Passage 07, Whitby to Hartlepool
I took one last walk in Whitby on Monday morning out to the end of the west pier before catching the last bridge opening at 1:30 to head on up to Hartlepool. I had spent the first part of the morning doing a few odd jobs, a bit of shopping and refilling my two spare fuel cans - both of which were now empty!
I had to motorsail for a while as there was not much wind, but it strengthened soon enough and after 8 miles I was blessed with a strong following wind. I was going North-West and the wind was coming from South-East. Unheard of! It was sunny and the Yorkshire limestone cliffs looked spectacular. I made the most of it. Only downside is that it was freezing cold. But then it's been freezing cold for the whole of my venture so far. It's winter sailing!
I knew these Southerlies wouldn't last and I could see the tell tale cloud formation of a change in direction. The wind died, then it couldn't make up it's mind where it was coming from for a few minutes and then ... bam, I've got Westerlies. Which meant that the wind was on my quarter against me and I had a very different kind of sail for the rest of the trip. Apart from that, an uneventful passage and I was in the Hartlepool lock by 6:45 and on my berth at 7:00. My new friends Ben and Jenny had arrived earlier from Whitby as well.
It would have been nice to see Hartlepool but I never got the time as the evenings are busy tidying up, social media-ing and planning the next trip. I'm generally all sorted by 11pm and I go to sleep pretty quick. Every day is a big one. I planned to leave for Amble the next morning by 8am.
By now, for this stage of the venture, I'm resigned to it being wintery conditions. Brrrr.
Summary
Bitterly cold, changing wind patterns, but a none-the-less good sailing passage. 5.5 Hours at sea mostly sailing.