52:28.50N 1:43.109E

89 miles run

89 Miles since leaving Sandwich

And so, it starts again. Last entry 7 years ago after returning from an Atlantic circuit and after one false start last year I am at last typing again.

We left our berth at Highway marine in Sandwich on the morning of 30^th April with a rising tide. I knew I was pushing it a bit with the tide and had asked for a bridge opening of 10:00. That came and went and we were still firmly stuck in the mud. Actually, that wasn’t a bad thing as the engine had refused to turn over when I pushed the start button in the cockpit. A quick panic and a scratch behind the ear before remembering the backup start button in the engine bay and the engine roared into life first push of the button. First problem of the trip to investigate later. At 10:30 after a bit of tooing and throwing I managed to encourage Spectra off her berth and into the river. 50 metres further on we slid to a halt again as the ooze gripped the keel. Wait a couple of minutes ease her into gear and she pushed on towards the bridge in grand style. Finally, the bridge opened for us and we slid through while waving a final farewell to Andrew and Paula on the quayside. We also noticed Mell our Canadian friend had come down to say goodbye which was nice timing as we had only just got back in touch with him and the next time we meet up will be in Nova Scotia during the summer of 2023.

                The trip down the Stour was pretty uneventful and the tide rose to a comfortable level by the time we popped out of the river mouth at 11:45, passed the seal colony and pointed Spectras nose North towards Ramsgate and beyond.

Of course, there was no real wind but I put the mainsail up anyway just to show good form. The wind never really got going but we did have a glorious motor sail across the Thames estuary and by 17:00 we were approaching the mouth of the Walton Backwaters. Here it got interesting. We crept in towards the shore on a falling tide watching the depth sounder falling steadily. At 0.3 meters below the keel and still ½ a mile to go I admitted defeat and reversed our course. It would have been nice to anchor out for the first night but it was not to be and so we headed towards Harwich and the welcoming dredged channel of Shotley marina. There were no more dramas on our first day apart from me making a complete Horlicks of the mooring and reversing Spectra into the wall twice before I managed to turn her round inside the marina. In my defence ---- I have no defence and will have to take that one on the chin. (it was only a little bump, both times).

                The next morning to set the standard for our new life we got up really early (10am) and headed out through the lock. All went well, engine was smooth fore and Mizzen up and we were doing 7 knots over the ground, lovely conditions. I decided to start our preparations for the longer legs ahead and tested the water maker. It took about an hour of flushing and tightening the odd leaking connection but eventually everything settled down and we were making water again. All was well with the world for precisely 1 hour before we started to smell hot oil from the engine bay. I had checked the gearbox oil levels that morning as we had just had the unit rebuilt after our abortive departure last year and I was understandably twitchy about it. The gearbox dipstick was too hot to touch which is never a good sign. I switched the engine off to let things cool down and put up all of the sails.   Actually, gearbox aside we had a great sail up to Lowestoft. With the foresail poled out to starboard we actually showed the yacht following us a clean pair of heels and by the time we reached the harbour entrance we had gained nearly two miles on them. Once the gearbox had cooled, I checked the oil and we had lost just over half a litre of fluid. I topped it up and we continued to sail right up to the entrance of Lowestoft harbour. Our timing was pretty spot on for a bridge lift at 19:00 meaning that once I started the engine, we only had to run it for just over 30 minutes before we had gone under the lifting bridge and got up the river into our berth at the Haven marina. Once we were moored up, I checked the gearbox oil again and we had lost ½ a litre meaning we definitely had a problem that needed to be fixed before we could carry on with the trip.

                Next morning, we got back into cruiser mode and started plugging into the local boating community. Several people later and lots of helpful advice we had a couple of numbers for reputedly good local engineers. The first couple we tried were very friendly and helpful but couldn’t even look at the boat for a couple of weeks. Finally, we got in contact with Peter Southgate from Northgate marine who was a star. The gearbox is now out and has been traded in against a reconditioned unit from Lancing marine in Brighton. At the end of the day, we have bitten the bullet and decided to go for a unit that has a warranty and has been rebuilt by a marine gearbox specialist, Peter was in total agreement with this approach.

And that brings us up to date; tomorrow Peter will come back and fit the new gearbox. Tony my son and his friend are arriving for a visit tomorrow afternoon, and we plan to test the gearbox on Friday in lake Lothing before heading out and North again on Saturday morning.

Bit boring this for a first blog but Lowestoft does lose its charm after being stuck here for over a week. It will get better I’m sure.