One of the challenges of the trip has been the continual element of surprise – however long you spend scrutinising the weather forecasts, you can never be sure of the conditions you will find until you actually get out there. Expecting a cold and miserable sail back from Harwich, we instead found perfect conditions – a smooth 15 knot breeze in a favourable direction, flat water and a cool but sunny day. In fact, the ideal day for a sail. Ventata romped along at 7 knots and we flew past the wind array, remembering previous trips where we had inched painfully past each row of turbines.
With spring tides, there was plenty of water by mid-morning to cross the Wallet, a narrow gap, 15 miles offshore, in the barely-submerged sandbank that extends all the way past the wind array. (Last year we got our timings wrong for this gap and, being too impatient to sit around in lumpy conditions waiting for the tide to rise, our planned holiday in the river Blackwater became an unplanned holiday in the river Crouch instead.) We celebrated with morning tea and chocolate brioche, and delightedly ticked off each of the familiar buoys through the sands: Swin Spitway, Inner Whittaker, NE Maplin, Bell Maplin, Blacktail Spit, Sea Reach #1 among others.
Rogues gallery
We reached the start of the Medway approach channel by early afternoon just as the wind died. We persevered for a bit under sail, but as the tide strengthened we were not in a good position to sail into the Medway with millions of tons of water trying to get out of the narrow channel at the same time. [Some interesting features of spring tides: either the moon rises just as the sun sets (full moon, good as you can see well at night) or the moon rises as the sun rises (new moon, good for stars at night but if it’s cloudy you won’t be able to see a thing). The earth, sun and moon are aligned in both cases which sends a lot of water sloshing around. On the east coast, high water at springs is always close to midday; this timing is also influenced by the effect of the land on the tidal flow.]
However, by then we had done it! On Day 132 of our trip, we crossed our outward track and completed our circumnavigation. We’ll post some stats relating to the trip a bit later. We did a proper harbour stow of the mainsail, flaking each of the folds down neatly and motored up to Stangate Creek where we dropped our anchor for the last time and sat back to enjoy the evening sun.
The following day we motored in a flat calm back to the marina. One thing we haven’t missed about the east coast is the mud. Good holding, but sand has held us perfectly well elsewhere, and it is oh so nice when the anchor comes up clean rather than bringing 10 kilos of clay-like gloop up with it. As it was, we got away quite lightly this time. However, after 132 days of working perfectly, and a single night in the Medway, our speed sensor stopped working, most likely because some little critter has taken up residence and is preventing the small paddlewheel from turning. Another thing for the maintenance programme. But first, we will have to face real life again…
Ventata 