20th May 2017
We had originally planned to make our trip to Lowestoft on Friday, but the weather forecast promised strong winds, heavy rain and possibly thunderstorms, so not surprisingly we deferred our trip to Saturday when the weather forecast was much more promising. We arrived at Ipswich late afternoon on Friday and after stowing everything away, we took a walk into the town and enjoyed a light, tasty supper at one of the town’s many pub restaurants. Chris then completed his passage planning and Carole got the boat ready for an early departure on Saturday. We then headed to our beds at 10 pm with our alarms set for 4.15 am.
Neither of us slept well and we were both awake before the alarms. Following a cat’s lick and a promise, a cuppa and ginger nut, we dressed ourselves and readied ourselves for leaving. We slipped our lines from our berth just before 5 am and after a relatively quick visit to the Lock, began to make our way out of the Orwell under engine. Carole put our fenders and spare lines away and then went below to finish tidying things away ready for sailing. Sandwiches were also made and buns buttered for later to save spending too much time below should the going get bumpy.
It was still quite cool but the sun was trying to make its presence known. As we approached the cranes at Felixstowe, the wind speed was just going into double figures. We had done a bit of motor sailing with the mainsail, but with the wind now coming behind us, we brought it in and let the front genoa sail out, which we have found more effective than having both sails out when the wind is right behind us. As soon as the wind picked up, we cut the engine and enjoyed the usual peace and pleasure that comes under sail. As we sailed along there was just one other sailing boat out there, which is not unusual here on the East Coast. We had radio two on in the background with Tony Blackburn playing sounds of the sixties, which brought back lots of long forgotten memories! We also had our VHF radio on, as we should when out on the water, and we heard a call concerning a dead whale that had been spotted off of Felixstowe. Not long after, a further call reported another dead whale in the river Ore. we later discovered that three dead whales (a mother and two calves) had washed up on the Suffolk coast. We both felt quite sad for their loss and wondered what had happened to them.
The wind continued to pick up and we were making good time up the coast, past the Orford lighthouse and the white dome of the Sizewell nuclear power station. We decided to put a reef into the genoa as the wind was now gusting to over 28 knots. Putting a reef in doesn’t necessarily reduce the boat speed much, it just makes it a more comfortable sail, as we are cruisers not racers. Before long, we had passed Southwold and were in the area well buoyed for the approach to Lowestoft. We ticked off the named buoys: E. Barnard, Newcome Sand, S. Holm and Stanford, before radioing into Lowestoft for permission to enter the harbour. We started up the engine and took in the genoa before making our gradual turn towards the entrance. The sea was now very bumpy and we were fighting the tide which was now against us, but within a few minutes, we were in the harbour, with Carole on deck frantically putting out all the fenders, ready to go on to the waiting pontoon in the Trawl Dock. Luckily, there was another yacht there and two very kind gentlemen took our lines and made our arrival a bit easier. We thanked them well, then secured spring lines to keep us stable while we waited for the next bridge lift at 2 pm. The time was 12:55; it had taken us 8 hours to get here.
We made good use of our waiting time by having quick showers on the boat, as once we were settled in the marina, we would be heading off for a family get-together in Lowestoft. (Our niece, Abbie, was 18 this week and we were up here for her birthday bash.)
Quite quickly it seemed we were radioed to slip our lines and make our way to the bridge approach, ready for its lifting. The channel here is quite narrow and Chris kept back so as not to hassle the other yacht going through. However, the wind was quite strong and care had to be taken not to be blown onto the wall. The bridge lifted and it seemed to take forever for the boats on the other side to come out, but as soon as they did we headed in, making our way to the marina, ensuring we did not exceed the 4 knots speed limit. We found our allocated berth A 12 next to the fuel berth and after turning round, we moored up without any hassle. We quickly sorted out our lines and fenders to ensure we were all safe and secure before getting ourselves re-dressed ready for our “party”. We booked our taxi, locked up the boat and made our way to the marina office to check out the facilities which were good, as expected.
