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First off, a great fund raising day. Shotley marina agreed to donate their berthing fee and a lovely bloke called Bryan who was clearly a very experienced sailor promised he's in for £50. I have A3 placards hanging from my guard rails when in port advertising my venture. Had a nice chat with Bryan.
I locked out at 11:15am and was on my way. I was expecting another heavy going passage (as the predicted winds were still against me). I also thought it was going to take me 2 tides - i.e. one with me and one against so was predicting another night arrival around midnight.
It turned out that the winds were at a slightly better angle than directly ahead (changing from N to E), but they were light. So light that I ended up motoring for pretty much all the way. But with the sails up as well, I made storming progress. At one point I was doing a consistent 9 knots.
Upshot is I made the whole trip on one tide and never had any tide against me. So instead of arriving at midnight I arrived at 6:15pm! What joy. The passage was uneventful and comfortable with a gentle swell in the sea - such a difference from yesterday. The sun didn't shine much, but I was happy.
I plan to leave Lowestoft at 5pm, so the next day was bright and sunny - a perfect opportunity for a bike ride. So I rode to Great Yarmouth, about 15 miles up the coast. Since I was not going to be visiting Great Yarmouth from the sea I thought I'd visit from the land. Had I nice ride along the coast rode (Avoiding the A12) and got shown round a nice village church.
Despite the fact that I make Richard Dawkins look like a religious apologist, I love churches and looking around them. The warden was in residence at this one and was keen to give me a personal tour. Lovely.
I'm in the Royal Norfolk & Suffolk Yacht Club and it is very posh with placards of Queens and Princesses dotted around the place. Loads of fancy trophies, and eating areas and socialising areas. No one there, mind.
Summary
Light winds and a cloudy day meant motoring for most of the 46 miles taking 7 hours. A pleasant trip followed by a 28 mile bike ride. Just the ticket.
Lessons learned
Remember to take off ALL the ropes when you motor off a berth, ahem
Know how to use your instruments - my chart plotter had decided that a man was over board and kept on bleeping (yes I did hear it) and telling me to go get him. I could not for the life of me work out how to turn this off and had to call "shore support" (Richard") to look it up on the web! Half an hour later I managed to tell the plotter that he'd drowned and we could continue.
When doing locks, loop the rope around the cleat on the lock rather than tie it - I hardly every do locks and this simple trick that any lock frequenter knows was lost on me (I think I got some funny looks)
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