Have been in the Walton Backwaters with the YBW.com East Coast Forum for a Pirate weekend.

Had a great time.

Put Siernia on the beach but had som trouble when getting of the beach.

The rope on the prop was a bit embarrassing
It was due to muddled thinking by me or no thinking at all.
I wanted to get the main anchor out 1st as it was set along the beach.
and then to haul her out on the kedge that was made fast on the port quarter.
For some reason I started the engine before we had the main anchor broken out.
We where struggling with this as the lever for the anchor winch had vanished.
The line on the kedge had not be let out enough to get us over the main and for some reason I dumped the remaining length of kedge line over the side instead of paying is out.
The engine got accidentally kicked into gear and then stopped.

We had the stay by the beach on 2 anchors for the night.
We touched bottom about 5 a.m.
8.30 saw me kneeling in 6" of sticky mud excavating the prop and unwinding the rope. (Thankfully I had put my chest waders in the boat instead of back in the car boot as I normally do after launching the dinghy)
It had got jambed between the prop and the cutlass bearing.

Back afloat mid day followed by a rolly surfy trip back to the Deben.
We got the the Deben bar before the tide turned.
With that wind blowing I would not have fanced the bar with a Deben spring ebb running.

Despite all that my crew of newcomers to sailing had a wonderful time and can't wait to do it again

Now home safe and dry.
Will have to clean Sirenia is still covered in mud. Hopefully it wel get washed off by our wonderful summer weather. If not I will have to do it when I can get down again.

Well the weather was looking better and I did not want to delay launching any longer.

I took Friday afternoon off and we slowly towed Sirenia along the A14.

We went to Suffolk Yacht Harbour and launched on their steep slipway.

Following a car trip to Ramsholt to drop off the dinghy we set to sorting out the rigging etc.

We tryed out the new plotter to check that it was getting AIS Data.

No luck.

After some serching we found that there was a loose wire.

As soon as that was sorted it was all action.

We could see ships as far out as the Cork.

Havibg sorted that we had a meal and snuggled up in our sleeping bags for a very cool night.

Saturday

We left SYH about 08:00 and had a great sail out of the harbour and down the Wallet to Brightlingsea.

It was a beam reach with the tide under us and the wind of the land.

We stayed within 300 ydrs of the beach most of the way and when straight over the Coln Bar in 4m of water.

In Brighlingsea we meet up with some other members of the YBW Forum for a meal at the local curry house. (The Kovalam)

A very enjoyable meal with good company.

And a very reasonable bill at the end.

Up early Sunday Morning. Quick breakfast and get ready to go.

Depth instrument shows 0.6m water depth.

That is odd.

The keel is right down.

Must be in soft mud.

Try rocking her.

No movement.

O well, just jack the keel up an bit.

40 pumps later there is some movement.

Better pull the rudder up a bit as well.

Of we go down to the River Coln.

We run out of water (0.3m) just before we reach the river proper.

Back off and try a different angle of attack.

Same problem.

My crew then point out that we should be leaving the green painted beacon to port.

This tactic work very well.

We had a good wind from astern to push us over the early flood out of the river.

No short cuts over the Coln Bar this morning.

Just hauled round to head up the Wallet and the wind eases down and it starts to snow.

The brave crew on watch (That is snow on the side of J's head).

The Skipper took the Photo from the relative shelter of the cabin.

The speed dropped away and the snow got harder.

The shore line vanished in the snow.

That is it. Engine on and motor sail.

Can't spend all day out in this.

J started to go a bit quite once we were off Walton so I took over and sent him below to make himself a hot drink and try to warm up.

Made good time to the Deben Bar and rode the last of the flood up river to Ramsholt.

Went along side the quay to pick up the dinghy ans as there was plenty of water stayed there to cook and eat FB pies and potatoes and off load our gear.

J and I took Sireina out to our mooring and, as more snow was threatening, quickly got sail covers on as secured her.

Back to SYH to collect the RR and trailer and off home through another big snow shower.

When we told out tail at home they said "What Snow"

Been nice and sunny in Cambridge all day.

61.5 miles over the weekend

Well the weather forecast was correct and the weather is rubbish again.

I decided to keep Sirenia at home for 1 more weekend.

I have splashed out on a Navman 5507 plotter, A C-Map Mega-wide chart and a NASA AIS engine.

I have spent today fitting and wiring all the bits.

I have Navman instruments and have managed to get the plotter to take their info over a data bus.

