Wells to Lowestoft

Juniper sailing round GB
Gordon and Catherine
Sun 15 May 2011 12:18

52:28.34N 01:45.09E Saturday, alarm clock set for 0315 but it’s still dark – have I misjudged sunrise?  No, by the time we cast off at high water, 0430, it’s just light enough to pick our way back out through the buoyed channel at Wells.  We still manage to take a wrong turn and the depth drops to zero below the keel but all is well.  The sea is lively and the wind is behind us at 20mph, current with us, so we  have a sprightly 7 knot sail with just the headsail all along the north Norfolk coast.  We’re quite close in and the scenery is beautiful, places like Cromer seem to nestle and look much prettier than my recollection from a previous visit by car.  We bring out the mainsail and goosewing for a couple of hours  before lunch (one sail each side of the boat so, if your sails are white, it looks like the wings of a goose).  I’m not happy to helm that point of sail so we decide to bring the sails down and motor for a while for lunch and a rest, but we’ve no sooner got the autopilot on then we’re hit by a squall seemingly out of the blue – chaos ensues, I fall onto the cockpit floor, all visibility vanishes in an instant, the autopilot can’t cope and sends the boat round in dizzy circles and we’re bombarded by stinging hail stones that go straight under the sprayhood and into the saloon downstairs.  It’s all over in 10 minutes but we’ve learned some valuable lessons; we had both seen the squall developing but totally misjudged when it would hit us and the effect it would have.  When we got to Lowestoft I heard someone say that the clubhouse wind equipment had recorded 40mph so it was extremely fortunate that we’d taken down the sails.  Other minor mishaps for the day included cross-threading the thermos flask so the full contents emptied themselves over the cabin mattress, and me clipping my lifeline to the cockpit floor and the other end to the jackstay, meaning that I found myself up at the mast not clipped on at all.  At least the lifeline was safe!

 

An uneventful afternoon with a good beam reach sail down past Great Yarmouth brought us to Lowestoft and the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club.  Founded in 1859 and with a grand grade 2 listed clubhouse it’s a nice place to stop and catch our breath.

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