Day 86. Sun 23 Aug. Moored in Lowestoft.
Well, we had good intentions of getting up with the lark to catch the spring flood down to Harwich. But, in the event, the alarm went off at 0515, the wind was howling in the rigging (from the South, of course), so with a sigh of relief, we turned over and went back to sleep for another three hours.
Then we had a leisurely breakfast and started working up the plot for an evening departure, in the expectation that the forecast wind reduction would come through. In spite of the wind, it was a lovely warm day, in fact the first day for over a month where it was warm enough to wear shorts! By mid - afternoon, it was clear that it wasn't going to, so we went shopping for food for the extra day.
On returning to the marina, we passed Hilary Lister's boat again, and had a close look at how it all worked. Overnight, Garth and I had both been thinking about trying to convert a boat to a similar specification for use by disabled sailors on the East Coast, and then thought about converting one of EAST's old squibs. So we got hold of Hilary's project manager, Toby, and got him to show us all the controls, and then talked to Hilary herself for almost an hour - definitely a project to work up over the winter, if we can get funding.
Day 87. Mon 24 Aug. Lowestoft to SYH. 51 miles.
Today the forecast and actual weather were near enough in step, with a wind from just East of South of Force 4/5. We left Hamilton Dock at 0600, and hoisted the mainsail in the outer harbour, before proceeding to sea. We still had the two reefs in from the leg down from Whitby, but decided to leave these in until we could get a feel for the conditions outside. We then motored for the first two miles to the Newcome Sand buoy against the last of the ebb tide, and then unfurled the jib to start motor-sailing. The SSE slant to the wind gave us a long-and-short beat down towards Orfordness, and we took a reef out of the main, but then soon had to roll up part of the jib.
We passed the Sizewell power stations at 0920. This caused a few comments about Finn McCool's golfing prowess, and how he had always seemed to be ahead of us - Dounreay, Fylingdales, Sizewell B, to name just a few of the golf balls he has left behind. The tide had now turned in our favour, and as we tacked out to clear Orfordness, and get a good angle down the Sledway, we turned off the engine, and were still making over 8 knots over the ground. We carried the tide right down to Harwich, and then up the Orwell, starting the engine again at the Collimer buoy, ready to enter the marina.
We tied up at 1500, after 2,061 miles in 87 days. On 24 days we stayed in port, and had a maximum leg of 157 miles, and minimum of 1; the average was 33 miles. Of the 87 nights, we spent 55 on pontoons, 11 on moorings, 15 at anchor, 4 against harbour walls and two under way.
Now to decide where to go next year!