I can't check out the AIS at the moment as there don't seem to be any ships transmitting AIS data in the Cambridge area!

The old Lowrance plotter with its Chart chip are on e-bay.

Hope to get back on the water next weekend if the weather will be a bit more cooperative.

Well the weather beat us.

The forecast for the Easter weekend was not nice.

We decided to abandon the planed delivery trip.

As I had paid for a 7 day river licence I was determined to make some use of it.

Friday we headed up the river Cam as far up into Cambridge as we could get.

That is Jesus Green Lock.

We mixed it with some rowing 8's much to my rowing Son's embarrassment.

Then it was back down river through Bait's Bite Lock and Bottersham Lock and onto the Great Ouse to Ely.

My old sailing club at Ely has access to the river and I have always wanted to take Sirenia to the club.

Not one to turn down an opportunity we gave it a try.

The access is through a narrow cut round by the old river authority yard and under a bridge carrying the Ely - Kings Lynn railway.

The opening through the bridge is only about 10', Sirenia has a 9' beam.

We made it and motored over the the sailing club landing stage.

There were no club members there unfortunately.

There were a couple of fishermen in the landing stage.

They muttered about not being allowed engines on the lake.

We took a photo to prove that we had been there and set of back to the river.

Back into Ely and just got moored up before the heavens opened.

We spent the afternoon reading and surfing the net.

Evening meal at the Cutter Inn.

Friends from the YBW forum dropped in for a chat.

Back on board for a cold night!

We were joined on Saturday by another YBW forum member for the trip back to The new sailing club.

We where very glad that we were going in the same direction as the wind when the snow and sleet showers descended on us.

Back at the club we got Sirenia onto her trailer.

The slipway is at 90 degrees to the entrance road and to get pointing at the gate I pulled to the grass opposite and then tried to reverse back onto the road.

This was a mistake the grass was very slippery and I ended up with the trailer wheels well dug in and the Range Rover gust spinning it's wheels.

After a lot of attempts at digging around the trailer wheels and using some tracking the club had we finally got things moving again with the help of another club member with his Discovery.

Finally got Sirenia back home and parked up.

The forecast for today was Snow so we abandoned plans to tow to the coast and stayed home.

The forecast was correct as we had at least 2" of settled snow by mid morning.

Hoping to take Sirenia to the coast next weekend.

Well, Sirenia is afloat again.

My son and I have been working hard the last few days to get her raedy.

All the important bits are done.

Launched today at my new sailing club.

Access onto the site was a bit tight.

The slipway worked well.

It is very good to have her afloat again.

Had a short trip up the river and then got down to changing the engine oil and filter.

The weather is not looking good for the delivery trip next week.

Looks like I might have to trail over to the Deben.

This evening I have just managed to get the Engine running from the new fuel tank.

This is a much larger capacity tank about 13 gallons against 5.5 for the old tank.

Now just got to:-

Change the VHF cable in the mast

Change the cable feeding the steaming light on the mast.

(Both the above damaged due to some twit tying the roller reefing gear down on top of them when lashing the mast down before the tow home last autumn)

Install gas vent pipe from cockpit floor to skin fitting.

Antifoul the rudder.

Repair the old tiller (I have run out of time to finish the new one)

Clean out all the rubbish and dirt I have made during the winter.

Load up all the kit that has been taken off.

Can't wait to get her afloat again on Sunday.

Following the A14 fun.

I had not done a lot to Sirenia what with domestic duties, Christmas and lots of other excuses.

I did take out the Starboard side cabin Windows and rip out the starboard half of the main cabin lining.

Following that I have been laid up recovering from a planed hernia operation.

I have been offered the use of the mooring at Ramsholt again this year.

I do not fancy towing Sirenia Back to Woodbridge.

I have been making other plans.

The local sailing club on the River Cam has a slipway that looks like it will take us.

The clubs Cruising Secretary said it would be o.k.

I have resigned from my old club in Ely and applied to join this club.

So the plan is to launch onto the Cam and travel down river through Ely and Denver Sluice to Kings Lynn.

Put the mast up in Kings Lynn and then head out of the Wash.

Turn Right and then (24hrs later) right again into the Deben.

This needs to happen at Easter to allow us up to 4 days to do it.

Got to get Sirenia ready for sea.

I have been gathering materials to make new windows and lining.

This is the 1st weekend that I have been fit enough the get on with the work.

