The story so far

This post is being written whilst trapped by weather in Dover.

Day 1

First departed Hull Marina on the evening of Bank Holiday Monday 6 May. Glorious evening, good forecast and all seemed well in the world. Happy to be at sea again. Proceeded down the Humber to Spurn Point where we anchored ready for an early start the following morning.

Day 2

Up at 04:30 to make best of the tide going south, destination Lowestoft. But a routine radio check prior to departure revealed a fault with the VHF radio. Since the chandler in Hull had recently fitted our AIS System, involving the radio, we decided to return the 20 miles up river to see if he could sort it out. So back to the Visitor's berth in the Marina.

Day 3

No joy but narrowed down the fault to the actual radio set rather than the AIS and its 'splitter' so decided to proceed south relying on the hand-held VHF radio. Intend to get manufacturer to sort it out from their HQ in Portsmouth as we will be nearby. Exited Hull marina lock at 18:00 to sail overnight to Lowestoft where we have been before. We remembered seeing the tallest wind turbine on the East coast when we passed here last year. A wonderful sailing wind in just the right direction was with us all the way until a few miles north of our destination the next day.

Day 4

From about 15:00 on Thursday 9 May we struggled against strong current and increasingly strong adverse wind, eventually entering Lowestoft Haven Marina in the Hamilton Dock at about 17:00. That was when our troubles really began - strong force 7 onshore wind even inside the dock required the use of the thruster in order to manoeuvre Follyfin onto a pontoon berth. The thruster had other ideas and packed up after sustained heavy use! It was low tide and we risked running aground and possibly being blown onto the very unfriendly harbour wall. Just as we were contemplating our options - anchoring or going back out to sea, neither very attractive - the friendly voice of the skipper of a wind farm boat - the West Hinder - crackled over the radio and proposed a rescue plan involving his and another wind farm sea cat, both in harbour because it was too rough to be out at sea! They came to the rescue with their extremely powerful engines and amazing manoeuvrability. Much to our relief and after complicated manoeuvrings we were safely berthed. Needless to say, we slept a deep sleep for a long time that night.

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