After all the planning and preparation it was with some relief, and slight trepidation at the ambitious plan ahead, that I eventually set sail from Marchwood in the early evening sunshine on Tue 5 Jun, aiming to catch the first of the flood tide out of the eastern Solent and along the south coast.  A gentle ENE breeze made for a fast sail down Southampton Water, but a beat along the coast.  Unfortunately I was to face head winds, varying in strength, all the way to Lowestoft.  By midnight we were approaching the Owers light (off Selsey Bill) and the wind had picked up to the point that a couple of reefs were required and we held good wind, albeit in a foul tide throughout the early morning, as we tacked back and forth past the Rampion wind farm, south of Worthing.  As Wed passed we continued past Beachy Head, then inshore past the Royal Sovereign light platform and Hastings.  Solo sailing in coastal waters doesn’t allow much opportunity for rest and I’d now been sailing for 24 hours with almost no sleep.  I began to think about whether it was wise to continue into even busier waters at night without some rest, so I decided to anchor in Rye Bay, just short of Dungeness, to get some sleep and take a fair tide into Dover Straits.  I slept soundly, interrupted only by a massive thunderstorm with some alarming ground strikes, and returned to bed conscious of the fact that I was sleeping under the tallest lightening conductor for miles around. 

 

On Thu 7 Jun I was up at dawn and off around Dungeness, past Hythe, Folkestone and Dover in the fair tide, tacking in the channel between the shore and the Traffic Separation Scheme.  Then the wind dropped and the tide turned, so the engine went on and I motored up the east Kent coast, inside the Goodwin Sands and out across the Thames estuary.  In the early evening the wind picked up again allowing a lively sail, dodging more wind farms, shoals and traffic separation lanes: not much rest here!  Around midnight I was approaching Sunk Central (think of a maritime Piccadilly Circus handling huge ships heading in and out of Tilbury, Harwich and Felixstowe, all constrained by draught and all embarking and disembarking pilots, and you’ll get the idea).  Sunk VTS provides the marine equivalent of ‘air traffic control’ and was able to guide me through unscathed as 200,000 ton ships passed close in pitch darkness.  After that it was definitely time for some rest.  The wind was still from ahead, now northerly, so I took a long tack out to sea where I could cat-nap, before another tack back inshore and a lively final beat into Lowestoft, arriving there at 1215 on Fri.  I then had a wait for a couple of hours for the bridge to open allowing me through to Lowestoft Yacht Haven, slightly inland at Oulton Broad.  I was expecting Lowestoft to be a bustling oil port, but many of the wharves were empty and the place had a derelict feel to it, only relieved by many wind farm supply vessels, which accounted for the small armada of high speed craft I’d met on my way in.  Fortunately I found Oulton Broad was a little more picturesque when I had a chance to wander around the next morning

 

Saturday was a rest day.  I had a wander around Oulton Broad, which was rather more picturesque then Lowestoft, before a visit from my sister, Jane, and her husband, Steve, and we had a good catch up over lunch at a nearby hostelry. 

 

So far, so good.  The photos attached show us heading down Southampton Water in the evening sun; approaching Dungeness and its power station in the early morning; the Thanet wind farm in the Thames estuary; and Oulton Broad, close to Lowestoft Yacht Haven.