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Wayfarer sail Jan 11 Harwich
Harwich Sail 23rd-24th January 2011
Friday found us packing the car and debating whether to set off mid afternoon as the radio was warning about a traffic jam on the A14 but the lure of the sea and company got us off and after a significant detour we arrived some four hours later in Harwich and met up with most of the rest of our intrepid sailors.
Once the boat was parked up in the boat park it was out to search for food and refreshment. We declined the curry for a Chinese and then back to the bunkhouse.
People arrived and we chatted and sang a few songs to an accordion, guitar and a first outing for a banjo on these trips.
The following morning dawned, dull, misty and damp with the forecast of moderate to good visibility seeming very optimistic, however, winds of 3-4 from the northwest increasing 5-6 later sounded good.
Nicki the “Russian Spy” pulled a muscle in his calf pushing Topsy out of the boat park and had to rest it for the remainder of the weekend. It did appear a genuine injury as even after copious amounts of alcohol he still remembered to have the grace to limp back from the bar to the bunkhouse later that night.
We set sail and headed out to Langaurd a cardinal a couple of miles out on the edge of the channel before heading back in towards the coast. There were no scrapes with the big boats and visibility improved with even an odd glimpse of blue sky. As we sailed down to our picnic spot at Stone Island a large seal watched us all sail pass with some interest.
Lunch was interspersed with a steady stream of people making off to one end for comfort breaks and it was a little too cool to hang around for long so we set off back beating out of the entrance and then back up the coast. So much for the forecast as pretty soon the wind increased and we all hove to around the same time and set a first reef and reduced sail for a more comfortable ride in winds gusting to a decent 5 at times. There is a lot to be said of the rule if you start to think about a reef then it’s time to put one in, 7 boats all thinking the same within a short time is quite compelling.
Dave and Julie had an eventful return when the pin securing their jib decided to part company with the deck. Beating back with just a main and against a back eddy of tide made for a difficult end to their sail.
Seeing they were potentially in trouble 3 of our band went out to check they were ok only to find they were the ones in difficulty when the outboard decided to stop. With just a Genoa as the main had been packed away on the beach and a tide running back down towards Stone Island getting back was somewhat tricky. They managed to reach the edge of the breakwater where the intervention of Charles swapping outboard over solved the problem. For a while it looked like the planned trip to the Lifeboat might be a bit more involved than just looking over the boat in it’s berth!
Learning opportunities as they are often referred to were firstly, check your rigging with even more care when setting sail for the first time in the new season and secondly, make sure you have a second means of propulsion where ever possible.
We had a cracking sail though, 17.5 miles in conditions that were just enough to make it interesting, allow Dr Maynard to regain his sea legs and balance and shake out the cobwebs.
The trip around the Lifeboat Station was delayed but those that went returned impressed with what they have to contend with.
Before going out Jill produced a testing 5 part quiz where those that had the fortune to have a doctor on their team scored heavily on the body parts quiz thereby avoiding acute embarrassment by not getting any wrong. The overall scores were surprisingly close with only about 4 marks separating all four teams.
That evening we were the guests of Harwich Town Sailing Club who did us proud with their friendly hospitality and a smashing hot meal with plenty of wine and real ale. What did we do in return apart from drinking and eating it?
We assaulted their eardrums with a few tunes from Dave and Steve ably assisted as the evening went on by an increasing band of singers, most noticeable amongst them Sam as the liquid refreshment lubricated otherwise mute organs. The locals must be deaf or just too polite for words, as they have invited us back again.
The following morning dawned, you guessed it damp and gloomy and proved just a bit too much for one or two members of our intrepid bunch. With only 5 of the 7 boats making it onto the water, even Sam made it having eaten what looked like a mixture of fused plate and porridge emerging from the microwave.
We all beat up river in a steady force 3 towards the Royal Harwich Boat Club before a pleasant run back down the river under a steady 3-4 breeze back to the launch area.
One slight hiccup when Rosetta loaded Mihangle onto Dave Barker’s trailer leaving him waist deep in the sea holding Cockle whilst we swapped Mihangle over.
Back at the bunkhouse we admired Simon’s handiwork fashioning a new side window after some local idiot had removed what had been a perfectly good one during the night.
Bernie was sadly missed by those dining at the pier side café for breakfast, as there was no one to encourage us to have wine with our full English
Then it was time to finish off the rather large selection of cakes and pastries remaining, say our good byes and set off back to Nottinghamshire or where ever else we had hailed from further north.
Thanks to Simon as always for organising and Rachel for supporting him and Jill for the quiz. Special thanks to Harwich Town Sailing Club for hosting us and making us all feel so welcome again and all those who took the trouble to join us.
