2008 May Trip to Wells Next the Sea.

Well, it's about time. Good weather, good tides and a boat still in one piece. Having to work over the weekend I planned to take a few days off to sail over to Wells on the Bank Holiday Monday returning on the Tuesday. Fully crewed up with Big John and Cabin Boy Killingworth everything fell in to place. Rob and myself went over to the boat on Sunday evening to get the fuel aboard and most of the kit. It was then off to Big Johns and Paulines Caravan at Anderby to kip over. With a stupid o'clock start we made our way back down to the boat and cast off at 07.00am. With a N. Easterly wind we motor sailed up Wainfleet Roads and over to the Wind farm. It was then off over to Woolpack and the Burnham Flats with a long beat to Windward along the North Norfolk coast past Brancaster and Burnham before entering Wells Harbour around 1730pm. By the time we got to Wells, we'd reefed the Genoa and taken a reef in on the main, so must have struck up to about a force 5, with a little bit of a chop. On the whole trip over the only glitch was the Radio blowing the fuse on the panel. The harbour master sounded like he was getting a little concerned after we just disappeared off the air! Tying up on the new pontoons we made our way to the Crown Inn for dinner prior to heading back for some well earned zzzzz's on the boat. The following morning dawned, with bright sunshine from the start and a nice N. Easterly wind. Having cast off at just past 1900am we made our way over the bar which ws just getting a little choppy and turned to port to head back to Skeg. Steming a strong tide we resorted to motor sailing until we got back to the deep waters of Woolpack and we could turn to the Windfarm.By now the wind had increased and we were skipping along at 4.5knts on a close reach. With a little time to play around with before high water at Wainfleet, we made our way on a reach up the coast past the Windfarm which they were in the process of cranking up some of the turbines. We then headed back down past Skeg and between the exposed sandbanks to gain a little shelter from the swell. We made our run into the creek at around 1730pm and it was possibly one of the most difficult navigation's I've done. With such a strong spring tide and a relatively strong swell from the N.E. it was hard graft trying not to ground on the Leeward side of the channel, and with the disturbance of the mud the Echo Sounder was of little use. Finally at 1830pm we tied up and kicked big John off the boat prior to the tide cutting us off as it crept over the marshes. Next outing late May. Day trip out.