My son has be able to help.

We have made new windows and the lining that goes on the inside of the cabin around the windows.

This afternoon we have finally bedded the windows in and through bolted then to the lining with interscrews and pan head bolts.

The Lining material we are using is a 2.5mm plastic that is normally used to line Commercial kitchens and Laboratories.

The old lining was foam backed vinyl on plywood.

Some of the ply around the windows had rotted away completely and the vinyl above it kept hanging down.

The new work looks a lot better but I am not sure about the bedding compound I have used for the windows.

I think it will be o.k. but we will have to wait and see.

Very little chance of geting down to Sirenia for the last few weeks.

Time to bring her back home.

Saturday
Took the trailer to Robertson at Woodbridge and then went on down to Ramsholt.

Had a nice sail up river.
Had lunch and then got Sirenia onto the trailer.
Mast down and all strapped down.

Had a bit of a fun getting out of the boat yard with vehicles parked in difficult places.
Then away to the A14 and head for home.

Need to keep the speed under 50 when down hill or she starts snaking.

Just getting to the East Bury St Edmunds junction.
Down hill, right hand curve, lorry ruts in the inside lane.
Chatting away and the speed is 55ish.
Lorry ruts upset things and a big snaking session starts.
Towards the end of it I am looking out of my side window at Sirenia sliding sideways down the outside lane with smoke and sparks from both offside trailer wheels.
Here we go thinks I.
But luckily we slow to a halt in that configuration.
Wait for the bang as someone runs into us but it does not come.

Engine still running so I pull the rig straight.
Get out to have a look.
Some chap pulls alongside and asks if we are o.k.
Yes I think so.
We are just short of the on slip so I drag the rig over to the edge of that.

Police turn up after a few minutes.
Couldn't be more helpful.
We took a wheel of the near side and put it on the off side.
One tyre seemed a bit to flat.
One of the Coppers took it to a nearby garage at put some more air in it.
Once that was sorted the police suggested that we tow the boat to the next junction and then head for a Tesco car park off the roundabout.
This was achieved at 5 mph with a police car front and back on Blues.

The traffic Sargent driving the car at the back showed us back into a redundant bit of roadway and then came for a chat.
We agreed that we would need to fit new wheels before we went back on the road.
He left happy and wished us good luck in finding new wheels.

I was not at all happy to leave Sirenia there but had no option.
Came home. Had a stiff drink and went to bed.

Back to Bury on Sunday to have a look at her in daylight.
She was sitting at a funny angle on the trailer but no damage we could see on the hull.
The rudder frame was a bit bent and the rudder end of the tiller was smashed.
Could not see any impact marks on the rudder frame until I looked underneath it.
I recon that it had been sliding along the top of the central reservation crash barrier.

Went to see the manager of the Tesco store and told him that we could not move her until we had new wheels which would not be before Monday.
He said that was fine.
We unloaded all the most valuable gear into the Rang Rover and went home.

Went back to her this morning to find her still o.k.
Went to Anglia Trailer Center who could not have been more helpful.
Ended up with a new set of wheels and a much lighter wallet.

Wheels fitted and then a slow drive back home.

Sirenia is now tucked up safe and sound at home.

The friend from work who kindly let me moor Sirenia at his riverside bungalow last year and his son came out for the weekend.

They arrived after dark on Friday.

Up and about quite early Saturday morning Coffee and bacon rolls for breakfast.

Off the mooring at 9ish.

We couldn't get over the Bar until about 10:30 so we went for a sail up river to above Waldringfield on the flood and then turned back and slowly headed down river punching the tide.

Once out we headed down the coast and into The Walton Backwaters.

This was a big spring tide day and the wind had a lot of north in it.

We decided to see how far we could get going round Horsey Island.

We got all the way.

We crossed the Wade with a foot of water under the keel and only started the engine to get up the Walton Channel as we did not fancy tacking through the moorings.

By 14:30 we had the anchor down by Stone Point for lunch of Hot rolls, ham cheese etc.

We then headed of for Felixstowe to look at the ships and then carried on up the Orwell.

A phone call secured us a berth in the Ipswich Wet Dock.

As we headed up river I put a sausage casserole in the oven.

We got into the lock at dusk and went on to find our allocated slot with the illumination of the street lighting around the dock.

We sat down to the casserole and some tined spuds and then went to explore the area.

In the morning, after breakfast, we explored further and found Spirit Yachts base with the 100 footer moored up outside.

