cruise was self timed, so we worked our tidal calculations to take advantage of the best tide, and came off the pontoon at 11:25. We raised full sail as we left harbour, then turned up the Colne to use the Colne Yacht Club line as our starting point for the 10nm race to Stone. (not a long passage, but what we had to work with). Julian helmed.

After cutting across the Mersea Flats at slack water low (watching the depth gauge carefully) we took the rising tide up river, passing the finish line of Thurslet Spit due north at 15:21.

The anchorage at Stone is notorious for its poor holding, so we did not want to be too close to other boats. We ended up anchoring in the fairway, with 30m of chain, and spent an anxious half hour watching until we were sure Robinetta would not foul any of the moored boats.

After that we called the free water taxi (laid on specially for the gaffers) and went ashore to register for tomorrow's race.