Winging It Back Home

Day 13.  Ramsgate

It has been very gusty these past few days stuck in Ramsgate. Being moored on the end of the visitors pontoon just within the mouth of the harbour entrance wasn't the best decision made, as at high tide the incoming swell bounced Moonshine all over the place snagging her lines tight persistently and seesawing her back and forth until low tide... Until today that is, as the wind has now changed direction.

We took the opportunity today to drop the dingy (as we are moored stern to) to enable us to take more photos of the impact damage to send to our insurance company.  A return email was then compiled and sent to them with a statement of fact, along with the third party details and 26 photos which all had to be compressed prior to being sent as we could only attach a limit of 15mb to the email. 

On our evening walk with the dogs we spotted Timothy and Shane Spall's boat Princess Matilda, a celebrity in her own right from the tv documentary Somewhere at Sea, nestled within the inner dock. 

Day 14.  Ramsgate to Suffolk Yacht Harbour (River Orwell)

Today we had a small weather window in which to cross the Thames Estuary.  We left it until mid afternoon to depart Ramsgate as the winds were forecast to ease until early evening before breezing up again for the next few days in the south east.  Upon departing Ramsgate we were surprised that there was a ground swell running from the north east, however this soon eased once past North Foreland.  Once in the Thames Estuary we headed north to the Outer  Fisherman, then cut through Fisherman's Gat, and along the Black Deep to North East Gunfleet, then the Cork Sand Yacht Beacon, before heading west into Harwich using the recommended yacht track keeping out of the deep water channel.  We had to give way at the mouth of the River Stour to let a coaster depart and let the ferry 'Capucine' enter for Parkeston Quay.  We had a steady run up the River Orwell against the ebb tide to Suffolk Yacht Harbour logging 50.8 nautical miles within 3 hrs 4 mins.

Day 15.  Suffolk Yacht Harbour to Lowestoft

Today we departed Suffolk Yacht Harbour on the River Orwell bound for Lowestoft.  The sea was fairly smooth until Orfordness, but then gradually got worse the further north we went.  A large swell rolling in from the N.E, with short sharp seas on top which made for a very confused sea state off Lowestoft.  We still managed to plane all the way at sea, only reducing speed slightly 7miles off Lowestoft in a vain attempt at giving us a smoother ride.  Suffice to say hind sight is a wonderful thing and we would not have set off today had we known what the sea state was like...moderate seas are not nice at all!  We did walk the dogs along the sea wall 2 hours later, and the swell appeared to have died down significantly with very little chop and the wind had eased and gone south.  We have logged another 46.7 nautical miles in the space of 45 minutes in the River Orwell at displacement speed and 2 hours at sea. 

Safely tucked into Hamilton Dock for a few days, the winds are forecast to blow from the west over the next few days which we hope will smooth the sea for our last sea leg home. 

Day 16-18.  Lowestoft

We spent three uneventful days here in Lowestoft in the Hamilton Dock waiting for the winds to die down whilst recovering from the pasting we endured the other day.  The Hamilton Dock is a friendly but busy little place, and a good alternative to the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk across the way when it is their regatta week as it is very busy in there with all the racing yachts...plus we didn't want to risk another bump as things can get a bit chaotic in there.

Day 19.  Lowestoft to Hull

We departed Lowestoft on calm seas, however the seas did become a bit lumpy off the Norfolk coast and crossing The Wash.  We had been meticulously monitoring the weather leading upto today's departure, and with a very light    f 3-4 N.E breeze forecast and with a maximum wave height off The Wash being 0.6 metres but calming off to 0.2 metres just off Skegness upon checking  http://wavenet.cefas.co.uk/Map  we knew we wouldn't have the pasting we had endured the other day.  Logging 113 nautical miles in just under 5 and a half hours the pressure is now off and we are now back on home turf at long last.

Day 20.  Hull to Goole

Our final day! Got another estimate for the damage a Dutch yacht inflicted on Moonshine in Brighton, before catching the afternoon tide back to Goole.  On passage we spotted a Birchwood 370 Commando high and dry on Read's Island, it's going to have to wait a few days until it floats off.  Logged another 22.0 nautical miles making a total of 615.5 nautical miles covered during this trip, with Moonshine performing well throughout.  Skipper and Crew are all packed ready for home, and Moonshine can now have a well earned rest for the next few weeks.