She had been at the Southampton show last week.

What a boat!

She does not look big until you start looking at the normal fittings and realise how small they look.

We headed of to the lock and where back on the Orwell by 10:00

Not enough wind to sail so it was a gentle motor down stream.

Below Suffolk Yacht harbour we found a small racing fleet of yachts all with spinnakers up but no wind at all.

Once we where out of the harbour the was a bit of a breeze and we sailed back to the Deben and with a lot of help from the incoming tide some of the way back up river.

Back on the mooring by 14:45.

Mileage for the weekend 58.2

Mileage for the year 791

The members of the East Coast Forum on YBW.com had agreed to meet at The Rocks, upstream from Ramsholt on Saturday afternoon.

I went back down on Friday.

When we had beached Sirenia in Burnham I had managed to get some anti fouling on the areas of her starboard side that we can not get at when she is on her trailer but the port side would not dry out.

With low water at about 15:00 I took her up to the rocks and by anchoring close to the beach and then taking the kedge anchor ashore I hauled her onto the beach bow first and sat back to wait for the tide to go out.

Dried out nicely.

Managed to anti foul most of the areas that I could not do before.

There is an area in the center of the hull that I can't get to.

I will have to think about haling her over on her beam ends to get at it.

Back afloat by 18:00 and onto the mooring.

Up early Saturday morning and off into wood bridge by car to get stuff for the BBQ.

Back on board by 10:00 and off down river to meet one of the forumites who was a bit concerned about crossing the Deben Bar for the first time.

She followed me into the river and up to the mooring and rafted up on Sirenia.

She and her crew them cooked a late breakfast for us all.

Other boats came by on their way to The Rocks so we headed of upstream.

An afternoons fossil hunting for shark teeth on the beach. (no luck)

A nice BBQ that evening followed by a quite night at anchor.

The next morning it had been agreed that we should all sail up and down a bit and photograph each others boats.

This was done and the visiting boats headed for the bar.

I went along and then turned back and headed for the mooring.

Big clear up and off home and back to work.

About 20 miles

Total  for the Year to date 732.8

No crew left.

Single handed back to Ramsholt.

I left the R&C Pontoon at 05:20 at the top of the tide.

Very little wind so away under engine.

Main sail up on the way down river with the wind picking up a bit.

Kept the engine on as I wanted to be sure of getting over the Spitway.

I had 2m of water at the shallowest point.

Met a Thames Barge heading the other way.

Once over the Spitway I turned the engine off and had a beam reach back up the Wallet.

I was joined be a racing pigeon for half an hour.

He had a drink of water and some bread crumbs.

I was making excellent progress.

By 09:00 I was off Walton Pier.

There would not be enough water to get over the Deben bar until about 12:30 so with the wind NW4 I decided to have potter around in the Walton Backwaters.

I went right up to the top of Hamilton Water and then motored up the Walton Channel to Twizzle Creek.

Back out and a leisurely sail back to Ramsholt by 14:15.

I had a good clear up and then packed up and came home.

The plan being to earn some brownie points by getting some jobs done around the house for the next few days.

Miles today 57.1

Total so far this year 712.8

Saturday

Very light winds.

Neil and his son from the sailing forum joined us for the day.

Poor start and could not overcome the tide in to the Roach.

Decided that the fouling on Sirenia's bottom was not helping so we retired and headed for a beach to dry out and scrub some weed off.

We got and amazing amount off.

Evening BBQ with members of the sailing forum.

Spent the night moored on R&C pontoon.

Sunday

Light winds again.

Invite to sail on Jim's boat for the day.

Good fun and we just managed to finish.

Monday

Raced Sirenia with Lucy and Jim's wife Lynn as crew.

We finished!

Tuesday

My son's friend Russ joined us.

Very light wind again.

We managed to sail most of the course but could not get to the finish line that was up in Burnham town as the tide had turned and it was in the wind shadow of the town.

Very frustrating.

My farther joined us in the evening to come racing the next day.

As we sat on the veranda of the Royal Corinthian I had a phone call from my eldest daughter, Jessica, to tell me that she was expecting a baby.

Wednesday

The Burnham week always sail an up river race on the Wednesday.

There was a very light wind from behind the town and we all had difficulty in getting going.

We ended up kedging to stop ourselves drifting back to the start.

Ended up retiring as it was a waste of time.

Not at all impressed with the organisation of the event.

