Monday 10th August 2020 - Jobs day and plans

Today was about catching up on sleep and jobs, and making plans for the next few days.The engine hadn't been starting quite as quickly as normal (unusual as we re-engined in 2015 and have been enjoying the reliability) and when we decided to move quickly due to anchor chaos in the Walton Backwaters she definitely took long enough to make me wonder if she was actually going to start at all. The obvious place to start looking was battery power and we contemplated swapping in one of our domestic bank to confirm our suspicions. However, on reflection we realised that although we replaced our domestic bank last year, the engine starter battery has been on the boat since we bought her 9 years ago so clearly didn't owe us anything. Time was tight for finding a replacement so we decided to go online shopping for a next day delivery. At this point, David our new friend from the Yacht Free Wheel rang up offering to take Patrick for petrol (we had used nearly all ours on our multiple outboard journeys at Stone Point). Shotley is Free Wheel's home port so David had his car there and on hearing our need for a battery, very kindly offered to take Patrick battery shopping too! 

Marika, David's wife offered to take the kids for a walk/skate and so I was left alone to deal with the huge pile of laundry we seemed to have generated. Unfortunately the laundry was only open during Shipwreck opening hours and so at 10am I pushed a trolley load full of washing the length of the marina to start my washing marathon only to be told they wouldn't be opening the laundry until 11 as they were too busy unloading beer!

Eventually the laundry was done, battery was fitted and we started to finalise plans for the next few days. Free Wheel was keen to try Brightlingsea (particularly given the north winds forecast) but we had just come from there and I was hoping for heading north... perhaps Aldborough as AJ loves swimming in waves. In the end the forecast had changed slightly to put enought east in the wind to facilitate heading north and David was quite keen to get to Lowestoft. It has a good beach and seemed to have a few poor weather options for the kids if the forecast thunderstorms materialised later in the week. We all agreed that it would be the best place to get stuck for a few days if the weather did turn so planned a 4:30am lock out to make the best of the tide.

That sorted we had a little more time for boat jobs before meeting up for a BBQ on the small beach. The kids enjoyed playing whilst the adults chatted (and I was somewhat amused by the COBB logo imprinted on the halloumi). All too soon it was time to pack up and prepare for the Tesco delivery I had managed to arrange at short notice and we were all pleased that it arrived early. We quickly sorted it out into trolleys for the respective boats and headed back to stow the goodies and get to bed ready for our early start.

Friday 7th to Sunday 9th August - Pirates!

Friday

An early start and some punching of tide to get us up to the Walton Backwaters ready for pirates the following day. I love the early starts, quiet time without kids and beautiful sunrises, this time over the packing shed whilst watching the fishermen coming in from their night at sea.

Stone Point was pretty busy by the time we arrived but we found some space to anchor not too far away from the beach where we spent most of the remainder of the day. We met new friends and AJ and Esmé invited them to Pirates the following evening. Ever cautious about anchoring we ensured we were on board at tide change and by morning felt reasonably confident.

Saturday

I woke early and encouraged AJ to pump the paddlebaord up whilst it was still reasonably cool, and I enjoyed a quiet paddle during the slack tide of low water. By this point Esmé was extremely excited and insisted on going ashore in her pirate costume ASAP despite the fact that everyone else wasn't expected until at least 1pm. We spotted her new friends and went for a walk.

 

A little later AJ joined us and there was time for a quick swim before heading back to the boat to prepare for the pirate BBQ.

 

 Eventually other pirates arrived but we delayed proceedings slightly to wait for the tide to turn as we were by now anchored quite close. We spent time making pizza dough and generally getting ready before finally heading off for some pirate fun. Treasure hunt, BBQ's, swimming and an awesome Stone Point Sunset completed the day with tired little pirates being ferried back to the big boats as darkness fell, with the promise of another meet up on the beach in the morning.

