19/08/21 to 20/08/21 West Mersea and Tollesbury

 Thursday

A short motor over to West Mersea and then a nail-biting (for Patrick... I was strangely chilled out) wait whilst the tide dropped to see if we'd picked a mooring where we would go aground. It was very close... in fact the rudder just touched the bottom when a passing motor boat created a little too much wash. Patrick was so concerned he transferred to the dinghy and was dipping our jousting pole (boat hook) to check the depth and if the bottom was soft mud (good) or stone (bad) at the back of the boat as our depth sounder (like most) is at the front of the keel.

Eventually we felt safe enough and so headed ashore to meet up with Chris and Anne, this time for a meal at the Coast Inn rather than our usual Pizza in their garden. The meal was lovely but unfortunately I forgot to take photos of our time ashore. It was a long dinghy ride back against the tide in the dark, particularly as the outboard has been a little temperamental so Patrick took a rather meandering course to ensure if it packed in there was always a moored boat to grab on to not far away.

Friday

Up in reasonable time... Esmé tried to convince me to rig up my exercise stuff on deck... demonstrating her own stretches in encouragement but I wasn't feeling the love for it (sorry Tracey!). 

Finally it was time to head into Tollesbury, a little nerve wracking as we can only get in at the top of the tide and we've only been in a couple of times before.... a long time ago!

Patrick, ever hopeful of my sewing abilities dropped the headsail thinking that my speedy stitcher might manage to punch through the many layers of sail cloth and webbing on the tack of the sail. Unfortunately it was a no-go so we'll need to find a sailmaker to repair it when we return to Burnham. In the meantime we'll sail with a couple of rolls in the headsail to protect it from further damage.

After a while the kids were yelling that we were aground. Patrick and I were quite chilled out as Tollesbury is soft mud and Laurin sits quite nicely in mud. But the kids were quite animated shouting.... "but the DINGHY is aground". We had to admit this was rather extreme but Laurin was absolutely fine in the nice soft mud bath.

We caught up with the harbourmaster, bought some ice creams and soon enough it was time for our 3pm swim slot. Tollesbury has a small swimming pool covered by a polytunnel which the kids remembered from their last visit which must have been about 7 years ago. Because of Covid we needed to book slots which I had done when booking our berth, so we had the pool all to ourselves which was cool, but didn't allow the kids the chance to meet other kids to play with so we then planned to spend the evening at the tide pool.

I'd bought a small piece of gammon in a foil tray and was keen to try this on the Cobb BBQ. I also wanted to experiment with making scones on the Cobb too. AJ was a little reluctant at first but eventually agreed to join us for the evening. We took the paddle board over and eventually enjoyed a pleasant evening, however it was somewhat longer than planned as Patrick and I had a miscommunication about which attachments to use on the Cobb resulting in a very long cooking time, and some slightly flat scones!

Eventually we abandoned the tide pool as mosquitos were starting to bite and retreated to the boat, digging out the old mosquito nets from the Med.

Saturday

Sadly no swimming today as the pool polytunnel was being repaired so we went to explore the Saltings at high tide on dinghy and paddleboard.

Later that day Patrick and I took a walk at low water and saw the Saltings in a different light. It was nice to take a little time to ourselves and the peace was very much welcome.

Sunday

The kids were happy that the swimming pool was back in action, after which we had a lazy afternoon before Patrick and I walked in the opposite direction whilst the kids played in the tree by the tide pool.

On our return to the tide pool we saw a couple of teenage wannabe engineers wheeling their "invention" down to the water for a "test sail". They had strapped a cordless drill to a kayak with a prop shaft in its chuck leading to a very small propeller. We decided to wait and watch. They were very methodical and removed the drill for the launch, checking that the "boat" didn't sink with one person in it. They then tried the drill but the propeller was pretty much out of the water. Here the girlfriend/second engineer was coaxed into the craft to try to get the propeller in the water.... a slight improvement but paddles were still very much needed!

13/08/21 to 18/08/21 Shotley, Harwich and Brightlingsea (with Freewheelers)

We've spent the last few days catching up with the Freewheelers.... hence no blog posts... hardly time to breathe let alone write a blog! 

Friday

We left Titchmarsh as soon as we felt there was enough water to get out of the Backwaters intending to go for a sail before heading in to Shotley (again!) to catch up with Dave who was already on board Freewheel trying to fit a wind generator he'd found on Ebay. We had a lovely bouncy sail reaching out to Stone Banks and back with some exciting foredeck action!

Dave had arranged for us to be berthed next to Freewheel so once in and tied up Patrick went over to help with the wind generator whilst I caught up on jobs. Marika and the kids were due early evening and with not long to go, Freewheel was looking more like a work shed than a boat ready to welcome it's crew for a holiday. We helped him to get sorted and then very quickly Marika and the kids were here. We helped to unload the car and then we ordered take away from the curry and fish and chip place. We almost managed to finish before Tesco arrived with our provisions which we quickly collected and stashed the cold goods before heading back to Freewheel to finish the curry.

