04/08/21 & 05/08/21 Woodbridge

 Another early start... this time to ensure we arrived at the Deben Bar at the recommended 2 hours before high water. Not much of a sunrise but still nice to see shades of yellow and orange behind the Felixtowe Docks.

Having downloaded the latest chart from the Deben Estuary Pilot we compared this visit to what we remembered of our visits in the past. The bar shifts regularly so the route in is very rarely the same year on year. 

We then motored up the river to Ramsholt where we picked up a mooring for breakfast. It was lovely to have a view of our old Stella friend Persephone. Unfortunately but unsurprisingly nobody on board but still nice to reminisce about racing other Stellas at Deben Week in years gone by.

A quick tidy up once in Woodbridge and then we headed to the station to get a taxi to Sutton Hoo. We'd visited when the kids were really small with our friend Chris, and having watched "The Dig" were keen to return. It was a lovely afternoon in beautiful surroundings, topped off by some delicious National Trust Cake!

We got the taxi to drop us off at the Coop on the way back and picked up bread and milk before walking back to Laurin.

After tea Patrick, Esmé and I went for a stroll along the riverside and found a lovely playground but unfortunately all the ice cream places were shut:-(

The next day we got up and started getting the boat ready for departure as soon as there was enough water over the sill. We called Collin the Felixtowe Pilot to check how the bar would be with the forecast 15knot southerly breeze and he said all would be fine.... the tide was creeping up and Patrick had already taken the electric meter back when Esmé popped her head up and asked if there was time to go to the playground with AJ.... hmmm... not really! We then made a very hasty decision to stay put. It may mean we are stuck for a few days in the most expensive marina yet, compared with free mooring at Shotley, but Woodbridge is oh so pretty with far more to entertain us.

We went for a walk to the park, walked up the hill to the small market where we bought Rosemary bread, a Feta and spinach roll for Patrick and I and the kids ate yet more cake! Back down the hill via the Coop for more supplies and then the kids played on the paddleboard with kids from another boat whilst Patrick enjoyed catching up on boat jobs.

The Cobb came out for an early pizza tea (almost) before the rain set in.

  

02/08/21 to 03/08/21 Ipswich

The kids had yet again packed their own clothes. Last year AJ had delegated putting his packing cubes into the big bag to the ever helpful Esmé and ended up with no pants and socks.... this year he learned from his mistakes and made sure all his cubes were in the big bag himself. The only problem was he packed trousers that he hadn't worn for a year and had now outgrown! 

We decided a trip upriver to Ipswich would allow us to rectify the situation, with the added bonus that we could call in at Fox's marina en route and visit the chandlery there. Sadly Marinestore have closed their Burnham shop and there aren't many chandleries in Leeds so Patrick was having withdrawal symptoms... particularly as his two old pairs of deck shoes went walk abouts on our last trip down south.

It was nice to venture up the Orwell again... it used to be a regular haunt but less so these days. 

As we passed Levington we spotted the distinctive green transom of "Traigh" and paused for a while to catch up with Dan Tribe who was getting ready to head back to Burnham. 

Onwards towards Fox's we appreciated the lovely scenery and enjoyed going under the Orwell Bridge.. I'm not sure why but passing under big bridges always seems quite special.

It took a few goes to raise Fox's either on VHF or Mobile but eventually we got agreement to pop in for 1/2 hour to visit the Chandlery. It was a somewhat tight berth and I tried to call back to request one where I had some confidence I could exit from without bashing other boats but there was again no answer so with Patrick's confidence in me we headed into the berth. The kids stayed put on electronics whilst Patrick and I enjoyed mooching in the shop. 1/2 hour later we emerged with 2 pairs of deck shoes, some sailing gloves, anchor chain markers, diesel bug treatment, 2 joker valves and 2 ice creams for the kids.

As per Patrick's predictions we extricated ourselves from the difficult berth without fuss and continued up the river to Ipswich.

 We just had a short wait for the lock whilst a Thames Barge exited Ipswich and then we were in. Again we had trouble raising the marina.. Ipswich Haven this time but eventually we were allocated a berth and were soon tied up alongside.

After a quick lunch we headed into Town.... first up Primark for AJ some trousers and then the boys returned to the boat and the girls kept shopping. We had a lovely afternoon including raiding charity shops for books and games for the boat.