Once back on Laurin the wind had picked up a little and I decided to stay up until the tide changed as we were now anchored quite close to other boats. What then followed was a somewhat broken night's sleep as we woke to see boats much closer than we liked, and as the tide turned boats dragged their anchors. Eventually at about 5am I decided enough was enough and we lifted our anchor and motored to find a mooring to pick up in the hope that this would allow some more sleep!.

Sunday

We decided to head to the beach to catch up with the crew of Free Wheel, a family we had met at pirates. Sand boat digging and bacon butties on the beach followed, with a vague plan to head to Shotley for the evening. Patrick headed back to Laurin and I stayed on the beach with the kids, periodically looking at the sea state out beyond the Walton Backwaters. On returning to Laurin I disucssed the sea state with Patrick and we decided that we could handle the lumpy seas for the hour or so to get to Shotley but were concerned about berthing Laurin in high winds. I called Shotley and they told me they could allocate us a double berth which would make things significanlty easier and so we decided to move.

It was a bit of a lumpy trip but it was lovely to arrive at Shotley and moor up in a calm berth where we could rest up for a couple of nights. (And even better, as Burnham berth holders we get 30 days free mooring at Shotley). We enjoyed a lovely drink at the Shipwreck and fed the kids chips before finally heading back to the boat for Gnocci and bed!

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!

 

 

Wednesday 5th August 2020 - Eat out to Help Out in Brightlingsea

So today the plan was to get the dinghy pumped up, check out the outboard and take a short trip across the harbour to Point Clear for a picnic lunch as AJ in particular wanted to swim in water more than a foot deep. We needed the dinghy and outboard to get ashore at our next port of call, West Mersea, as we will be spending the night on a swinging mooring and the club launch is only running for club members due to Covid 19.

The kids helped Patrick pump the dinghy up whilst I did inside jobs, and then I helped Patrick lift on the outboard which he then tested.... zilch! Not even a splutter. AJ soon lost interest and Patrick continued to fiddle but no joy. I started to take our normal approach of hitting google and youtube for suggestions but then Patrick pointed out the lack of secure place to strip it down (the pontoon is a little exposed and wobbly) and the fact that there are a number of marine engineers in Brightlingsea. The reality of living 200 miles away from the boat is beginng to hit. Something we would normally have a go at fixing ourselves (and would have checked before our summer cruise) became something we are (almost) happy to pay for somebody else to do.

We took a walk to French Marine and they had capacity to look at it that afternoon, so we headed back to the boat, loaded the outboard into a trolley and wheeled it out of the marina and across the road before returning to the boat to contemplate rowing across to Point Clear. After watching a number of old boys in rigid rowing boats struggling against the tide Patrick wasn't happy loading 4 of us into an inflatable and trying to row across. AJ was very upset at the prospective lack of swim but showed his increasing maturity by coming up with an alternative solution.... take the foot ferry across.

I quickly made a small picnic and then the kids and I headed over to the harbourmasters building to book our Ferry (usually I think you just turn up at the pontoon but covid 19 means they need to keep track of numbers and also take our details for track and trace). Down to the pontoon and onto the socially distanced Ferry complete with masks!

Once at Point Clear we spotted some of our boat neighbours who had paddled over in their inflatable kayak. I felt a bit of a wus for taking the ferry but they very soon had to leave as the tide had already turned and as we watched them paddle back it was clear that very soon it would be an almost impossible task.

AJ enjoyed a swim whilst the tide was relatively slack (you can see him just above the paddle of the kayak) and then the kids set to making another sandcastle. I got a message from Patrick to say that the outboard was working but French Marine didn't know what had been wrong as they had spent an hour fiddling and then it had suddenly started. £36 down for an hours labour but at least we had a working outboard and the engineer said that it is a good one worth holding on to (something we knew anyway but it's always nice to hear it from somebody else).

With the increasing wind AJ soon realised that no amount of complaining to Esmé would stop sand blowing off her spade into his face so he decided to wear some protection! (Video of him testing it out below).