Saturday

Saturday morning was taken up with boat jobs and the kids catching up with one another again. Dave then suggested we all pile on Freewheel and go for a sail up the Stour to see the Golden Horizon, a sailing cruise ship that our boat neighbours from Burnham had been telling us they were booked on to. It was a great opportunity for our kids to go on a more modern yacht with better sailing abilities than Laurin. AJ loved his time at the helm and we all learned something new. 

A brief comment from me to Marika put the cat amongst the pigeons when I asked her what she would do if Dave went overboard. Much discussion ensued and ultimately lead to another trip out on Freewheel the following day to practice man overboard drill.

Pasta on board Laurin for dinner as it was too late to BBQ

Sunday

The kids and I tackled the long overdue job of updating our photo collage on board Laurin... last time it was done Esmé could have been no older than 2 or 3. I had used a little shop in Woodbridge to print out some favourite photos from our blog and we now just had to arrange them in our frame. It was a pleasant hour remembering friends we had met and places we'd been.

After lunch we headed out on Freewheel again... first over to Harwich for ice creams where we also saw a rather interesting boat with an even more interesting lifting bowsprit rather like Patrick has been dreaming of for Laurin. We spent a pleasant 10 minutes chatting with the owners who told us it was a Midget 26 which was based on a centuries old fishing boat design. 

Next up was man overboard practice in the Stour where I showed the technique I used when teaching flotilla training courses in the Med. Most of us had a go and the kids took turns practicing making a mayday call on the radio. 

Finally back into Shotley for a BBQ tea and a bit of night time dinghy action for the kids.

Monday

An actually quite lovely sail to Brightlingsea on a murky and rainy day. It felt good to be on passage again even if AJ never did get quite out of his PJ's! Unfortunately we got into Brightlingsea a little after Freewheel and didn't get into the Marina much to Esmé's disappointment. (It was quite a challenging evening dealing with her disappointment!)

Tuesday

A lovely start to the morning when the heads (toilet) refused to work properly!!! I tried radioing to see if we could get in the marina but it was too early for the harbourmaster. We started to take it to bits.. no immediate easy fix. Eventually we got through to the harbourmaster and had permission to come into the marina. Once alongside, I cooked a huge breakfast for Patrick in anticipation of the horrible job he was about to do. The kids (or at least Esmé) were being slightly annoying so I suggested they go for a walk with Freewheelers whilst Patrick and I tackled the toilet. AJ really wanted to stay on the boat so I went with Esmé and AJ stayed to help Patrick. (AJ really didn't want that walk if fixing a blocked toilet was preferable). 

Esmé and I had an enjoyable morning with the Freewheelers which didn't in the end result in too much walking, rather a hot chocolate in the marina bar, a scavenge in the chandlery and some hunting for treasure on the little beach in front of the yacht club. 

Marika and Dave then insisted on taking us for lunch at the Yachtsman's Pub, owned by a couple they met previously in Brightlingsea when they "borrowed" their on board sailing instructor to help with sailing Freewheel in when the engine died. It was a lovely meal but all too soon we needed to get ready for a crazy little adventure I had been researching. Back on board we packed swimming costumes, towels, torches and waterproofs before heading up St Osyths Creek, creeping up as there was barely enough water even to get the two dinghies up. It was really interesting navigating with a combination of Navionics (saying we were clearly aground), the satellite map on my iPhone, and the boatyard's sketch of the creek. 

It was a bit like Swallows and Amazons!

As we got


further up, the creek narrowed and became too shallow for the outboards so we began to row, then punt, then go aground and have to wait for the tide to catch us up!

Once arrived we looked for the blue boat we had been told to head for. There was a slip but it was really muddy so we tied up alongside the blue boat and clambered over and up a ladder instead!

Once in the boatyard we crossed over the road to our final destination... a wakeboard park with inflatables! The kids had an insane amount of fun whilst the parents watched and ate cake! The only fly in the ointment was when Clara fell and hit her nose and AJ had to rescue her but all in all it was a really successful trip.

After a very full hour of fun we got the kids changed and warm before heading back in the fading light.

As if the day wasn't full enough, Dave had arranged to meet up with Chris and Ronnie, some friends off the YBW East Coast Forum. We went to the Railway Inn complete with kids at ten to nine and were met by a lovely landlady saying that kids weren't allowed in the bar after 9pm, but she didn't really care, and would we like to sit in the garden? She then entertained the kids for a good part of the rest of the evening whilst the adults enjoyed a good catch up. Fantastic service!... we'll be back!

Wednesday

Today was the

day we were saying goodbye to the Freewheelers, they were finally heading to Ramsgate and we've got plans of our own for later in the week. After a brief conflab about passage planning, reclaiming our cutlery from their draw, and a donation of jackstays we finally said goodbye.

Patrick and I then headed to the chandleries and found some spares we'd been after (there is no longer a chandlery in Burnham and the others we've encountered have not been particularly well stocked). 

After a light lunch we headed to the Lido with the kids. We've been coming to Brightlingsea for many years yet this is the first time we've seen it open. The kids had a great time despite the water being freezing whilst Patrick and I chilled out by the side of the pool.

Back to the boat, and with space next to us in the marina we took the opportunity to warp  Laurin round ready for an easy getaway tomorrow morning. A quick tidy up then AJ cooked tea whilst I enjoyed a really peaceful evening.