Sat 22 Aug Overnight Passage #1

Scarborough to Lowestoft (140 miles)

After tummies full of fish n chips and a good night’s kip, we spent breakfast discussing our plans made for the trip down to Grimsby and on to Wells-Next-the-Sea, with the tides, tidal streams, entry times, exit times, lock times and so on.
We did a lot of playing with the numbers and then went with our gut feelings when Barbara said ‘shall we just go direct to Lowestoft?’ Deliberations showed a 140 mile voyage which would take 28 hours at 5 knots, making a day and a night at sea. We had deliberately avoided overnight sailing so far, out of choice, but the additional call of home drew us inexorably (and very quickly) to the agreement to get underway and ‘just do it.’

1235 saw us depart Scarborough. Filey and Flamborough headlands seemed to take an age to wave goodbye to us but eventually we were suitably offshore (Starlink conveniently acknowledged this and cut the connection for a while.)

The wonderful things about sailing overnight, especially when the wind and sea are a bit nicer is that we could enjoy the sunset, the night sky, and the amazing lights of the wind farms as we passed through the wide channels between them.

The North Sea is absolutely awash with derelict rigs and wind farms and all the associated paraphernalia that supports them. Plenty of marker buoys flashing white lights Morse * * - (U = You are standing into danger) marking the dying remnants of a bygone era. Plenty to navigate by and keep safe.

When I mentioned the wind and sea being ‘nicer’ call that not enough wind to maintain our 5knots Mean Line of Advance (MLA) so we motored most of it……again) BUT it was a comfortable night.

We arrived in Lowestoft the following day at 1715, 28 hours 20 minutes after leaving Scarborough. The curved coast around Norfolk goes on FOR EVER!!! Moored in the marina owned by the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club, our friend and fellow Fisher owner Charles Morland contacted us. Charles lives close by and is a very experienced sailor. Knowing the typical needs of seafarers, especially after a bit of a long-ish trip (and both in our 70s) he very kindly offered to run us to the supermarket to stock up on essentials (y’know, chocolate, biscuits, tea bags, cake and a few other bits and pieces.) Charles is a brilliant engineer and fix-it person and he is keen to fit a furling system to his mainsail, so allow him to continue sailing well into his 9th decade. Delighted, we invited Charles onboard in the morning.

Just after securing alongside, chap happened along to admire Wight Mistress (like so many folk do.) Anyway, a bit of a natter and we ended up in the bar (big surprise) for just a couple of glasses of something, then pulled stumps and stumbled back for well-earned kip. We might have eaten something, but as I write this after the fact, neither of us can remember.Read more