East of Greenwich

Well, just before lunch time on Tuesday, 24th July, we counted down as the GPS showed we were nearing the Greenwich meridian, until we saw 000.00.001 West, change to all zeros and then 000.00.001East.

We left Scarborough at 07.00 on a glorious sunny morning with a lovely Westerly breeze, around force 3. We put the sails up and had a lovely reach down the North sea with no swell for just about the first time since Orkney. Great. We tried to hoist the cruising shute, but had a bit of trouble when the sheet snapped off the clew, necessitating a quick drop, when unfortuneately when I grabbed a handfull of the foot, the cloth ripped. So a bit of repair now needed. We reached along at 6 knots before the inevitable happened, and the wind swung South and dropped, the engine went on, and the sails packed away. But it was a sunny day and calm sea so still pleasant.

We had arranged to meet Tom at Hull, so rounded Spurn Head, an interesting spot, and headed up the Humber. We were amazed how big it is. You could fit ten Poole Harbours into it. About 6 miles across at the mouth and a distance of around 21 miles up to Hull. The stream was about 4 knots, so we were pleased we had the timing right and had it with us all the way.

The entrance to Hull marina, via a loch, dries to 2.4 metres, so we needed 4.2 metres of tide in order to enter.Thank goodness for modern chartplotters with tidal calculations built in. I worked out we needed to arrive around 20.00. We contacted port control and he confirmed our calculations. He was just putting someone through the loch, so asked us to hold station in the river. Just a matter of turning into the stream and holding the speed at around 3 knots to stand still. When told to enter it was a ferry glide across the stream at 5.7 knots before knocking back the speed as soon as we cleared the entrance in order not to hit the mud. Then into the loch where we had to grab onto wire strops hanging down the wall. Not that easy and another experience.

We had a great day in Hull on Gail's birthday. Much changed from the days when the prayer used to say "God save us from Hull, Hell and Halifax" (that's what it said in the museum).

We visited "The Deep", an ocianographic experience with great aquariums. Then another museum, sat outside having lunch under the plane trees in the sunshine, and had an Italian meal in the evening followed by Champagne and a night of romance and passion. (That's my version anyway).

Now have to clean the boat and fuel up before Tom arrives. We then hope to head towards Lowestoft leaving at top of the tide around 13.00 tomorrow.