Thursday 6th August 2020 - Brightlingsea to West Mersea and a muddy end to the day.

 A lazy start as there would not be enough water over the cill for us to get out until about 12:30 so enough time for grocery shopping and laundry before departure. According to Google there was a choice of 3 small looking shops so I chose the Co-op as it was the nearest. Fresh produce was a little limited but I managed to get enough for the next few days (including BBQ fodder for Pirate Island!). Back to the boat to unpack and then a trip to the laundry... very small machines meant I had to be selective about what got clean and what didn't, and the dryer was less than effective which resulted in the boat resembling a chinese laundry for our trip over to West Mersea!

 

Our short trip over to West Mersea was really pleasant despite the fact that we didn't put sails up. We enjoyed lunch together en route and read some of our new Swallows and Amazons book. Esmé also took a turn at the helm which was nice before we entered the Mersea Quarters and picked up a mooring.

 

We had arranged to visit our friends Chris and Anne who have moved to the Island so very shortly we climbed into the dinghy and motored ashore with AJ enjoying driving the "family car" again!

 

We tied the dinghy up on the inside of the hammer head as directed and headed off to the Chandlery to pick up Esmé's new lifejacket before heading off to Chris and Anne's new place. It was extremely hot for the 1/2 hour walk so we picked up ice creams on the way which promptly melted faster than we could eat them. We were a little early so took the slightly longer route via the beach which was nice but very exposed to the sun.

 

Once at Chris and Annes we enjoyed a lovely evening catching up in their garden eating take away pizza (from an Indian take -away.... some very interesting toppings) and watching the kids play.

 

 

As the light was fading we reluctantly headed back to the boat. As we walked along the coast road I looked accross the mud towards the moorings and I started to wonder.....

 

.... if our dinghy was still afloat! (It wasn't!!!!) Now we had tired kids and potentially an hour or so to wait until the tide came in enough for our dinghy to float. 

Luckily there were some very helpful guys on the pontoon who had just come in from working on their own boat who helped us to lift the outboard off the dinghy and then lift the dinghy out of the mud, across the pontoon and launch it at the other side of the hammerhead. We then had a very dark motor back to Laurin before heading straight to bed!