AJ eventually got his own back though as he managed to throw an entire bucket of sea water over her whilst she was unable to move burried in the sand!!!

Much squealing ensued and complaints of eczema hurting so I asked her to rinse of in the sea before coming to me to have fresh water from our water bottle poured over the painful bits. Only problem is that Esmé's old fear of what is under the water has come back (despite swimming so much in the Med) and so she was scared to go in. AJ rectified this by piggy backing her and so the squealing continued! Best bit was AJ trying to piggy back her back out of the sea which appeared to be rather more challenging than getting her in. Finally she was out and with a small freshwater rinse, quiet and happy again.

We caught an earlier ferry back to Brightlingsea as the kids had just about had enough and Patrick met us at the showers with wash kit then back to the boat for some time out of the sun before dinner.

We had decided to take advantage of the "Eat out to Help out scheme" and 3 out of the 4 of us were craving seafood so we had already booked the Rosebud a lovely pub about 1/2 a mile away. We were planning to eat outside but a few spots of rain and a quetionable rain radar picture on my weather app made us retreat inside. Great social distancing, lovely atmosphere and awesome food made an excellent night.

There was not a scrap of food left at the end and we were all full to bursting for a ridiculously low price tag so we left a hefty tip and headed back to Laurin. Esmé was clearly very tired as she (as she always does when tired) behaved like your very drunk best friend after a good night out, stumbling and dancing all over the road, singing at the top of her voice. I pity her friends when she eventually does start drinking. (Watch out Iris!)

Tuesday 4th August 2020 - Burnham to Brightlingsea

Finally we were ready to move and because Wednesday looked like a strong winds no sailing day we chose Brightlingsea as our destination. This was one of our favourite stops when the kids were small as a 10 minute stroll brings you to a lovely little well protected patch of sand surrounded by pretty beach huts with the added bonus of a tidal pool for the kids to paddle in. Although not so exciting now that the kids really prefer swimming in waves, it held a lot of memories not least because of the small cafe selling awesome milkshakes.

As high water was in the middle of the day it made sense to go over the Ray Sands. Once you finally sail past the end of the Dengie peninsular there are sandbanks that stretch out for another 20 miles. There are some gaps, including the Swin Spitway which we often use when heading up to the Orwell, but today, with high water around lunchtime it made more sense to punch the tide out of the Crouch and sail across the sands. (Our route across the sands is shown by the orange arrow on the chart below).

I had calculated that we needed to leave by about 9:30am to get across the sands at the earliest opportunity but by 8am we were all pretty much ready (except Esmé who likes to wake up under way) and it was a beautiful day so we dropped lines and left the marina, picking up a buoy on the river to have breakfast with a different view.

As the wind started to fill in we dropped the buoy and sailed down river. With a steadily building breeze and a realisation that perhaps I'd been a bit too optimistic about what time we could cross the sands we put a reef in the main and eventually reduced the headsail slightly too. Once at the Ray Sands buoy which marks the start of the deepest area to cross we were still a little early so decided to drop the sails and motor tentatively across. With no sails up we have the most manoeverability and speed control, and with a rising tide, even if we did go aground we would soon float off. Electronic navigation makes this so much easier and less stressful than when we would sail just sail a predetermined course from the Ray Sands Buoy and eagerly watch the depth sounder, particularly as we can now download very up to date chartlets of the area from http://www.crossingthethamesestuary.com/

Once over the shallowest part we rolled out the headail and made good  (if a bit wallowy)
progress towards Brightlingsea. In the past we had always used the pontoon in the middle of the river, using the water taxi to get ashore, however I had read that the new marina was now dredged to 2m so we decided to try this option (one of my reasons for getting across the Ray Sands as early as possible was to ensure we got to Brightlingsea near the top of the tide to ensure we got over the cill into the marina).

