Wednesday 27 May 2009

Woderful Welcome into Ipswitch

We departed Bradwell with a fair bit of wind, but unfortunately this was right on the nose. But, it didn’t last that long, and within an hour we were back motoring (at least in the right direction!). It really impresses me to see how people get over their fears. WeeMan wasn’t feeling so well in the beginning, but got over it and bravely took over the helm. Within minutes he was back on form. The helm is such a wonderful place on a boat – not only is it the control position, but it is also the seasick medic.
Steffy has done incredibly well this week. From not wanting to steer in the beginning of the week, I could hardly get her off the wheel yesterday! She definitely has got a knack for sailing, and when all the boys had gone down below to sleep while we were beating out of the Blackwater River, Steffy was up and working the winches like a pro. It’s wonderful to see how confident she has become on Scarlet – to the point of haggling Dan for the wheel while we were winding our way up the river. I think it was the rib driving that set her off – fearless speed demon at heart!
We got into Walton Backwaters just in time, as the tide was already dropping quite a bit. There is a rather shallow sand bar that we had to get over in order to get into the creek, and this could only be done 3hrs around high tide. The creek was beautiful… but like so many sheltered waterways around here, it was full of little boats on moorings. We were a little large for these, so ended up spending the night anchored out in the middle of the creek. There is something about being out on anchor that I absolutely love – it’s peaceful, free and independent! The clouds came down and weather deteriorated, but this just made our cosy little environment so much better, and we spent the night playing games. Articulate has taken over on the popularity scale with this crew. It is such a great game though as it gets everyone talking/shouting/laughing!
We were also lucky enough to do some British wildlife spotting, and saw a seal in the creek! Of course, we didn’t get a photo of it, so according to Frank – it wasn’t real. (A little bit like the dolphin that we saw on leg 1!).
The wind unfortunately was still not in our favour yesterday, and was blowing up to 28kts – exactly from where we wanted to go! But we did just have a trip up the river to do, so at least it was a bit sheltered. We had a really impressive welcoming committee that met us at Levington creek – an Oyster 82’ and an Oyster 655. We were then escorted up to Fox’s Marina by these two beautiful yachts. A big thank you to Liz and Barney at Oyster Marine for such a fantastic welcoming!
The Orwell River is really beautiful. Green rolling hills and fields surrounded by patches of forest. We saw the most amazing little cottage too – right on the water (with a boathouse attached), and surrounded by countryside. For me – the best of both worlds!
Skandia put on a fantastic reception at Fox’s Marina for us and had a barbeque going which we all went up and enjoyed. It was a great way to end off another successful leg. Bryony Shaw of Skandia Team GBR was also down to welcome us and say hello to the kids – it was really good to meet her, and a real inspiration to our crew. A big thank you to all at Skandia!
It was quite a squeeze getting Scarlet into her berth. I didn’t quite believe Frank when he showed me where I had to take her – a really narrow, tight corner then onto a tight berth in front of a crowd – no pressure there! Frank greeted me with yet another ‘rather you than me’. We made it in without any problems, now we just need to get back out somehow..

1 comment:

  1. I believe you ! We saw several in the Orwell when there a couple of years ago ! Aren't they cute popping up their faces ? Hard to photograph though in any case. So you see them, so they're gone !

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