Woke nice and early to brilliant sunshine. We have been so lucky with the weather on this trip (if you forget the two hurricanes of course!)
We have all been away from home for nearly 12 weeks, have had a fabulous experience, but are all pretty exhausted now. You could feel the weary air between us, it was so contagious, even Chris felt it and became Mr Tetchy!
Hopwever, we all appreciated the value of continuing and making best of our time and started by getting the storm jib out and seeing how it would work should we ever be caught out in a Force 8!
Maybe this boat should be called "Round Bottom Experience" after all!
Another use for the storm jib, is to be able to raise a casualty from the water if they have fallen over the side – we practised rigging it, and I raised Chris off the pontoon with it – and didnt at any point think about sabotage!!
Methinks Chris is having rather too much fun!
We left the marina, beautifully guided out by Mike, and I brought us onto the fuel pontoon (and tried to ignore the depth gauge nearby which said we were in 2 meters of water!!)
We sailed once more down the Orwell.
If we thought we were tightly packed onto our boat – take a look at this one!
but they seemed to be having fun!
Here is the Butt and Oyster we walked to last night - far quicker sailing here!
and the woodlands to the back is where we walked to get there - great fun in pitch dark!
A tightly packed Thames Sailing Barge
We practised sailing up to buoys and lassoing them – here is Mike giving it a go. We spent most of the day practising Man Overboard. This time though it was 3 milk bottles tied together, it made it interesting to see with the sunlight hitting the water. We understood the process though.
I seem to have a fascination for these containers - perhaps because my life is currently being moved to Australia
We passed by Shotley Marina on the way to our overnight berth – and I looked longingly over and thought of the bath!
Here are the wind turbines ready to be loaded and taken out to one of the many new wind farms
We are now secure onto the pontoon on the town quay at Harwich. Another light ship here, like the one at Hull
There is a survey boat behind us on the quay, it is a tug which works with dredgers – it has its day sign up – this reminded me of Fred – remember me telling you about the ball, diamond, ball looking like a bra – and means the vessels are restricted in their ability to manoeuvre…….
We have seen many birds on this trip. This is a Turnstone. It helps to have an ornithologist on board. John likes looking out for birds whenever he can………
We used this beautiful building as our leading mark to head towards the town quay. Harwich is where Trinity House is based who were responsible for looking after the Nav aids, buoys, including the light ships located around the coast. As I drew closer, I became interested in the friezes set into the stone – and thought I could see all 4 of us on them – see what you think!
We think this one is our very own catalogue man - Mike!
The boys call me the queen on the boat - and I have curly hair - so I think this must be me!
This one looks uncannily like Chris......
I think Chris agrees!
and I think John should grow a beard and put on a serious look
Some local information
There are some gorgeous properties in Harwich, this one is fascinating, pity about the colour
We walked to the local shop, stocked up on the last few provisions we need for the remainder of our journey. The boys carried the goods and sped off, their noses smelt the beer!
Its lovely when people make an effort and out out hanging baskets - it has brought this street to life! Not sure the boys noticed it as they sped into the pub!
There have been many instances where the boys have headed off in the distance, oblivious to the fact I am hanging back taking photographs of our journey. In Newcastle they completely lost me. I just stopped walking and waited for them to back track – I didn’t think they wanted to completely lose me, but I wasn’t totally sure of that!
The local pub, full of character and charm
Yes – this is a pub!
We found a frame on the wall, and Chris thought it would be fun to put ourselves in it. Well folks, Chris told me to use an alluring expression, this is the best I could manage. Im truly exhausted at this point in the trip, hair desperately needs a cut, no make up – the set up every girl loves when she is having her photograph taken!!
It seemed to work much better for Chris, but I just think its my skill behind the camera!
Back on the boat and I made a Spanish omelette with pasta – and made a bit of a mess for the boys to clear away!
Tomorrow we are sailing to Queenborough, this should take about 10 hours, so arriving about tea time, then at 2am on Saturday morning we will make the final part of our trip to St Katharines Lock in London and complete our Round Britain Experience! Our trip is nearly over!
John and Mike will be going home, but I have decided to continue this experience and try to gain my yacht master qualification. It will be a useful piece of paper to have in my back pocket in Australia after all. Next week, I will be joining a guy called John, he completed the RBE April-June this year and the pair of us will be taking a boat out by ourselves, spending a week cruising before being ready to prepare for the examiner to come on board and see if we really are sailors! Im not sure I will have much time for blogging – but I will try to keep you up to date with my adventures!
Until then, I think it is time to get some sleep! Goodnight!