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Harwich 18th to 21st February 2011 Report.
Question, which County has the most coastline?
Do you resusitate a person who unfortunatlely passed away two days previous? Answer to question one, Essex, our sailing destination, where Harwich harbour provided good sailing and accomodation. The second, a confession by a true gent, who had a go. Please laugh we all did All there, had to reveal, some personal misdemeanor during a quiz and confession night which followed the chinese evening meal. This was preceded by the salami taste off. Results, first place salami on a pink cocktail stick, second place green cocktail stick, you had to be there and good luck to the chef.
Further questions would you sleep in a cold fire-station, drink too much, eat too much, endure sleep deprivation, do a site visit to the Port Authority building and speak to the duty officers, make major decisions like which fry-up permutation to have at The Half Penny Cafe on the pier. The writer of this did, just a thought, why did the bloke with the beard not make that decision for me as he had organized everything else for everybody's enjoyable and safe gathering.
OK, technical bit, pay attention.
Sailing area - Harwich harbour, River Stour, River Orwell.
Launching beach over custom made rubber mats.
Weather- Saturday -rain and blowing, with strong gusts.
Sunday - dryer and less winds.
Tides - yes, there were one or two.
Observations - views dominated by the Port of Felixstowe, Old Harwich Town, old and traditional fishing, trading port- which had plenty of drinking holes, interesting buildings and two lighthouses.
Summary - weather permitting, a safe place to sail with lots of bolt holes.
Lots and lots of varied interesting views. Easy motorway access, reasonable prices at the pub and shops. Good and plentiful accomodation, easy parking.
Thanks to everybody there from everybody there for a great gathering. Did I mention the music and a pink huggy bear. Enough from me, just go and enjoy. Personal thank you to the Wayfarer fleet and skippers, another GREAT ADVENTURE.
Phil North
Harwich January 2011
The thought of a weekends sailing from Harwich Town Sailing Club in January did not as most people would think fill me with dread. Quite the opposite in fact. I see it more as a winter excursion, a time to get back into the swing of things following over indulgence over the Christmas period.
Friday was planned for a relaxing three hour drive from Notts County Sailing Club to Harwich. It ended up as a seven and three quarter hour epic due to the closure of the A14.
On Saturday the awful Friday night journey was put aside and we looked forward to a sail. It was quite misty and a little chilly but with plenty of layers of clothing we were warm enough. The plan was for me to be lead boat and Simon would be whipper in. Our destination was to be Stone Point at the entrance to the Walton Channel. Simon wanted to go via the Landguard north cardinal buoy which wasn’t visible through the mist. I thought I would use the GPS since I had furnished it with new batteries but it refused to work. Out with the old prismatic compass then and off we went. With the wind behind us it was deceptively warm but we knew that the return against the wind would be a lot colder. Once we got to Landguard buoy a 90 degree change of course took us to Pye End buoy and then we followed the Hamford Water buoys to stone point.
I opted to go just into the entrance of the Walton Channel where we could beach the boats on the sand and have a bit of a run about to get the circulation going. The wind had perked up a bit but we found a slightly sheltered spot behind some tufts of grass and had a bit of lunch. It was a bit too cold to hand around so soon enough we decided to set sail back to Harwich Town Sailing Club. Looking at the strength of the tide coming up the channel Sam and I opted to tow the boat to the end of Stone Point where we would be out of the worst of the current and set sail from there. This proved a good move and soon the fleet was sailing back. With the wind in our faces we began the long beat back. The sea was starting to build up as the wind strength increased so we put a reef in which made progress much easier and more comfortable.
Back outside the sailing club the waves breaking on the beach were not too bad. Care was still needed to avoid filling the boats up and with everyone ashore the task of recovering the boats began. The sand is very soft and your trolley wheels soon sink in making recovery by one crew impossible. We found that eight bodies to a boat got us all out of the water and back into the dinghy park.
Back at the 1912 Centre where we were staying a hot shower and many cups of tea and slices of cake were consumed and all was well with the world.
That evening Harwich Town sailing club put a meal on for all of us which was very welcome. The club members joined us and what with Steve Payne leading the entertainment with his singing and guitar playing a merry evening was had by all. On the down side we drank them dry of their bubbly and had to make do with other alcoholic beverages.
On Sunday the wind was a bit wild so a long trip was not planned. Instead we opted to sail up the River Orwell until noon and then sail back. It was a pleasant beat up river and then a run down. we even managed to get the spinnaker up for a while but decided to take it down as we approached the shipping
What a lovely time we all had. It is always a pleasure meeting up with Simon, Rachel and all the Notts County sailors and as for the journey back the dreaded seven and three quarter hour journey there was cut to just under three. John W1162