We were greated as always by an incredibly friendly harbourmaster who showed us to our berth and took our lines. The marina felt a little exposed and there was a LOT of tide running through which pinned us onto our berth, however the ability to be able to walk ashore was a big plus.

The kids were very eager for some beach action so we had a quick hot dog lunch, booked in and headed out for the afternoon.

We enjoyed a lovely afternoon at the beach watching the kids splash and dig although we were somewhat disappointed at the lack of milkshakes! (The usual shack had been demolished and had been replaced by a trailer selling the basics in front of a new builiding that was being constructed... I hope this will be a new, bigger and better cafe).

Back to the boat via the beautiful new Brightlingsea showers for our sandy kids. 3 enormous cubicles with a big shower area, toilet and sink in each. We love shower facilities like this but can manage without, but when the kids were small, large unisex facilities were awesome for family showering!

By this time it was rather late so we enjoyed a quick beer/wine/J2O and nibbles before a late tea then showers for the adults and bed!

I did take the time however to take photos of the marina cill area and the beautiul sunset for fellow East Coasters who might be interested!

2nd & 3rd August 2020 - Provisioning, paddle boarding, Museum and old friends!

Sunday 2nd August 2020

We were due visitors in the afternoon along with our much awaited big Asda provisioning order so the morning was spent finishing off a few more jobs. Putting the main on is the most challenging sail as since we had lazy jacks fitted it seems the easiest way is to remove the boom! We try to make some jobs whole family affairs (we could do this on our own but like to make the kids feel they are essential participants). After a lot of cursing we were finally done and ready to sail!

AJ decided to pump the paddle board up and both kids enjoyed time on the water. It was lovely to see them enjoying my toy again!

In the end  both sets of planned visitors had to postpone so we had lunch and got chatting to a sailing family with twin 6 year old girls whose boat was moored a little further along our pontoon. It was nice to share our experiences and the kids seemed to get on well. 

Next our good friend Roger turned up and we enjoyed a beer whilst catching up and waiting for Asda to arrive. Finally just before 4pm our order arrived and we spent the next couple of hours carrying it to the boat and stowing our food.

After the challenge of yet again playing fridge tetris it was time for evening drinks and nibbles whilst the kids played, Esmé this time trying out paddle board yoga!

 

Monday 3rd August 2020 - Tesco, playground and Maldon Combined Military Services Museum

I was awake early so knowing that Roger had a lift and scrub booked for 8am I went to help by taking his lines at the fuel pontoon before starting breakfast. Just as the bacon was about to go in the pan we got a phonecall from Roger asking to borrow a socket set to replace his anode. AJ very kindly ran up top with it and announced that he would go back to help Roger take his boat back to it's berth as his family had gone out for breakfast.

Todays task was to head to Heybridge to pick up bedding from Tesco's that neither Amazon or Asda managed to deliver. We combined this with a trip to the awesome playground that we usually go to when moored at Heybridge Basin. Sadly this is closed to visitors this year due to Covid so it was nice to enjoy the park by car. After a picnic lunch we then headed to the Combined Military Services Museum that Patrick, AJ and cousin Oliver had visited last year. My old work colleague has just got a job there and I hoped that we might catch up but sadly she wasn't in until the weekend. Regardless we had a lovely afternoon looking at the exhibits. 

We all really enjoyed learning about Captain Peter Mason, who perhaps Ian Fleming based James Bond on.

There were lots of secret weapon exhibits which were fun to look at!

Once back at the boat there was just enough time to put the new bedding on the beds and a quick tidy round before our friend :Lisa arrived for a catch up. She's just sold her boat and the plan is for her to use Laurin when we're not able to. It was lovely to see each other again!

Finally it was time for Lisa to hit the road and me to cook dinner before settling down to make a passage plan for tomorrow. We're heading for Brightlingsea for a couple of nights as Wednesday looks  a little lively so we thought we'd hit the beach on Wednesday instead of sailing!

Alarm set for 8am, planned departure 9am. Can't wait!