Grimsby towards Newcastle

Julian and I got to Grimsby just after 3pm, and were on Robinetta by 4 having walked from the station via Asda to get provisions. The intention was to head out of the dock an hour before high water to make the best of the ebb out of the Humber.

Engine checks revealed quite a lot of mud in the water filter, so I cleaned it out before calling up the lock (which was on free flow) and turning the engine on to warm up. With permission to leave the Marina we cast off from the pontoon and headed out. Unfortunately I had failed to take into account that permission to leave the marina was not permission to exit through the lock, and as I also failed to notice that the lock lights were red I had a justifiably irate lock keeper yell at me. It did not help that he had been trying to call Robinetta on the radio, which I could not hear over the engine noise…

Once through the lock we got the staysail up, then the main. We had hoped to sail, but the wind had too much east in it, and we would not be able to use it until we turned north after Spurn Head. That was still a couple of hours away, so we lowered the main again. Then Julian realised he could see a lot of steam coming out of the engine exhaust. If there was a problem we would have to get back through the lock , and given we had just annoyed the lock keeper I was not keen... We turned back towards Grimsby, and turned off the engine to check the water inlet was not clogged with mud. The wind in the staysail gave us steerage way and as the tide had not quite turned we had a decent speed over the ground.

The Fish Dock Lock runs at free flow for a couple of hours before high water, then operates as a request lock for the next 2 hours. With the engine off we could hear the lock keeper warning that the gates would be closing in 5 minutes. There was no way we would be at the lock before free flow ended, and we did not really want to go back in anyway… Julian declared the water water inlet clear, so the engine went back on. I looked at the exhaust water, and was happy with it, so at 18:20, an hour after leaving the marina, we turned to head towards Bull Fort, following our inbound track. Julian rigged up our tiller pilot “George”, and checked that the electrical connections were working, but I felt that Robinetta was rolling too much to put him to work.

A constant stream of freighters passed us heading out of the estuary, while only a couple came by in the other direction. The light was beginning to go by the time the trail of outbound traffic tailed off, but by then we were by the Bull Sand buoy and could point across the channel at the Spurn Head light house. This was the first recommended yacht track we could find on our chart to cross the channel, and I did want to cross in daylight, so I pointed across the channel. Once we closed with Spurn Head the sea state deteriorated.

The CA Almanack states that wind over tide should be avoided when sailing in the Humber and that evening trying to get from Spurn Head out to its guardian cardinal made it clear why. We were well clear of the shoals, in 10-12m of water, but the seas were hellish. The biggest waves had to be faced head on or Robinetta felt on the edge of capsizing. The conditions were worse than any overfalls or wind over tide I had helmed her through before, and I never want to do it again. I tried turning Robinetta’s stern to the waves and heading back into the deep water channel, but we were at half tide, and while her motion was much easier we were actually being carries backward towards the shallows. I turned back across the waves and we made 4 knots…. After sunset yhe full moon made it easy to see the waves to steer through them, but did not help in any way with the sea state.

After we fought our way out to the Spurn Head Cardinal the sea state was less confused, but the waves were still uncomfortably large. However we could now take them on the stern, with no more white water over the bows. Once on course north the wind was dead astern, so we left the main down and proceeded under stay sail and engine. There was no way that our tiller pilot could cope, and neither of us could helm for more than an hour before needing a rest, but sleep was hard to come by. When I went below to “relax” I made my bed on the cabin floor as the berths have no lee cloths and Robinetta rolled constantly. Julian and I were both bundled up against the cold and stayed fully dressed even in our off watches. Using the heads took me at least 10 minutes as I had to peel off multiple layers in an unpredictably moving cabin, and Julian was no quicker… Hot drinks were essential, but then we had to use the loo again….

I managed to drop off to sleep a couple of times, and when I woke at 04:00 Robinetta’s motion had eased. I got up to tell Julian I could take the helm from him, but he had got “George” on duty, and said he did not need relieving. Sharing the watch with “George” made life much easier, and we settled back into our familiar 2 hours on, 2 hours off system.

As soon as it was light we thought about setting more sail. Rather than raising the main we set the jib, expecting it goose wing it with the stay sail. However it wanted to come out on the same side and after a few minutes of it sitting there steadily we decided to get the main sail up.

The helm was very heavy, so we began to reef the main. The sail plan did not balance until Robinetta was reefed past the first mast hoop, at which point we turned the engine off. Sailing felt like a wonderful reward after the night just gone, and we were making good time, but I was uneasily aware of how tired we both were. We would not reach Newcastle until midnight, and heading up the Tyne then felt like too much of a challenge. Julian agreed, and we talked about our options.

Scarborough was the obvious place, but entering its harbour on a spring tide was impossible 2 hours either side of low water which was about 11 am, so that was out. Whitby was further on, so should have enough water by the time we got there, so that became our target. The problem with Whitby was that last time we thought about going there we were told that visitors could only stay for 3 days… That was back in 2014, and we did not know if it were still that case.

Only 50 minutes after getting the main sail up the wind shifted slightly, and we were on a dead run again. With the main reefed we could not rig Robinetta’s preventor, so we centered the main and turned the engine on again and put George back on duty. A yacht appeared inshore of us. It seemed to be sailing so we changed our course and headed gradually towards the coast. The swell was still too high to risk sailing on a run, but we were no longer in a hurry if we were going to Whitby, so we decided to sail, and broad reached in towards Robin Hood’s Bay with Julian on the helm. With the wind direction we had there should have been no shelter from the cliffs but the wind did feel more manageable. We talked about Whitby, and decided that we should skip it and make for Hartlepool where we knew we could leave Robinetta for longer.

We tacked to reach out of the Bay, and when I took the helm I found I was not strong enough to control Robinetta. She wanted to round up constantly, and I could not hold her on course. The wind was gusting up to force 6 and it did not feel safe to center the main and leave it up, so we went head to wind, and pulled it down.

The other yacht had pulled ahead of us and disappeared into the distance as Robinetta motored on.

“George”’s old mounting block was beginning to fall apart, and though it was still usable it would probably not last if asked to helm in bigger seas. These began to appear round lunch time as the tide turned against us and the wind over tide caused sharper wave crests; some of these broke against Robinetta’s beam and splashed into the cockpit. There were also a scatter of crab pots markers, and what looked like dive site buoys. The swell made these invisible until they were quite close so I disconnected George and went back to hand steering.

We dodged cargo ships going into the Tees, and finally reached Hartlepool Marina Lock at 19:00, exactly half tide, so in good time to go in. One last adventure awaited as we were lee shored on the pontoon in the lock, and lost one of our fenders as we motored away. The berth numbers were really hard to find and maneuvering Robinetta round in the tight confines between the rows of berths more difficult than when we were fresh. However we were securely tied up by 19:30, and after some basic tidying up headed ashore for food.

We have no plans for more long passages this season, and fully intend to return to our usual day sailing regime. I am looking forward to it.

100nm 26 hours underway. Wind F4-6, SE-SSE