Failure is allowed

 We left Shotley in perfect time to take the first of the ebb up the coast towards Lowestoft. The track out of Harwich past the Felixstowe container port heads due south and we were running - this didn't bode well for trying to get north.

Nevertheless we made good time beating between the Felixstowe shore and the shipping channel and by about 10:30 we were north of Bawdsey and well out to the east.

But the sea-state was pretty nasty and Robinetta was starting to pump every 5-10 minutes. We didn't feel like we were in any danger but neither did we feel we had any safety margin.

Progress was going to be almost non-existent with the waves knocking us back and the wind on the nose.

We decided that carrying on was not the prudent decision.

Alison had noticed that the main-sheet was very worn in places. We didn't want another rope parting in-use so we decided to go to Suffolk Yacht Harbour and visit the Classic Marine chandlery there and buy some of their buff polyester braid - a significant upgrade on the three-strand polypropylene synthetic hemp we had.