02/06/21 Heybridge Tesco Run and then a lovely sail home

 

I love waking to the gentle hubbub of rafted boats coming to life. Some people don't like rafting up but we enjoy the social aspect of this element of sailing life.

Today we were going to enjoy the simple pleasures of Heybridge, taking the dinghy up the canal to Tesco's to catch up with shopping and to let the kids play at an old favourite playground. 

It's a couple of miles up the canal and actually a lovely little trip only slightly marred by the fact that the outboard still has last years fuel in it and kept cutting out. Soon enough we saw the Tesco sign and pulled up alongside the specially built pontoon. We spied a family sat eating McDonalds having paddled inflatable canoes so Esmé and I went on a hunt and brought lunch to the park to share with the boys.  There is an awesome huge climbing pyramid at the playground that the kids love and that I can't believe could ever pass any health and safety assessment.... of course the kids were at the top of it.

Back to Tesco's for shopping and then another dinghy ride home... this time with the engine faltering decidedly more frequently!

Loving the name of this motor boat!

On the evening tide the kids helped the lock keeper learning both the new systems along with more traditional methods!

Later in the evening our good fried Lisa arrived to spend the night with us and join us for the trip back to Burnham in the morning.

I

It was an early lock out and we enjoyed the atmospheric motor out in company. It wasn't long before the sails were up and we enjoyed a cracking sail back to Burnham... the best one of the trip!
 

01/06/2021 West Mersea to Heybridge Basin

 

As we weren't due to lock in to Heybridge Basin until 5pm we had a lazy morning on the mooring, started off by a pancake breakfast. AJ took advantage of slack low water tide to play on the swing and Patrick took time to give the deck a good scrub. 

I spent some time catching up on tutoring paperwork and the blog before deciding to tackle a boat job that had been niggling me since last year. Before going on out "Big Adventure" we had created a designated "charging locker". In it we kept all our electronic devices and installed multiple usb and cigarette lighter sockets as well as a small inverter. Unfortunately last summer when we returned to the boat after lockdown nothing seemed to be working in there! As I now have a new laptop which will work with my old 12V charger I wanted to get the charging locker up and running again. 

Step one was to check continuity between the sockets and the bus bars behind our switch panel. That's where the fun started as we don't quite have a full set of tools on board and the one size screwdriver I needed didn't seem to have made the journey down from up north. After a fair bit of fiddling I eventually had access.... everything seemed ok! I started fiddling around with the switches and then it hit me.... the charging locker was on a different switch to the main cabin USB's... all this time all I needed to do was flick a different switch! I was livid with myself, particularly as it was a pain of a job getting everything back in place with less than ideal tools! Anyway, at least we now have a working charging locker!

After a light lunch AJ and I took the dinghy ashore to pick up some fresh seafood and wait for Chris to join us. The outboard was being a little temperamental (probably due to the fact that we were using up last years petrol in it) and I was a little concerned about the journey back against the tide. In the end the return journey was fine and once we were all on board we had a leisurely chat and dropped the mooring, saying goodbye to the packing shed which had been our companion overnight.

 

Once past the Nass Beacon we put sails up and killed the engine before looking at our speed and ETA at Heybridge... 5:30pm.... too late for our 5pm lock. Now we were really kicking ourselves as it was a perfect afternoon for a sail but at some point we were going to have to motor. We'd failed to realise how much our fouled bottom and towed dinghy would slow us down... rookie error! Regardless it was a beautiful afternoon to be on the water and we enjoyed seeing the Blackwater for the first time since before we went to the Med. It was interesting to sail past Radio Caroline and we also spotted Lisa's old boat "Black Magic" and sent her a picture... a bitter sweet reminder for her!

All too quickly we were outside Heybridge only to have to wait nearly an hour to lock in... we could have sailed anyway!

I absolutely love locking in at Heybridge, it reminds me of our Stella days where the whole fleet of classic little racing yachts would fill the lock after racing down from West Mersea and raft up together in the basin. Imagine our surprise when we tied ourselves up in the lock only to find ourselves next to old Stella friends "The Blue Streak Boys".

Once tied up I prepared a mish mash of dinner out of what was left in the fridge and we enjoyed a lovely meal in the cockpit with Chris and Anne (who had driven down to collect Chris), finishing off with candlelit whisky!

31/05/21 Brightlingsea to West Mersea

 

It either had to be a crack of dawn start or potentially getting to West Mersea a little late in the afternoon than we'd like. Given last years fiasco of returning from a late evening at Chris and Anne's to find the dinghy aground in the mud, we didn't fancy the prospect of a repeat moonlit performance so opted for the early start. I love the rhythm of rising with the tide to make the most of nature's travellator or as in this case, to escape a marina before nature traps us into staying a few hours more. I love the early morning night and the peace of a few hours for Patrick and I to enjoy a little time alone before the kids wake. The Colne, as it often does, harboured a Thames Barge for us to admire, and a beautiful smack sailed by a family overtook us on the way downriver to the Blackwater.

Once on the Blackwater we put the headsail out and enjoyed a slow drift along the South Shore of Mersea Island. David called us from Freewheel and was having a somewhat livelier time on the wallet but was making good time.

Once at West Mersea, we picked up an outer mooring and had breakfast whilst we waited for the launch man to come on duty. Having tidied up a little and caught up on some sleep I called the launch guy to see if we could get a mooring a little closer to the hammer head. The guy was slightly less helpful than last year so in the end we motored a little way in and picked up one of the handful of Buoys without tails to signify they belonged to somebody. Once settled AJ and Esmé set about the fun task of bailing out the dinghy with water canons! 

We then motored ashore, failed to get new deck shoes at the chandlery and then headed to the beach close to our friends Chris and Anne.

AJ loves to swim in the sea so he immediately stripped off to enjoy the waves, where-as Esmé took a little longer to be tempted in.. she seems to be the only sun-worshipper in the family happy to stretch out on her towel to enjoy some rays. Patrick and I enjoyed watching the kids and catching up with some reading.

We then headed to Chris and Anne's house, good friends from the start of my sailing days. They recently moved to a lovely bungalow on Mersea Island with a beautiful garden which entertains AJ and Esmé in a way that reminds us that they are still playful kids as well as maturing teen/tweenagers!

After Indian inspired pizza and a good catch up where we arranged for Chris to join us the following afternoon for our sail down to Heybridge, Chris and Anne walked us back to the dinghy... all of us keen to avoid having to drag the dinghy out of the mud this time. It was a lovely little motor back to Laurin who was moored just off the old packing shed and it was lovely to enjoy the rest of the evening sitting in the cockpit enjoying the peace.