Long Haul to Grimsby
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 skipper had spoken to the Wells harbour master who had given him some tips about the best route to take and so the evening was spent checking tides and putting waypoints into our GPS plotter.
I have become an obsessive weather forecast checker and have at least 6 sites on my phone that I check several times a day - and depending on my mood selecting either the most favourable or the most unfavourable as my "most accurate". On this occasion they all agreed that there would be a F3/4 from the S or SW not brilliant but from a usable direction - they all also mentioned the dreaded F word (Fog!). So the skipper and I agreed that if we woke up to poor visibility then it would be another day in North Norfolk!
The morning dawned bright with very little wind and just after 6:30 am the small flotilla of boats made their way along the winding channel out to the North Sea, there was no wind but quite a swell and the visibility although not brilliant was about 1- 1.5 miles. We chugged on under motor pushing out towards the deeper water, our friends from MCC had decided to hug the coastline a bit more passing closer to the inshore wind farms and the Lincolnshire coast. By sticking to a deeper water route we were hoping that things would be more comfortable and we might pick up a bit more wind. We kept the long rolling swell most of the way which was not uncomfortable just boring with the sea taking on a flat mirror like quality, there was also absolutely no wind so we chugged on for a boring 8 hours! The visibility really wasn't very good and we didn't see the coast of Lincolnshire at all until we were past Spurn Head and into the River Humber! Our main source of entertainment was watching the MCC boats on the radar and seal spotting.
Eventually once we had safely negotiated the complicated bouyage into the river the wind picked up and we gratefully hoisted some sail and killed the engine. The change was immediate gone was the thump of the diesel to be replaced by the lovely sound of water slipping past the hull. One effect of the long motor journey was that we had made incredibly good time and so were closing on Grimsby about an hour before the lock gates would be open. As the other boats from the MCC began to appear we tried hard to slow down and eventually turned into the tide and tacked across the river.
An hour later we tied up in the Humber Cruising Association Marina in Grimsby Fishdock No 2. We have visited this marina before by road and know just how friendly and welcoming they are. It is such a pity that the surroundings to this marina are so grim but the folk there are warm and friendly, the bar is great value for money, the beer good and the members really happy to give advice on the next leg of our journey.
No pictures this time as we didn't see anything other than a misty horizon!
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 skipper had spoken to the Wells harbour master who had given him some tips about the best route to take and so the evening was spent checking tides and putting waypoints into our GPS plotter.
I have become an obsessive weather forecast checker and have at least 6 sites on my phone that I check several times a day - and depending on my mood selecting either the most favourable or the most unfavourable as my "most accurate". On this occasion they all agreed that there would be a F3/4 from the S or SW not brilliant but from a usable direction - they all also mentioned the dreaded F word (Fog!). So the skipper and I agreed that if we woke up to poor visibility then it would be another day in North Norfolk!
The morning dawned bright with very little wind and just after 6:30 am the small flotilla of boats made their way along the winding channel out to the North Sea, there was no wind but quite a swell and the visibility although not brilliant was about 1- 1.5 miles. We chugged on under motor pushing out towards the deeper water, our friends from MCC had decided to hug the coastline a bit more passing closer to the inshore wind farms and the Lincolnshire coast. By sticking to a deeper water route we were hoping that things would be more comfortable and we might pick up a bit more wind. We kept the long rolling swell most of the way which was not uncomfortable just boring with the sea taking on a flat mirror like quality, there was also absolutely no wind so we chugged on for a boring 8 hours! The visibility really wasn't very good and we didn't see the coast of Lincolnshire at all until we were past Spurn Head and into the River Humber! Our main source of entertainment was watching the MCC boats on the radar and seal spotting.
Eventually once we had safely negotiated the complicated bouyage into the river the wind picked up and we gratefully hoisted some sail and killed the engine. The change was immediate gone was the thump of the diesel to be replaced by the lovely sound of water slipping past the hull. One effect of the long motor journey was that we had made incredibly good time and so were closing on Grimsby about an hour before the lock gates would be open. As the other boats from the MCC began to appear we tried hard to slow down and eventually turned into the tide and tacked across the river.
An hour later we tied up in the Humber Cruising Association Marina in Grimsby Fishdock No 2. We have visited this marina before by road and know just how friendly and welcoming they are. It is such a pity that the surroundings to this marina are so grim but the folk there are warm and friendly, the bar is great value for money, the beer good and the members really happy to give advice on the next leg of our journey.
No pictures this time as we didn't see anything other than a misty horizon!
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