No thought given to the prevailing wind when setting courses.

Dad, Lucy and Russ then had to head for home.

I spent the rest of the week crewing on Jim's boat and just used Sirenia for accommodation.

I don't think that I will bother with Burnham week again.

Mileage about  - 20

Total for the year 655.7

Lucy arrived at our house to follow me to Burnham in her car.

The plan was to leave it there and go to Ramsholt in my car toe collect Sirenia.

All was going well until we got onto the twisty roads in the depths of Essex.

I was quite happy tooling along at a comfortable speed and had not thought of the handling of Lucy's little car.

She was working hard to keep up and then managed to spin off the road on a left hand bend.

No real damage done.

A bit of a bent wing and a tyre full of grass.

WE changed her tyre and made sure that nothing was rubbing and carried on to Burnham.

The rest of the day went as planed and we ended up on board with shopping for the weekend.

All ready for an early start in the morning.

Underway by 06:10

Headed south and down the Wallet, over the spitway into the Crouch.

Arrived at Burnham about 14:00.

Allocated a buoy for the week.

Mileage today - 35

Total this year - 635.7

2 weeks holiday

The plan was to spend the 1st week at the Burnham Week and the 2nd cruising.

My Cousin's daughter, Lucy, was to come with me for the 2 weeks and others join us along the way.

Lucy's mum decided that she needed Lucy home for the second week to pack for her 1st year at uni.

Never mind lets go to Burnham for some racing.

I had another Car Club friend, Bob, and his son down fore the weekend.

We had an interesting sail round to Felixstowe.

We were hard on the wind with the tide under us.

There where some quite large seas and we had a bit of a bashing.

As we approached the harbour and where planing to cross the main slipping channel there was a large container ship coming in so I decided to creep round inside the channel on the Felixstowe side.

this area was very choppy

Had to start the engine to get through the chop.

Just got clear and the engine stopped.

I did not want to start again.

I was sure that there was at least half a tank of fuel.

We had no option but to sail the best we could up the Orwell.

We picked up a buoy of Suffolk Yacht Harbour.

Bob likes nothing better than problem solving so we both started checking over the fuel supply and quickly found that the filter on the engine was blocked.

I had a spare on board so we soon got it sorted.

We where all feeling a bit battered after that so we decided to spend the night in Shotley Marina.

Bob was planing to find another way back to the Deben if the wind had not dropped by morning he had really not enjoyed the trip down the coast.

It was a bit calmer in the morning and following a light breakfast and topping up the fuel tank we locked out at 11:15 and went to see what it was like.

There were still some fair size waves but it was a lot less intimidating.

We were back on the mooring by 12:45 for a late lunch and then of home.

Mileage for the trip - 36.5

Mileage so far this year - 600.7

Two car club friends down for the weekend.

Simon came down with me Friday afternoon.

We had a choppy trip out over the bar and then sailed round to Suffolk Yacht Harbour for the night.

Chris joined us the next morning and we headed up north.

Punching the incoming tide to the Ore Bar.

Then let the tide take us gently up the river to Aldeburgh.

We picked up and empty mooring and set about inflating the dinghy.

The tide was flowing very strongly and 3 up in the dinghy may have been to many so I took Simon ashore first and then Chris and I went to the Yacht Club pontoon on the river side of the sea wall.

We left the dinghy there and after sigming in at the club headed in to town.

It is quite amazing to come up onto the top of the sea wall having travelled 10 miles up river to find the sea just 100 yards away.

We had a nice walk through the town to a Adams Ale pub.

This was followed by a sit down fish & Chip tea in one of the two Chip foundry's in the town.

The queues for take-away food where very long at both establishments.

We then retired to Sirenia and addressed the liquid level in some glass bottles.

The following morning we took the last of the ebb down river to drop anchor behind Havergate island to wait for the tide to rise enough to see us safe over the bar.

Bacon and egg rolls were made and consumed during the wait.

Once the tide was rising we headed of to the bar and had to punch about 5 knots of tide to get out of the river.

We then had the tide with us all the way back to the Deben and up to Ramsholt.

A nice relaxing weekend

Miles for the trip 59.4

Total for the year so far 564.2

My son and his freind have borrowed Sirenia for a 2 days.

That have been round into the Walton Backwaters.

Mileage - 26.7

Total for the year 504.8

I was having some old friends down for the weekend but they had to pull out due to a health scare with his daughters baby in South Wales.

