Orford

Gosh, that was an exciting entance ! It had been quite misty all the way from Lowestoft, but all of a sudden the visibility really dropped - to about 50m at times. It was a good job that we had downloaded the most recent information for the entrance from eastcoastrivers.com, as we wouldn't have found the Fairway buoy, and would have had to abandon our attempt to visit Orford. 

 As it was, the buoy loomed out of the mist bang on the bow, but it was several seconds before Sue could see it after I called it out from the bow !

Once we had found the FWB, the other two approach buoys ( Oxley and Weir ) were found without major incident ( again, at the positions given on the web site ), and we were in the river Ore. Once in the river the visibility improved somewhat ( at least we could see both banks ! ). A quick phone call to the Harbour Master informed us that he would be waiting  near the village to show us our mooring, and once safely attached we paid him, found out what facilities were available, and bade him farewell. A little later we used the dinghy to go ashore to have a look around, and buy a few provisions. The following morning we decided to go ashore again to have lunch, and a more detailed exploration. The Norman castle keep is in remarkably good condition, and is maintained by English Heritage. The audio guide was quite entertaining, and we certainly got to find out what every part of the castle was used for.

The view from the top was absolutely fantastic !

We had a very pleasant lunch in a cafe attached to the local Post Office / General Store, then had a look at the rather magnificent church. The whole village had a pleasant 'picture postcard' look to it - we like Orford.

Tomorrow we will go ashore again in the morning to post postcards, then make our way towards the mouth of the river for two hours before HW, then follow a planned route towards Harwich, along the 'recommended track for yachts' on the chart, which avoids the deep water channel for the busiest container port in the country - Felixstowe. Our destination is Shotley Marina - we have been told that Nightingales sing in the nearby woods at this time of year, so that would be a real treat.