The Bank Holiday Weekend crew, Laurel and Will, joined on Friday night as planned, arriving by train from London just in time to share dessert with us.
Another early start would be required on Saturday morning in order to make good our exit from the river Deben which has powerful tide restrictions on small craft. Our reward was a beautiful sunrise.
Breakfast was taken 'on the hoof', consisting of toast spread with delicious, energy-giving blackcurrant jam made by our clever neighbour Sue (aka Queen of Preserves) from Cawton. Skipper and First Mate were suitably sustained before emerging from the Deben onto the open sea again about an hour and a half later, tacking into quite strong wind, battling a choppy sea and dodging showers.
Crew William was much happier once Follyfin had entered Harwich Haven, having found the choppy seas outside, well, shall we say challenging? Once past the cranes of Felixstowe and into the river Orwell, it was plain sailing again, nice and calm and quiet with a following wind to take us up to Woolverstone Marina.
We were then joined there by some very old friends, Laurel and Dick, whom we met many years ago across the garden fence of our first house in Cambridge and who now live and sail in these parts. In fact Follyfin was berthed just two 'doors' down from their "Swift" on the same pontoon. It was wonderful to see them again after a long gap and now this blogger must admit to a gross oversight - I completely forgot to take a photo of the event, being so overcome by the reunion (and probably not firing on all cylinders after three early starts in a row). A very unfortunate oversight but hope this can be rectified sometime in the future when FF and Swift may share another watery haven.
A siesta soon put us all on our feet again, and we had a lovely, slightly damp walk along the river path to Pin Mill and the excellent Butt and Oyster pub there. The opportunity to enjoy Adnams beer warmed the Skipper's heart - it was his favourite tipple during the almost four decades that we lived in Cambridgeshire. Yorkshire beer, especially Black Sheep, is excellent but there's nothing quite like Adnams - or so I am told.
Sunday morning arrived along with another crew member: Ivor.
Successfully negotiating Harwich Harbour again, we then headed south towards the entrance to the river Colne and Brightlingsea. It was sunny and there was a good sailing wind. The Gunfleet Wind Farm looked majestic in the sunshine (unfortunately no photos of that yet) and everyone felt well. Great! As the weather was settled we decided to spend the night on a swinging mooring in the Pyefleet Channel on the opposite side of the river from Brightlingsea. It was a good decision, the water being totally calm and quiet, with the silence only broken by the sound of birds. So we celebrated in the usual way. The sunset was memorable too.
Today, Bank Holiday Monday, dawned sunny and slightly warm. So young Ivor decided he needed to go for a swim but no one else was brave enough to join him ... it looked far too cold and murky but he found it to be invigorating.
Soon we were off again, towards the river Crouch this time. There are many sand bars - Ray Sand, Buxey Sand and Foulness Sand to name but a few - to be negotiated on this journey, not to mention the many and various sailing craft that populate these waters. This entailed several changes of direction, so although able to sail virtually all the way, the watch-keepers had to be extra vigilant to ensure safe passage through the various channels. But the Crew rose to the challenge and we arrived at Burnham-on-Crouch all in one piece and without incident. Here we said farewell to our temporary crew who headed back to London. Very quiet now they have all gone but looking forward to seeing them all again in London next weekend at the 'reception' to mark the official end of Follyfin's UK 2012 Tour. This is planned to take place at St Katherine's Dock where FF will be berthed for the night on Friday 31 August, having sailed up the river Thames that day. So if you are reading this, and happen to be in the vicinity of Tower Bridge that evening, why not pop over to see us? It would be great to see you. Meanwhile we will be studying the route across and up the Thames Estuary very carefully over the next 3 days to ensure we make it too!
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