Stuck on the berth

I went to Tollesbury on Wednesday to put things aboard Robinetta ready for the weekend. I had been told that the owner of her current berth was coming back soon, so I also needed to check out the new berths available. In the end I moved her round to a new berth that would be hers in the long run, with the only question being would we be able to get out at neaps?

This morning, at 6am we unfortunately discovered the answer to be no.With high pressure, and only 4.1m forecast for the tide we were stuck on the berth. We tried to move Robinetta for about half an hour around high water, and we could not get away, although we did carve ourselves a bit of a channel by aggressive use of the engine....

When I looked at this berth on Wednesday the bottom was completely smooth, but Robinetta has already carved herself a hole, with mud piled up in a cushion around her, and we could not push ourselves out of it.

Back to Tollesbury

After looking at the tides we decided to leave Burnham around 8 am to head home. Many of the OGA boats had further to go, being based up the Wallet, so set off much earlier, and some based in the Blackwater decided to take the Raysand channel rather than the Spitway, so were leaving later.

The wind direction looked good for sailing once we were in the Blackwater, so we decided to make for the Spitway. I thought we would be motoring down the Crouch and had planned my timings accordingly, but Julian has the sails up and the engine off while we were still in the middle of the Burnham moorings! We did manage to sail for a couple of hours, while the tide was with us, but by the time we reached the Outer Crouch buoy (no2) at 09:50 the tide was against us and with the light winds were were hardly making anything as we tacked.

Motor sailing brought us within a cable of the Swin Spitway buoy by noon, and I began to cut across the sands on the Buxey side, watching the depth gauge carefully. We never had less than 3m beneath us and on this heading we could reach, so I soon turned the engine off.

We had a gorgeous sail across the Spitway and into the Blackwater, only dropping the main sail once we were at the entrance to Woodrolfe Creek. Even then we did not turn the engine on, but headed up Woodrolfe on the tide, using the staysail to give us steerage way. We wanted fuel (the first of the year) and sailed all the way into the marina. Once there we did need the engine for maneuvering!

Having been away for over 3 weeks we were very pleasantly surprised to only need 15.3 litres to refill the tanks. This shows the difference between local cruising without an agenda and an occasional race, and cruising with a purpose as we had been doing for the previous 5 years.

By 15:05 we were back on our berth in the Saltings, after a lovely holiday.

Racing cancelled

After spending Friday ashore, visiting Battlesbridge by train from North Fambridge, today was supposed to be the Crouch Race. It has previously been held in May, but last year the weather was so bad that no one turned up to race. This year there were plenty of boats ready to race, but no wind for them to race with.

Titch and Snoopy

After postponing the start for two hours in the hope that some wind would come up the decision was reluctantly made to cancel, and have a parade of boats down to Burnham where there were moorings booked instead. We were supposed to leave together at noon, but this did not really happen and the boats straggled down stream, with some trying to sail.

Julian "dressed" Robinetta on the way downstream to try and make a bit more of an event of it, and we left the flags up as we caught the launch over to the Royal Burnham YC for the final event of the Summer Cruise, the prize giving dinner.

We did not win anything (we did not expect to), but we had had a really lovely week sailing with like minded people and beautiful boats. The East Coast OGA Summer cruise remains a great week of sailing and socialising.

Across the Spitway to the Crouch

West Mersea was our last port of call in the Blackwater for the OGA summer cruise. Today we had a self timed passage race through the Spitway and into the Crouch. We wanted to use every bit of tide we could, so decided to leave West Mersea two hours before low water to take the last of the ebb down river, cross the Spitway at low water, then take the first of the flood up the Crouch. This works fine for Robinetta, drawing 1.4m, but on a spring tide owners of deeper draft boats were reluctant to do the same. Another reason for reluctance was it meant leaving around 5am...

We crossed the start (Nass beacon bearing 0M ) at 05:17. Sunrise exactly, and on a lovely broad reach.

passing the Wallet Spitway buoy

Three boats did the same as us, and we sailed almost in company down the Blackwater and to the Spitway. Once through we had to harden up, and beat into the Crouch. It was only just after low water and there was very little tide to help. We had wanted to go north of the Swallowtail Bank, but could not make the course, so ended up in the main channel, tacking as close to the sand banks as possible. We could see them clearly, which helped!

We had almost made it to the end of the Swallowtail bank when we saw Transcur beating down on the other side of it. Being later over the Spitway she had more tide assist so could make the course. Why didn't I think of that?

Beating into the Crouch is not generally much fun, but after we were clear of the Swallowtail the making tacks got longer, and I enjoyed myself handling the jib while Julian helmed. I could see a lot of seals on both the Buxey and the Foulness sands, and once we were passed the Inner Crouch buoy there were other things to look at too.

We finished our race at 10:46, on the Royal Burnham YC line, then continued on up the Crouch towards Fambridge. Despite Julian's dislike of beating up the Crouch he wanted to keep sailing not put the engine on, so we stayed under sail all the way to North Fambridge, only getting the engine on after we had passed the Yacht Station pontoon where we were to moor the for night.

Once we had everything away we motored back and rafted up on Rely.