23rd July - Brightlingsea 51:48.042N 001:00.703E
Whisper
Noel Dilly
Wed 24 Jul 2013 00:15
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"So Very Nearly There..... and then!"
We left Ramsgate at 8:30am in sunshine. We
had to motor sail as we were against the tide and the engine gave us a few
extra knots. We noticed that the sky behind us was turning a heavy grey
and felt glad that we had left before the rain as the sky to windward was
clear. The forecast was for occasional thunderstorms and as neither of us were
aware that thunderstorms can move upwind, we were sure that we would avoid the
lightening which we could now see over the Kent coast. How wrong we were,
before long we were in the thick of a storm, lightening flashing, followed
immediately by the loudest of thunder claps. Were the weather gods
welcoming us home we wondered? Once the storm had passed we had a good
sail in the right direction. Apart from a cluster of six ships which
showed up on the AIS, we crossed the shipping lanes in the mist with
little excitement. Interrogation of the AIS system showed the ships
to all be at anchor.
The wind eventually died and we had to resort to
motoring again. As there was plenty of water we happily passed
through the Fishermans Gat and more excitingly, we cut over the Sunk Sand
heading towards the Barrow Buoy No. 3 and through the Wallet Spitway.
The Knoll was insight, new wind farms were appearing on the landscape
at Clacton and towards Bradwell. The tide was against us and our progress
was painfully slow. Next came the Eagle, then the Colne Bar, we
really were very nearly home, the sea had noticeably taken on the East
Coast brown hue. As we motored up the Colne the water was so
calm that we dropped the main and even put the cover. By now
Batemans tower was clearly in sight, a fleet of dinghies were sailing about
enjoying the summer evening. We called up the Harbour Master
to inform him of our imminent arrival, no problem our berth was free.
The Spit Buoy was there to port as we turned to pick up the Leading Lights
Then it happened ....... we stopped! We were hard and fast on the
mud. Engine hard astern, no movement, we were firmly stuck.
Deploying the headsail, the light breeze pulled Whispers bow around
and we were free again. Headsail furled, we approached the creek for the
second time...... again we stopped! Try as we may, we could not get off
the mud! With an hour to go until Low Water we resigned ourselves to
'hanging about' for a bit. We did laugh, here we were, having sailed
around the Atlantic Circuit for thousands of miles, stuck on the mud
approximately 300 metres away from our berth!
We dropped the anchor and were just about to pour
ourselves a glass of wine, (we ran out of milk for tea a couple of hours
earlier), when a small craft approached. Who should it be, but Andy
accompanied by a lady and her dog. He had been watching out for us
from Point Clear and had come out to welcome us home. Being a Smack
skipper, he too was highly amused at our grounding!
So here we are, so near, yet so far!
This is Whisper's last blog. We have had
a great adventure with many wonderful memories to re-live as we
sit beside the fire over the coming winter and also many emails
to write, as we hopefully keep contact with the many friends we have
made along the way and hope we shall meet again in the future.
Thank you to everyone who has welcomed us home with
text messages, emails, telephone calls and visits. Thank you to our
families for their support, looking after our home and also
for their enthusiasm for our adventure. Thank you to all
our friends for their encouragement; weather forecasts; supplying spares;
repairing items; entertaining and feeding us; use of their
facilities; gifts of cakes, chutneys, home grown Bermudan onions and
strawberries etc. Thank you to those who have sailed with
us in spirit and kept a weather eye out for
us!
We should not forget Whisper, she is a
brilliant little ship and has carried us safely through some rough seas.
Perhaps she was only 'putting her foot down' at the entrance to the creek,
not wanting to end her voyage!
Most of all I would like to
thank 'the Skipper' for making our trip possible. His hand work
in preparing Whisper and his sailing skills has kept us safe at all times,
giving us a terrific year of fun and exploration. Thank you
Noel, for making our trip such a splendid and
exciting adventure!
As I post this final blog, we are off the mud
and Whisper is lying calmly alongside her berth in
Brightlingsea!
" THE END " |