Marica goes clockwise

I wanted to get the first free flow out through the lock at Fish Dock. I was too mean to pay the £10 to 'pen' out an hour earlier. So I was up at 6:30 got the boat sorted and called Fish Dock and was able to be out by 7:30. It was still dark, but I was very keen to arrive at my next destination in daylight.

We kept to the south of the Humber and out of the TSS areas. I listened on channel 14 to the VTS for information and was very surprised to hear Marica being called on the radio. I acknowledged and they gave me instructions to proceed to a Lat Long position to the North of the river entrance and remain pointing north at speed zero GPS. I got some paper and they repeated the instructions. This seemed rather odd, I had my AIS on and so they might be able to see me. Someone else was also on the same channel but I could not hear their transmission. I called VTS stating my name as YACHT Marica and asked if there was another vessel of the same name on the channel. Yes, a tanker 5 miles away inbound. Phew, mystery solved. Marika is a Norwegian vessel of 230 meters, I thought my boat name was unique.

Looking on marine traffic I spotted Fiesta, Mark's catamaran. It appeared to be heading for the river. He might just make the last free flow in to Grimsby. I resisted the urge to call him on the radio as it looked like he was about to tackle the TSS.

The wind was westerly and we soon had both sails up and the engine off. Just the slight noise of George III doing an excellent job of steering the boat. This autohelm has been loaned (again) to me by Simon while I get mine repaired. Thank you, it makes long passages much easier and raising and lowering the main much less tricky.

The tide was against us most of the way, but the sun was shining and it was a lovely day. The Lincs Wavefarm is an enormous wind farm 7 miles long that lay between us and the Wash. This showed our progress, or lack of it. The wind lessened and our progress went down to under three knots. Too slow to make our port in daylight. I went to restart the donkey and it would not come out of reverse gear. I took up the hatch covers and nothing appeared obvious. This might take a while, or not be fixable at sea. Time to deploy the trusty Honka. With the outboard running, and the sails up, our speed across the ground was up to 4.5 knots. The gearbox appeared to be jammed. I checked the oil and found nothing on the dipstick. I filled the gearbox back up. On my old engine the gearbox oil never seemed to need replenishment. I managed to get the Volvo back into neutral and start the engine. Forward gear was fine, I didn't want to experiment with going back into neutral or reverse. So we now had two engines and two sails propelling the boat, I must get a spinnaker too! I stopped the Honka, but left it in the water in case it was needed later.

About four I called the harbourmaster at Wells-next-the-Sea. I knew high tide was just after 10 pm and the guidance is not to enter other than two hours either side of high water. I thought that with Marica's draft of 1m I could probably get in in daylight or certainly earlier than 8. I was told that another boat with the same draft had been told by the assistant harbourmaster that it would be 20:30 and the harbour launch would escort them in. I asked if I could venture up river to the outer harbour, which is more accessible, to wait. No, that is not allowed. I said I would arrive around 6pm and was asked to call the harbour on channel 12 when I reached the West Cardinal buoy.

I took off the engine power as we were not in a rush now. Later, I used the last of the light to take the mainsail down. Arriving at the cardinal mark I tried calling the harbour on 12, no answer. I tried again on 16 and no answer from the harbour. I did get called by Fiesta, who heard my broadcasts. Fantastic, Mark is here! He explained where he was anchored and put all his lights on and I pootled over there. It was now around 7 and I thought I would motor around slowly for the next hour. I found I had a voicemail from the harbour master and called him. They do not monitor the radio until 2 hours before high water. He said they would come out in the launch just after eight and guide us both in.

The launch seemed to take a long time to get to us. Mark had plenty of time to up anchor and motor to the mark and we circled around slowly. We then got sporadic guidance and radio calls from the launch. Not having my hand held VHF, it was a pain to respond to calls, avoid running into the back of Fiesta and other objects, only some of which were lit. The guy on the radio seemed to have our two boats mixed up. The channel is very winding and the launch was not with us very much. A large fishing vessel passed us. Mark was using a torch to try and pick out objects. I think we may have cut inside one or two lateral marks. There were also unlit laterals and fairwater channel marks. I narrowly avoided an anchored rowing boat at one stage.

We eventually got to the pontoon. I went past to sort out my lines and fenders, of course I'd set them on the wrong side. Come back its shallow over there. So an easy docking as the stream was against us so we could ferry glide onto the pontoon. I gave my bow line, but when I passed my stern line it came off the cleat where I had hastily moved it from starboard to port. What a nerd I must have looked! It turned out the launch had engine overheating problems (broken impellor) so had to keep stopping rather than lead us in. It had been a nerve racking few miles, certainly for me.

I went to greet Mark and his dog Max. Max needed a walk after leaving Bridlington at 5 this morning. We both sorted our boats and Mark joined me on Marica for a couple of cold beers. We had not seen each other since Peterhead and had a lot to catch up on!

The photo was taken at 13:45, with some distance to go, and nothing on the horizon yet.