Hartlepool

Another dry warm day predicted and again no sign of any wind! We were also approaching spring tides so the tide was flowing quite fast. We motored quietly out of Whitby to be met by a glassy sea and a slightly misty horizon. There was no point in hoisting any sail since even the windspeed indicator at the top of the mast was saying 0! On we chugged in not very good visibility heading towards Hartlepool.

This was the view from the boat most of the morning spot where the sea ends and the sky begins!

I really wasn't certain about Hartlepool the bits of it I had seen previously had been of a fairly run down town, however we had heard good reports of the Marina and we knew it was home to HMS Trincomalee and the naval museum so thought it would be worth a visit. The forecast was also for the weather to break over the Bank Holiday weekend with thunderstorms and high winds so we felt happier being in a sheltered marina rather than in a smaller more open harbour.

As i said the tides were running quite hard and even with the engine running quite slowly we were still making about 6 knots or more - I generally plan on 4-5 knots - so we were going to arrive too early for the channel up to the lock at Hartlepool! Eventually as we approached the wind farm just off the entrance to the Tees there was a slight increase in wind so out came our big genoa and off went the engine. Even like this we were still making 2k over the ground but at least we had slowed down.

We locked into Hartlepool and settled down for a couple of days - the forecast was sounding worse every time we looked with predicted heavy rain and thunder on Saturday - just in time for the Bank Holiday weekend! My fears about the place were however unfounded the Marina is large and modern with clean toilet and shower blocks for crews. The marina development has also resulted in a vast selection of restaurants bars and cafes overlooking the marina which initially I thought would lead to some noisy evenings but not at all it was all very pleasant! The marina staff were friendly and welcoming and invited us to stay on Saturday for their annual BoatFest in the dock where there would be opportunities to try new water sports, watch demos and join in with a BBQ. 

We spent Friday in the RN Museum looking around their recreated quayside village and also over the Trincomalee a fascinating ship and beautifully restored - I believe she is now the oldest surviving floating ship of this era. It was lovely to stand on her deck and feel her move gently in her dock as she was meant to - much better than the slightly sterile feeling one gets when standing on the deck of an historic ship in dry dock! The weather all day was bright and sunny but we could feel the wind building. The 6pm inshore waters forecast was talking of 4/5 with thunderstorms and heavy showers and so we decided that we would rather be sat in a Marina amidst boats with taller masts than ours rather than out at sea with a 40’ metal mast sticking up in the air during a potential thunderstorm so the decision was taken to stay!

Saturday lived up to the promise of heavy squally showers and some thunder but nowhere near as impressive as those happening in Kent and Essex. The upside of the poor weather was that we got to stay for the Hartlepool Marina event and this was made even more special for us by the arrival of HMS Pickle from Hull. This little boat is a recreation of the original Pickle which was lost off Cadiz in 1808, her claim to fame is that she was the ship chosen to bring the news that the British Navy had triumphed at Trafalger but that Nelson had died in battle. For a naval vessel she is very small and is not square rigged like the other boats at the time which makes her very special and I think with a name like HMS Pickle really cute! The Marine Festival was great fun and we saw some great displays of water skiing, wake boarding and jet skiing as well as a chap who uses the water exhaust from a jet ski as propulsion for a sort of hover board! He ends up hovering about 30’ off the water and then does acrobatics on the board with the jet ski driver down below using the engine to change the pressures on the board - strangely hypnotic. We also had the chance to watch a mock rescue by the Hartlepool ILB and also see the end of a real rescue as the OLB towed in a fishing boat that had lost propulsion - needless to say the applause and cheers for both crews were loud and hearty. Towards the end of the afternoon we got talking to the crew of Pickle and had a look over her and heard about the huge amount of work that has gone into restoring her to her current state - it was really special to have been aboard these two boats on consecutive days and a special memory I will take away.