Crouching Kestrel II
Back in Spring, I ran a sailing trip from Ipswich, whose nominal target was south to the river Crouch. Predictably, we ended up going in the opposite direction, north to Lowestoft. In an optimistic frame of mind, I decided to run another trip with the same plan - except this time at the end of November...
Most of the crew arrived at the boat on Friday evening, as did the tesco shipping - all went smoothly this time. Unsurprisingly the forecast wasn't great, putting paid to the original idea - but as we weren't leaving that evening, it was a case of wait-and-see what the conditions were like in the morning.
After heavy rain overnight, the morning brought sunshine - and a stiff breeze. The forecast was still looking rather windy and rough, so we decided to head downriver and maybe go to the deben river, depending on conditions at sea. After a very relaxed start, we got under way before 11 and had a pleasant cruise down the orwell in 15-20 knots wind.
As we approached Felixtowe, the wind picked up, gusting to 25 - a sign of things to come. We switched down sails (the no.2 somehow picking up a tear in the process), and decided to have a nose out into the North Sea to see the conditions. We set off in the direction of Sealand, but the wind quickly picked up to 30 knots, and the sea was fairly choppy - not big waves, but fairly sharp - and soon afterwards people started feeling a bit rough. I decided that given the billing as a relaxed cruising trip, there wasn't much point in making everyone seasick. We about-turned and returned to the shelter of the rivers, and sailed up past Levington before heading to Suffolk Yacht Harbour as darkness fell. We had a very pleasant evening there, with a very tasty pasta bolognese, wine, and a slightly surreal Queen/hip-hop mashup of "A night at the hip-hopera" on the stereo! The evening was rounded off with a quiet visit to the Lightship, the local pub-equivalent.
After another stormy night and a wet morning, the next day we decided to wander down-river towards the sea, and up the stour river for a change of view. Despite the occasional force 6-7 gust, it was a fairly gentle and pleasant day's sailing - much less seasickenss involved! The wind started to drop as we returned up the orwell towards Ipswich, which we reached shortly after dark - all in all a very pleasant, relaxed, and even somewhat sunny day's sailing!
All in all, the weekend was good fun; the weather pretty much guaranteed that our scope would be limited, but we were fairly lucky in avoiding the heavy downpours and the worst conditions. Looking forward to Crouching Kestrel III - maybe when it's a bit warmer and calmer...
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