Day 8 - Lowestoft

A tad late with this blog - I have been a little busy.

Day 6 Ipswich to Southwold.
We finally left Ipswich 2 days ago, locking out at 08:30. It looked from the forecast to be fair winds and we should have the tide with us for most of the trip up to Lowestoft. ETA was 18:00. How wrong I was the wind was 16-23 knots and just East of the nose. The tide however was with us until past Orford Ness when the first of a series of engine failures occurred. Air was getting into the fuel system from somewhere, but where? In all we had 4 failures until I decided the best option was to re-route the fuel flow and return pipes directly from a 20 litre drum. The problem was solved but it had cost us a lot of time.
The seas weren't getting any better and by now the tide had turned making it very painful to make any headway. We persevered on at less than 3 knots over the ground. It was still bumpy! Our friends couldn't make the trip and my crew was not a happy bunny. I now know what Captain Bligh went through!
To top the lot the rope making the anchor fast had chaffed through with the continual movement and decided to start come out, the brake evidently was not tight enough. We had heard a banging which had been put down to something in the deck locker. I was down below when I heard the chain streaming out of the windlass. By the time I had got to it obviously the noise was the anchor that had grabbed the sea bed and come right out, eventually snapping the bitter end. At least the boat was now lighter!
With darkness coming the best option was to head for Southwold. How many times did we see Sizewell reactor on the beam. We eventually arrived to raft up to a Dutchman at 21:30 to find out the boat we were rafted to was leaving at 06:00.
We were in need of good sleep and a cup of Cocoa.

Day 7 - Southwold to Lowestoft.
I convinced Julia that todays short trip of 12 miles had to be done today rather than Sunday because of the forecast.
The Dutchman knocked on our boat at 05:30! We went back to bed.....
Eventually we left the tranquil setting of the River Blythe at 11:15 for conditions not unlike the day before. At least we had a favourable tide and sun being out for a while helped. We arrived and had to wait for the 14:30 bridge opening for an hour.
Unfortunately, the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club couldn't accommodate us as they had 12 cruisers booked so berths were not good so it was a trip up the river to the Lowestoft Haven Marina for us.
Managed to sort out most of the electrics so we at least had a charger and met up with our friends in the club house for drinks and them more entertaining on Lunar Sea.

Day 8
My son Andrew was to arrive today for our planned trip up to either Grimsby or more likely Hull - some 120 miles so means an overnight sail.
More work on the electrics - I now had one of the immersions working so at least Julia was happier she could have a shower. I took out some valves in my fuel system which I had seen dripping fuel and I had convinced myself was the cause of our problems and gave it a good test run.
The RN & SYC could now accommodate us so we shifted to there to meet up with Andrew and a beer.

Their clubhouse overlooking their own marina is lovely, but not quite the same view as RTYC. The food is by all accounts really good so we shall try it tonight and hopefully have an early night.
I am not as young as I used to be!!!!

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