I sailed up the river Orwell today, which was interesting. I intended to test the tiller pilot a bit more, but had little chance. The wind was coming right down the river, in the direction I wanted to go, so I had to tack my way up it. The problem was the wind kept veering and backing over around 30 degrees, so sailing close hauled was a chore. Constant adjustments were required, so the tiller pilot couldn’t do it. The only alternative was to head at almost 90 degrees across the river so I was well off the wind on a broad reach, but this would have taken an age to get where I wanted to go.
In light of that I ended up pulling on the started chord and motor sailing upstream. I felt like I had cheated a bit, but c’est la vie.
Once firmly tied to the buoy in the middle of the river, I inflated condom and kayaked to the marina pontoons are Wolverstone. There was some party going on with carbon fibre delta lloyd racing yachts, so I tied up and took a walk back down the river path to Pin Mill. It was the most beautiful walk I’ve had in a long time. I felt like I was in the shire, only without hobbits.
I had a pint in the remarkably picturesque pub on the river front, surrounded by wonderful classic wooden boats, then walked back.
What a pleasant evening, although I’m feeling a bit lonely for some reason. I’ve been chatting to various people, but I crave a proper conversation. I think I’m going to be in luck for that tomorrow, when I meet up with the people I’m going to Ostende with. Not a moment too soon I feel.
At least there’s a good internet connection here.
Kudu out.
Oh, just as was about to save this, a HUGE ship just passed me on the way to Ipswitch. The buoy I’m on is a few meters away from a port side channel marker, so it passed within a few tens of meters. It’s quite strange to have a few thousands of tons of steel hum it’s way past.
my buoy is on the Starboard side of the bouy.
There are two white one’s, and a faded pink oval shaped one just upstream, which I’m on. Is it one of the white one’s near the red marker buoy that is yours? There’s no tag on it that I can see.
SH Green Marker Buoy – forgotten Number but has Downham written on it. Defo has a tag on it. My buoy is on the North Bank of the River; first in a series of trots after that SHB.
Doh! I’m at the wrong buoy. Just spotted downham from the binocs.
Right, well I’d better get the boat ready for moving.
P.S. Those big ships are worrying :p
Thanks again Tudor, all the best.
We saw you parked up this morning, looking very snug. Don’t know what was going on at the Royal Harwich but some pretty fancy boats about. Good luck with the rest of the trip.
Don’t worry about the ships, there is under 4ft of water on my mooring at LWS and not much over ten at HW. No ship will ever get near you even if they do go out of control!