Our Eastern most point and the best sailing so far!

We have just had the best three days of sailing we could possibly have hoped for! After a rather peaceful night on anchor in Walton Backwaters, we got up at 5am to catch the early tide up to Lowestoft. The initial leg was a bit of a beat out of the Orwell River mouth, and with a steady 18kts of breeze from the East it didn’t take long before we could free Scarlet up a bit on a long close reach up the coast. Unfortunately there were a couple seasick stomachs, but this didn’t get the crew down and there were smiles all round. With the tides, wind and sun all in our favour, we made it into Lowestoft around lunch time. We stayed at the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club, who did a fabulous job of making us feel welcome.
After a little afternoon siesta (much needed after our early active start) we set off walking along the beachfront of Lowestoft. It’s quite quaint and just a little kitch, with the typical pier entertainment arcade and ice-cream parlours on the town quay. We actually found a sandy beach which was quite a novelty. It made the perfect space for us to do a bit of kite flying. Everyone did pretty well, but it must be said that Larvell is a bit of a kite flying pro. He was really good at doing various tricks and turns with the kite.
Simon Cadle from the RNSYC very kindly invited us to dinner a the yacht club that evening. They were having a celebratory 60’s evening, which ended up being very entertaining for us. We had a great meal, surrounded by hippies and Elvis Presley, and watched the band play. Within an hour Lizzy, Lauren and Annelise were up dancing, and soon after Luke joined them. Lizzy really is a dancing queen and looked like she was having an absolute ball!
A big thank you to Simon and Roger from the RNSYC for such a fabulous and warm welcome, we really did enjoy our stay in Lowestoft.
Unfortunately we had to call it an early night, as we had another early tide train to catch. This time it was across The Wash, and our longest passage on the trip so far. The weather Gods were definitely with us again, and we had absolute perfect conditions for our passage. A little less wind, but still a good 10 to15kts from the NE with calmer seas (and no seasickness) and clear blue sunny skies! We were sailing as soon as we left the harbour, and managed to get from Lowestoft to the River Humber on one tack! Initially close hauled have us a great sail up the coast past Great Yarmouth, and we enjoyed sailing up our most Eastern point of our Round Britain Voyage. As soon as we rounded the corner we eased off the sails and were happily close reaching for the rest of the day. We had only about an hour that we had to motor sail (due to the wind dropping a bit too much) but then the rest of the day was just perfect sailing. Luke, although starting off with a bit of serpentine sailing, soon got the hang of driving and managed to get our boat speed record for the leg of 10.4kts. Everyone loved the day, and also managed to catch up on a little sleep with various bodies scattering the decks like a bunch of lounge lizards sunning themselves in the sun. Larvell also got involved with a bit of navigation.
We managed to keep sailing all the way into the Humber River, where we picked up a mooring buoy for the night (we didn’t have enough water to get into Grimbsy at that point). It was a bit of a bumpy mooring though, with the wash from ships rocking the boat, as well as a bit of wind against tide holding the boat in a funny angle.
This morning was a rather leisurely morning compared to the last couple, and we managed to actually sleep in a little. Again, the weather Gods were with us, and we had another perfect morning of sailing up the Humber River. We managed to keep sailing all the way up, and it did feel a little like we were the only people there. For such a busy port, the Humber was rather quiet today, with only two ships passing us. Were now in Hull Marina, with another friendly welcome from the marina staff. We are here a day early, but at least this now gives us the chance to do a bit of shore side activity, after our epic three days of perfect sailing. We also crossed over the Greenwich Meridian again as we sailed passed Grimsby. This is the 4th crossing, and only two left to go.
So, in one successful leg, we’ve completed the longest day passage so far (100nm), we’re turned round the Eastern most point of our voyage and crossed the Meridian again, all in perfect sailing conditions with HAPPY PEOPLE ON BOARD! Hooray!!!