We spent a very pleasant lazy day in Ipswich. It has been far too hot to do much, and it has been a battle keeping the dogs cool and stimulated in this heat, as their walks have now been restricted to the early morning and late evening.
Day 6. Ipswich to Woolverstone
A slightly cooler day today, we got up early and eventually found our way to the Lidl supermarket for stores. Somehow we managed to take the long route there, but took a shorter more direct route back. Once the fridge and beer cooler were stocked with Whitstable Bay and the odd bit of food we trundled back down river to Woolverstone Marina. In the afternoon we took a walk along the woodland path to Pin Mill with the dogs.
Logged 3.0 nautical miles
Day 7. Woolverstone to Titchmarsh
Our intention today was to venture back out to sea and make the short hop to Brightlingsea, however the forecast northerly breeze put paid to that...for today anyway. Therefore we decided the best option would be to visit Titchmarsh Marina and have a meal in the 'Harbour Lights' restaurant. After checking out their menu which looked rather limited we opted for yet another meal on board. It looked as if the restaurant had gone considerably down hill since our last visit a few years ago, not just with its menu and it's odd weekday meal finishing serving times, but its overall condition of the building as it isn't as smartly kept as it used to be. Incidentally, we noted quite a few people turning up and finding the doors padlocked.
Logged13.4 nautical miles
Day 8. Titchmarsh Marina
Day 8 and we are spending another day in Titchmarsh Marina whilst waiting for the northerly breeze to pass and the sea state to smooth out. Walton on the Naze is the nearest town for groceries, it is a fair walk there and from previous experience is not brilliant for stocking up a rapidly empty fridge. We have sandwich stuff, milk, Laura has her veggie sausages and hash browns left, and there are two cooked chipolata sausages from last night's tea....but they have the dogs name on them! So it looks as if we will have to delve into the dried food cupboard, as tuna and pasta bake sounds good for us tonight. I also knew it would be useful to carry a few 1litre whisky bottles, as one was very handy being appropriately placed on the worktop to use as a mallet to crush the plain crisps to top the pasta bake for tea!
We are now itching to move on now the weather has calmed down a bit, tomorrow we will visit Brightlingsea for a few nights.
Day 9. Titchmarsh Marina to Brightlingsea
Now itching to be back to civilization, we made our way out of Titchmarsh. The other day we were not sure where the channel into the marina was, but since it was high water we didn't have any problems with depth even though both the depth readings were playing up. This time we stayed in the channel which is in-between the anchored yachts. There was still a gentle northerly ground swell running, but this got considerably smoother the further down the coast we went. It is always challenging when visiting new places whilst trying to navigate through the buoyed channel, but we made it safely and obtained a mooring within the Waterside Marina...normally when visiting you would end up on the mid river non shore connected pontoon, and would have to use the dingy to get to shore.
Note the cill at low water!
Logged 25.8 nautical miles
Day 10. Brightlingsea
We decided since the fridge was getting low on stock to walk to the large Co-op which is on the other side of town. There are several small grocery stores in the town, but we thought a larger shop would be a bit cheaper...how wrong were we! This shop was considerably more expensive than the ones in town and the term rip off merchants spring to mind. We just bought the bare essentials and will wait until Chatham to stock up again. Let's hope that due to all the residential building work going off here, it warrants an Aldi or a Lidl store to be built near that Co-op to make them more competitive. Apart from that gripe whilst wrestling to feed a family of four, Brightlingsea is a lovely place and is definitely on our list of places to visit again.
Day 11. Brightlingsea to Chatham
We departed Brightlingsea as soon as there was enough water over the cill of the little marina. We had an excellent run with calm seas, we were against the tide until we had gotten through the Swin Spitway, and then we had really good help from the spring tide all the way up the Medway. You have to carefully plan your passage on the Thames Estuary, as there are several different routes across, making sure there is plenty of water over the sand banks. Once at Chatham Marina lock we had a short wait whilst the harbour master put the lock into free flow, then we had to carefully navigate our way through the lock entrance with the tide behind us making us shoot in like a cork. There was still a substantial inward current whilst entering our given pontoon as it was near the lock. Now safely moored up we are certainly looking forward to exploring Chatham since this is our first visit here.
Logged 41.0 nautical miles
Day 12. Chatham Maritime Marina
With just one more full week left, it is now time to head back up the coast. In reality we only need a good three days to get home, but since the weather is still looking good we are looking forward to visiting more places on the return leg packing as much in for as long as is possible.
The electric kettle we bought for Naughty-Cal has been a god send. Our gas consumption has halved since buying it. We got a small 650w one which works great on the inverter as well.
ReplyDelete