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it was a morning to live for as i set off to travel 90nm to my new mooring,there was a light breeze and the sunrise was straight out of heaven,the sun rose from behind some trees siloetting them(SP) against the red then orange of the rising sun as i sipped my morning starbucks,it felt great to be setting out,the smell of the sea beckond so off we went.The Forecast was for SE winds building to 20-25mph with 30+ later.The first 20nm was done with both sails up and the engine ticking over at 1000rpm,as i rounded the Norfolk coast line,my bows lined up with the wind so i had to dropy the sails and go on motor,the weather was not too bad and i had no real concerns as i had been out in rougher stuff with C130 king.

I attained my goal of Lowestoft,after stopping briefly to watch my son kite surfing,like any father i felt pride at watching my son wizz along.We left Lowestoft at 6am,the forecast was for a wind over tide situation,we wrapped up well against the elements,for the first 10nm it was not too bad,but the wind picked up and so did the seas,wave height was 3-4 ft with a close frequency so it was bumpy and wet,so wet that my chartplotter packed up,we headed on and came to an area called Orford Ness,synonomous with Nuclear experiments here in the UK,i had been glancing over the charts using my hand held gps but had failed to spot an area marked with "outfalls",well those waves went from 23-4 ft to something around 5-7ft with one that came through causing the boat to pitch at an angle in excess of 45 deg,it was a bit hairy,i quickly ran safety proceedures through my head,and not wanting to cause alarm i quietly gathered the flares and hand held vhf,if anything larger came through,i was worried about the rudders being able to take the pounding,we soldiered on and passed the real danger,i had been at the helm for about 1.5 hours and i was cold and thoroughly wet,i asked my crew to take a turn as it was back to the 3-4 ft wave height,i went below and stood just below in the companion way for about 15 mins,i had briefed the guy to look out for sandbanks and channel markers but the visibility had dropped to 1 mile and the radio was not picking up traffic very well,i popped out of the hatch and sat on the soggy seats,i had looked around earlier and saw no danger,thinking that the hemsman was capable of spotting a body of shingle jutting out of the sea was an error on my part,im the skipper.the buck stops here.I turned my head and saw the danger,i acessed the situation and ordered hard down on port hand,we fought the boat around and headed back wards,i took the helm as i could see the channel by way of wave disturbance, we motored on and i picked up the bouyage that i was looking for,the trip ended in smooth seas in sunshine,this countrys weather is crazy

i look forward to going out again,lessons learned,question your crew untill you are fully aware of their levels of experience,dont take their say so,check your charts thoroughly, and check them again,do a thorough passage planmcheck those charts and make sensible notes kept in a water tight see through wallet

Sounds like you had some fun...

I hope this crew kept it's lunch down better than your last crew did...

one of my crew managed to keep down their lunch,the other was wiped out by sea sickness,poor girl could not even move she just hung on to the chart table,except for grabbing the bag you should have seen the inside of the boat,despite me putting everything away,stuff had flown every where,it looked like a tornado had gone through the inside took me ages to clean it up

Looks like you were heading for Orford or Woodbridge. Lived in Orford for 5 year when my wife was custodian of Orford Castle . If Orford say hello to Chrissy Martin who has lots of private moorings to rent

Richard Fairman Ex Forest Farm Iken now Turkey

Hi richard

i shall bear that in mind,moorings are difficult to find these days,my eventuall destination was the River Deben,i have aquired a mooring at Ramsholt

Matt

Oh what fun. I have a GPS with Maps of the entire USA coast. Very nice when you can look ath the plotter and confirm what is in your way. Not 100 % but about 90%. Good for those times when you cannot see very far away.

The Raymarine S1 wheel pilot (autopilot) is a godssend in these conditions.

Ramsholt Arms is wonderful had my wedding dinner there in 1998. Lobsters and Champagne. Aiso moorings at Bawdsey Quay and Felistowe Ferry. Great sailing club at Bawdsey Quay. Great people down to earth and great clubhouse.

Richard Fairman

they are a friendly lot down theremlots of waving as you go by and everyone so far has a chat about boats,i havent got to the sailing club yet but ive eaten at the cafe down at the ferry bawdsey side

Matt,
a couple of other suggestions that also could have been useful, if you are going to do a 90nm trip along North Sea coast it would be advisable to call in a trip plan to the MCA when you set off, so at least they are aware you are out there and will worry if you don't call in a safe arrival after your eta is exceeded. Also as well as planning tracks, etc for that distance, a couple of bolt holes on the way may have been useful, especially with forecasted SE 25mph expected to exceed 30mph. Loose your engine there and you are on a lee shore. Sounds a hairy trip and even with a more experienced crew I would never had set off with that kind of a weather forecast, you're a better man then I Gunga Din!

Cheers

Morris

thanks for your imput morris,i did have safety measures worked out,i did a passage plan and had noted the bolt holes.The one truely exposed part of the trip is from Wells to Gt Yarmouth,apart from an anchorage at Sea Palling there are no safe havens,south of Gt Yarmouth there is Lowestoft,then southwold,Orford ness and finally the deben,the only truely hairy part was the outfalls at Orford Ness,and i had given myself about 1/2 mile distance to the lee shore as a margin of safety,if i had gone closer to the lee shore at the ness,the water would have been less turbulent but a lot closer to the shore.If i had known that the outfalls would be as bad as that in 20-25mph winds i would have trailered the boat down,its pure mac country down there,lots of sheltered places to sail.

I call my wife to let her know my ETA and i get it in the neck if i dont call in on time

matt

A local Ramsholt farmer is a famous author who has written numerous books in sailing and the local area. He writes for Classic Boat Owner I just can,t remember his name. and of course Arthur Ransome used to be a local.Also the first radar sataion was at Bawdsey Manor. They pulled down the last ww2 tower about 8 years ago such a crime but you can still visit the old ww2 radar control room

richard

hi richard

im looking forward to exploring the area,there is so much more to do down on the deben as compared with wells.I fancy trying the Pin Mill on the orwell this weekend,aparently yu call up the mill on VHF and they will bring out to you a delightfull sea food concoction.I was imediately struck by the difference compared to wells,the folks down here get on their boats on go out on them,in the 4-5 months i moored at wells,i only saw a handfull of people who went out regularly,the rest just used their boats as cheap holiday flats.

The harbourmaster at Ramsholt was probably the same guy that was there during your weding dinner,his name is George and he was full of advice on how to leave the boat one the mooring in a safe manner,little bits of advice like "tie a piece of string around the jib,stops it flapping if the wind catches it" and as for fishing hes pointed out a couple of spots"use a rag worm with a muscle cocktail,the bass are running over there"

How do you find the heat in Turkey? is it tortureous in a mac? can you post some more pics of your mac in Turkey.

Your trip sounds kinda normal to our sailing. Did you have the sail reefed? We usually reef to the 3rd reef and use the motor for stearing and the Mac settles right down in big waves and 35 mph winds.

bubba,at the time i dont think that having a sail up would have helped as i was pointing almost directly into the wind.Do you have any Jib out along with a 3rd reef?

Not if I am sailing real close to the wind only the reefed main and some power for better stearing and the reefed main set correctly will stabilize the boat in big swells and slice right thru them, just ask my wife (the skipper ) she is now a real beleaver in sailing that way.