On our return we found Patrick unloading anchor chain from the boat ready to fit the new markers. After a 5 minute rest I gave him a hand and then sanity checked his system for re-marking the chain at 5m intervals. Green worth 5m and blue 20m. I'd guessed wrong though at how many we needed as I thought we had 50m of chain but that was the old 10mm chain and we now have 80m of 8mm chain!

AJ cooked us a lovely tea on board and I enjoyed a pleasant evening reading!

After  a small lie in Patrick got on with more boat jobs (with Esmé's help) whilst I booked tickets for a Lego exhibition in town.

The kids loved playing on the "question mark" before we headed for the exhibition.

The exhibition was Lego models showing moments in history. It was much smaller than I anticipated but quite good nevertheless.

The mask is a model of the mask dug up at Sutton Hoo... we'll hopefully see the real thing tomorrow!

We finished off our time in Ipswich with lunch at Pizza Express courtesy of Tesco's Clubcard vouchers!

Finally we returned to Laurin and made our way back to Shotley. 

As we approached Felixstowe Docks I noticed the Evergiven, infamous for blocking the Suez canal earlier this year. Patrick didn't quite believe me but when we got back to Shotley and I caught up on the news the BBC had published an article on its arrival. 

01/08/21 Shotley

 An earlyish start so that we could get out of the Backwaters before the water disappeared and a pleasant motor up to Shotley. Think we are a bit boring as Freewheel sailed some of the way but we really couldn't be bothered for the 1/2 hour of engineless peace we would have achieved.

Once locked in we started to tidy up the carnage that ensues after every visit to Stone Point. Patrick cleaned and deflated the dinghy, the kids cooked toasties on Freewheel for breakfast to feed us all and I fried up the samphire I had picked at Stone Point. The kids came on to our boat for a while to enable parents to pack up.... one falling down the steps but AJ quickly fixed this with an ice pack and Minecraft!

Esmé skated with the Freewheel kids whilst I got laundry done and updated the blog. It was such a lovely chilled out day and then the Freewheelers invited us for lunch at the Bristol Arms. Awesome!

After saying our goodbyes we chilled out for the rest of the day before receiving another Tesco order. We then were visited by a Scottish couple bearing wine and wanting to know about visiting Holland. It was a lovely evening full of laughs.... exactly what we love about sailing... random encounters with interesting folks! 

31/07/21 Pirates!

 An early start was followed by a cracking sail all the way to Harwich!

En route there was much deliberation about whether Pirates would go ahead or if it was more prudent to meet at Shotley and have a meal together given the forecast was for patchy rain and possible thunderstorms. In the end Dave decided we should go for it so we hung around the Pie End Buoy until there was enough water for us to enter the Walton Backwaters.

By then we could see Freewheel on the AIS so we hung around a little longer so the kids could wave at their friends.

As it was still pretty windy and we felt a little sleep deprived we decided to pick up a mooring rather than anchor. I went ashore with Pirate Dave to bury some treasure whilst Patrick pumped up the dinghy... always a little tricky as it doesn't really fit on our foredeck so we end up hanging it from a halyard over the side of the boat to finish pumping it up. With impending dark clouds we discussed getting the kids ashore as quickly as possible and only taking snacks rather than full on BBQ as we strongly anticipated a hurried dinghy ride back to boats in pouring rain. Dave took our kids whilst Patrick and I got some things ready. Patrick was already concerned that he could hear air escaping so we put the pump in the dinghy just in case. It seemed to be staying up so I wasn't too concerned. Next up was to get the outboard on the boat. We padlock it to Laurin when we are not there with a combination lock which had now seized. No amount of WD40, pliers, spanners etc would shift it and tempers were now fraying.  Dave said he had an angle grinder on his boat but I didn't fancy using it in the middle of nowhere from a safety point of view. I then suggested the bolt croppers so out they came... it did seem a long shot but rather than cut through it suddenly the lock just popped open. OK, back in business, we got the engine on the dinghy, Patrick started it up and then we realised we didn't have the oars so I went back. The engine stopped and refused to start again. By this time Patrick was loosing the will to live. His idea of a ice time on a mooring is to sit in peace rather than pump up a dingy, fix a broken outboard and shuttle kit and kids ashore, only to do the reverse with the addition of bucket loads of sand to decorate Laurin with. We decided that he would stay on the boat and I would get a lift with Dave... in the end it was a tow!

Once ashore, and having settled the kids who were waiting (not so patiently) for swim gear, normal pirating ensued. There was clearly a miscommunication as David and Marika had brought BBQ stuff but luckily had enough to share. A great evening was had by all and the rain pretty much held off.