Popped down for the day my self and had a pleasant sail round to Shotly and back.

Miles for the trip 22.5

Miles for the year 478.1

I have had a wonderful weekend in the Walton Backwaters.

It did not start out very well though.

No crew wanted to play this week-end.

The son had been coming but pulled out at the last minute.

To late to sort anyone else.

Got on board mid-afternoon and got sorted.

Decided to motor up-river to put a charge in the batteries.

Got up to the moorings below Waldringfield and turned back.

Just then there was a strange noise from the engine and the engine alarm went off.

Shut it down and dived below to look.

Fan belt had shredded it self.

There was a light breeze blowing up river and the tide was just beginning to flood.

Using the genoa I managed to pick up an empty mooring at the second attempt.

I thought I had a spare fan belt in stock.

I was wrong!

I also thought that I had an emergency fan belt.

I then remembered that we had used it and broken it at the end of last season on the Range Rover on our way back from the Norfolk Broads.

I had left the dinghy and outboard on our mooring.

Nothing for it but to sail back to the mooring.

Slow going.

Tide getting stronger against me and a light wind.

It was tacking all the way which can be quite wareing when single handed.

Getting past The Rocks was hard work as there was quite a wind shadow.

It took 2 hours to get to the mooring that was just 2 miles down river.

Having got back to the mooring I shot of into Ipswich hoping that Halfords or somewhere would be open late.

No luck.

Up early and back to Ipswich and visited a car dealership who could not help but told me of  a parts factor who would be able to.

Back on board by 10:00 fan belt fixed and off the mooring at 10:45, only about an hour later than me original plan.

Nice broad reach down the coast to the Pye End buoy ans then close hauled up the Walton Channel.

I found the good ship Morgana at anchor off Stone point and went along side to exchange pleasantries and receive a very welcome drink.

I also off loaded 2 large bags of firewood I had brought along as my contribution the the evening beach fire.

I then went on up stream and picked up an vacant mooring.

The afternoon and evening was spent on the beach with a great group of folk from the YBW.com forums.

Every one had some sort of Pirate dress.

Back on broad late evening for a quite night with the prospect of a dinghy trip round Horsey Island in the morning

The morning dawned some what damp.

Headed back down to the anchorage with the intent of going along side Morgana again.

Two other forum members had beaten me to it.

I was then invited to go along side Ty Dewi .

A large motorsailer.

Her crew where in the last stages of preparing to cross the Atlantic and spend the winter in the Caribbean followed by a trip though the Panama canal and up the west coast of the USA to a new home in Canada.

I was given a lovely Breakfast.

There was then a group discussion to abandon the dinghy trip due to the damp and head for home.

Left at about 11:30.

Back on the mooring at 14:15

Mileage for the trip 32.4

Mileage for thr season 455.6

I am the Chairman of Cambridge Car Club.(CCC)

One of our fellow Car Clubs runs a Stages Rally in the Bradwell area.

The Essex Charity Stages.

The event finishes at Bradwell Marina.

CCC Have for many years helped marshal the event.

I decided that it would be good to travel to a motorsport event by boat.

So the plan was to sail to Bradwell from The Deben on Saturday, Officiate on the event Sunday asn sail back on Monday.

I mentioned this plan on the YBW.com forum and some others decided to come along.

We left the Deben on the evening tide on Friday evening due to wanting to make the most of the rising tide on Saturday and spent another rolly night at Halfpenny pier, Harwich.

Away at 8:00 on Saturday with a stiff beat all the way to the Blackwater.

As we left Hawich our friends in Morgana were spotted heading in the same direction.

They got there well before us but had motor sailed.

During the afternoon others sailed / motored in to join asn some came by car.

Jim brought Full Circle round from the Crouch single handed.

He then set to and cooked Curry for all present (17 in total!)

And a lovely curry it was.

Timing of the event on Sunday was talked about.

The other sailors decided that with the strong wind forecast and the fact that by the time that we would be back from marshaling the event it would be low tide thay would head for home instead of coming to the event.

Monday's sail home was interesting.

It was a dead run with a F5/6 and wind against tide making for a very rolly ride.

We had the Genoa poled out and a preventer on the main with 1 reef in.

My crew Tim is inexperienced and did in feel confident to helm in those conditions so I had the tiller all the way home.

I was quite worn out by the time we picked up the mooring.

Tim drove us back to Cambridge.