Beer on the Beach

The moorings at Wrabness were pretty full by the time we got back from Mistley so we anchored under sail behind Bona. Bev' took this picture of us.

Roy Hart (Greensleeves) donated a polypin for us to consume on the beach so we rowed over for the evening. I'm sure you are supposed to let these things settle for a day or so but it tasted pretty good. The beer was brought ashore and then transferred via wheel barrow to the beach where it took pride of place on the upturned barrow. That's what I call practical engineering.

Thorn Race

The Thorn race followed on directly from the two rivers race with the finish of the one being the start of the second, with a handicapped self-timed finish at Mistley. Boats that would be late were encouraged to resign and motor to Mistley to get fed before the tide left us stuck there.

We expected to be in that group, but we weren’t far behind Janner and they were still sailing and it was so nice we couldn’t make ourselves stop. We said “we’ll stop by xxx o’clock” and then we were so close to the finish line that we carried on. There was so much water in the Stour that we could make really long tacks into the shallows of this beautiful river on a perfect day. Once past the finish line we banged the motor on and dropped sail – the channel was dead head to wind. A boat was aground on Swan Island with a rib and Swallowtail trying to pull her off. We thought about helping but decided that any boat assisting ought to be shallower draught than the boat aground,

Once ashore we discovered that the ‘hot buffet’ was to be plated and served in the Thorn and they hadn’t started. We were really pleased we hadn’t abandoned the race. We handed our declaration in, but the real beauty of the race was the sail itself.

The lunch was wonderful. The Thorn at Mistley is a fine place, professional and friendly. Great ale, great food and a great welcome. When Geoff from Swallowtail and the crew of the grounded boat finally came in after successfully rescuing her the staff made sure they were fed and watered and supplied with packed versions of any of the food they didn’t have time to eat, or were too stressed to enjoy.

Apparently, when the first boats arrived they found one of the fence panels had been removed. People from TWL soon turned up and put it back. I’m told they then welded it in place. According to the Article 4 Direction they need planning permission for each and every maintenance action they take on the fence, so this should be interesting.

Once the panel was in place, our committee put ladders either side of the fence so the rest of us could come ashore without touching it. TWL called the Police who immediately started asking questions and decided we were behaving perfectly correctly. More on this story here and here.

Two Rivers Race

Monday started warm and still. The two rivers race was to be run from Pin Mill to Wrabness as a pursuit race with a handicap based individual start time, both start and finish self-timed. Unsurprisingly, we started first. There was a bit more wind than the RHS race so we did actually start, but having Dirty Girty running rings around us (literally) as we started was a little disheartening. Still, we didn’t fall behind nearly as quickly as we usually do. Once we were beating up the Stour we actually gained on a few boats and nearly caught Janner and kept ahead of Deirdre. It was a fun race

August Classics Ipswich Regatta

We didn’t bring a flubber this time but we did try sailing Melvyn’s smacks boat in a race and came last. It was so tiring in the heat that we didn’t compete in anything else. We did fill the water tanks though, so at last have running water on board!

We vacated the Marina to make room for the flubber football and moored against the quay. It gave us an opportunity to go shopping, and, gluttons for punishment, we bit the bullet and did our first 1GM10 oil change.


The best boat dog competition was as silly as ever, with a performance by Pete the Knife as a ‘sort of St Bernard’.

This year the Last Anchor provided a barbecue which was excellent.

No mention of the day would be complete without a huge thank you to Pete Thomas, who with everything else he was organising, made time (his welding kit must be capable of fabricating that too) to go home and make us a saddle stirrup to try and fix the problem.

Passage to Ipswich

Excellent weather for the trip up the Wallet but we couldn’t make use of it. The gaff saddle was really bent out of shape. I used the anchor windlass as an anvil and bent it into some sort of shape but it took most of the distance from the Nass beacon to Walton pier to do it. I had lots of rest breaks – the sun was incredibly hot.

We finally managed to start sailing and made our way into Harwich bay before being passed at a rate of knots by Keith on Maryll. The wind died around Levington Creek and we both motored up.

The Ipswich Maritime Festival fireworks started while we were in the lock and continued as we came into our berths. Clearly we were being specially welcomed!

Alison and I dashed round and sampled the beer festival and had some food. Didn’t try any beers, just ciders and Alison was not impressed – I think the discerning people of Ipswich had drunk all the best varieties.

Busy day on the posts

While I was working in London and then having fun, Alison and Alex did a fine job touching up the paint and varnol and scrubbing Robinetta on the posts at Mersea. They got home about 1:30 this morning, tired out. Heading up the Wallet tomorrow to join the fun at Ipswich.

Back on board

Alison and Alex are off to Robinetta this morning to put her on the scrubbing posts so she's clean for the August Classics. Weather is looking OK for next week but almost no wind on Monday or Tuesday.