Two go Sailing

Well I wasn't going to say much about Bridlington apart from the fact that it was cold and muddy! That was until we decided to visit the Royal Yorkshire Yacht Club whose imposing building looks over the harbour.  Following a cold drizzly day looking at what Bridlington had to offer we went back to the boat for some supper. My impressions of Bridlington were a friendly sort of town trying to bring back some of it’s former glory as a busy seaside resort - and indeed the beach is really impressive tucked nicely into the bay and sheltered from much of the cold northerly winds by the large cliffs that are Flamborough Head. The town council also seems to be making lots of effort to improve the town with a big pedestrian area development. Despite all of this there is something quite sad about a former bustling holiday town off season and the peeling paint on many of the buildings was quite sad to see. That evening, largely to escape the cold, we decided to see if the RYYC was o...

After a brief hold up at the Fish Dock lock waiting for traffic we were back out into the River Humber and the big ships ploughing up and down the deep water channels. We stuck to the edges in water far too shallow for the big boys until we spotted a gap big enough to let us cross from the south to the northern side of the river. A brief chat with Humber VTS and we were cleared to cross over which made me very happy as we were now close to the infamous Spurn Point and I was able to get a good look at it! On a nice calm day it was lovely but I can imagine how scary it must be in poor weather with a big sea running! Rounding Spurn Point in glorious sunshine and motoring gently out to sea avoiding the sandbanks close to the shore we were joined by a couple of seals having a good look at us. I’m sure that once they had established we weren't a fishing boat so there was no chance of an easy meal they disappeared! Motoring along the coast was not the most interesting as it is gener...

The weekend weather was not looking to good with F6 squalls generally cold and miserable so we waved a fond farewell to the Medway boats and headed up river to the relative calm of Hull. I had wanted to call in here all along so was secretly very happy with the weather gods although I would have appreciated less rain and a bit more warmth but hey ho! Hull marina is very close to the old town (across the road in fact) and they are very friendly and welcoming. We locked in in the rain and tied up in the rain but as if by magic once settled the rain eased off and we were able to dry out the oilies. As it was Sunday we decided to try and find a church service but we were too late for all of the morning services and the only evening service we could find was in the large parish church. That however turned out to be a really good thing! The day before we arrived the church had been redesignated as a Minster (still not really sure what that means but it was the cause for much celebration)...

We always knew that this would be a long relatively uninteresting leg of the journey and in my head this leg had always been the first real challenge. We were heading for Grimsby on the southern side of the Humber and the hospitality of the Humber Cruising Association. We had a day off in beautiful  Wells where we were joined by our daughter in law and 21month old grandson who seems already to have sea legs! After they and our son had left in the late afternoon we set about preparing for the trip the following day. Whilst in Wells we had been joined by a small group of 6 boats from the Medway Cruising Club who were also doing the circumnavigation the one difference for them being that they had allowed themselves 3 months to complete the journey whereas we are happy to take as much time as we need.  After a windy day in Wells the general decision was that the forecast was good for the following day and we would head out across the North Sea pushing north to the Humber. The sk...

Early on Wednesday morning we quietly slipped out of the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk as the sun was rising. This was quite a good sign as that sun has been conspicuous by its absence over the last few days! Despite this it was still very chilly and the thermals were in use again! This was to be the first of a few long passages over the next few days taking us from the Suffolk coast all the way to Wells Next the Sea on the North Norfolk coast. The forecast was for E3 but as we left it was SE0-1 so not much point in putting up the sails. Just outside Lowestoft we motored past Ness point marking the most easterly part of the UK - sad to say it has little of the razzamatazz associated with Lands End or the Lizard point so apart from a slight imperceptible course change to port it largely went unnoticed! We motored past Great Yarmouth with its promenade and funfair munching on bacon sarnies and drinking hot tea in an effort to keep warm, the skipper and our son taking turns at the helm. Onc...

Those familiar with Bradwell Waterside will know the sugar cubes - they are the now redundant buildings of the old nuclear power station decommissioned and clad in some form of grey overcoat but they still look from afar like two giant sugar cubes. For many years these sugar cubes have disappeared over the horizon as we have departed on our summer holiday or been the first misty sign that we are approaching home. So on a cold blustery Mayday morning we watched the sugar cubes disappear as we began our new adventure. It was a bit of a shock to the system getting up at 4am to ease our way out of the marina 45 minutes later in the early light with the prospect of F4-5 winds gusting 6 at times. Within the first few minutes we had broken two of the rules we set ourselves - namely no sailing when there is a F6 or above in the forecast and no sailing when the temperature is less than my shoe size!  How wrong can you be - with the tide under us and the wind on the beam we had a blisterin...