Tenacity Round Britain Voyage – Hartlepool to Ipswich leg.

Saturday.

0530 is not anyone’s idea of fun but the tide dictated that we set off then on our southbound voyage, having learnt to slip lines the night before.

The North Sea was sloppy and lumpy despite the fact that there was no wind to sail. This most unfortunate state of affairs continued all day with the result that Sam heaved both early and constantly (not a great introduction after Michael had spent the last week selling the trip to him) and Michael felt pretty awful.

Eventually we were sent below to recover leaving the unanswered question of whether we would put into Hull or battle on straight to Lowestoft.

On waking – feeling very refreshed – we found out that we were continuing on the epic journey and settled down for a watch together with a terribly romantic sunset over the regimented rows of freighters and tankers: all that was missing from the oily water was a bottle of champers (rah rah! – S.). Sam was determined to see through his first night watch which included frantically pressing buttons on the auto helm (George) in order to avoid objects both big (tankers) and small (propeller-destroying lobster pots). Happily, he was wide awake having slept through the morn, in contrast to Michael who charted a respectable 8 ½ hours sleep. So, whilst Michael went below at 2200, Sam spent another two or three hours on watch learning about night navigation and checking various light signals on the chart with Mate Ian.

At 0600 on Sunday morning, our waking saw the Norfolk coast rearing unexpectedly from the still calm seas. Pleasingly, we were moving rather faster than expected due to some luck with the tides, so by about 0800 we saw Great Yarmouth and proceeded down the Yarmouth Road (the channel outside that town) past several wind farms until we sighted Lowestoft at about mid-morning. The Ian’s took us into harbour with Michael and Sam manning the lines.

We have had very little sailing so far due to light and contrary winds, but the forecast is promising better conditions so we must hope that, for once, it is accurate.

Sam Hardy, Michael Durbar,Ian, and Ian.