Furthest East

Well, we have now rounded the most southerly, weasterly, northerly, and now easterly points of mainland Britain. We rounded Lowestoft Ness at 07.00 this morning having left Hull at 13.00 yesterday.

On leaving Hull, with Olly's friend Tom on board, we hoisted sail and had a good sail for 2 hours down the 21 miles of the river Humber towards the North sea. The wind was light, but with three or four knots of tide under us we made good progress, contacting VTS (port control) to request permission to leave.

Before we reached the sea the wind did it's usual trick of flicking round to the nose and fading completely. Engine on, but as the silly woman in charge of the loch at Hull had been unable to work the diesel pump, we were aware that we only just had sufficient in the tank, although we did have spare cans on board.

We motored on ticking off the buoys I had used as waypoints. As evening approached Gail prepared a chicken Rogan Josh with rice which we enjoyed in the cockpit. I went for an early lie down, knowing I was unlikely to get any sleep that night, and dozed in the forward cabin, with the slopping of the waves keeping me awake.

When I got up again about ten o'clock, I was just in time to see the last of the sunset, and what looked like Blackpool illuminations with all the lights from the wind farms we were passing. Very difficult to pick out the lights on the buoys, but the chart plotter again came to the rescue.

We shared watches through the night. I was on from 22.30 until 02.00, when I was slightly alarmed to see several lobster pots pass close by. I even tried picking them up on radar. They are not good news when motoring in the dark.

Luckily, a bit of wind kicked in, so I was able to kil the engine and do some sailing. Tom came up on deck when he heard the engine stop, and I tried (unsuccessfully) to get some sleep.

We continued gently sailing through the night, Gail and I having hot pasties at 05.30 whilst Tom slept, until just after dawn we sailed gently passed Lowestoft Ness, fired up the iron jib, dropped sail, and asked permission to enter Lowestoft harbour. We were tied up at the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Y.C. by 07.30, having done 115 miles, all got our heads down for a bit of shut eye, showered and I have just demolished a very good ham, eggs and chips. Lovely. The Nuttall food fest continues.

Hope to head south tomorrow towards either the Deben or Orwell.

Pics when downloaded.