New Season : 2016

New Season 2016.

We had a good overwintering at Amble Marina, a very friendly place, with shops and several cafes within walking distance. In fact we have been based at Amble for 10 months, since finishing our UK circumnavigation last June. 

'Norman James' in her berth in Amble Marina.

Amble Marina.

The last of the off season jobs, replacing the steaming / deck light combination lamp with an LED unit, was finished in April. The bottom was scrubbed while beached on a very convenient basin near the entrance to Amble; this turned out to be a great success as we changed the anodes, greased the propeller, and cleaned the topsides during the time we had dried out. 

'Norman James' on the beach at Amble.

The Bosun aloft.

We left Amble on Tuesday 10th May slipping our lines and setting out on the 46NM passage to Hartlepool ( having already decided to head south this year in search of some warmth ! ). 

After a couple of nights in Hartlepool we moved on to Scarborough where we were told that the visitors pontoon had been reserved for the competitors in a P1 Power Boat racing regatta, fortunately there was a vacant berth in the residents marina. We had three nights at Scarborough to allow some strong winds to go through, in fact the racing was cancelled on Saturday as the seas were too rough. 

Other entertainment was provided by Jet Ski racing, and a display of Jet Boarding which was truly amazing. To those not familiar with this sport (I wasn’t) Jet boarding involves balancing on a what looks like a snow board to which two downward facing jet nozzles are attached, this is in turn attached to a large hose pipe fed from the output of a fairly powerful Jet Ski. The overall effect is that of flying on two powerful jets of water with lots of aerobatics - it looks a bit like hard work to me but it was really impressive! 

Ace Jet boarder at Scarborough.

The sea state was due to subside by Sunday 15th, and we left at 09-40 bound for the anchorage at Spurn Head. After a 54NM downwind passage we anchored, and had a quiet night on the hook. Bed beckoned early as the following leg to Wells-next-the-Sea required a 0600 start to get to the entrance to Wells an hour before HW. 

Monday 16th was the day after the neap tide which didn’t leave much depth in the approach channel even at HW! The least depth recorded in the channel was 1.8m and by this point the keel was well retracted to give clearance. Wells was one of the places we really liked on our way round the coast in 2012, so we were quite happy to have a three night stay here before moving on to Lowestoft on Thursday 19th. 

 Guided down the channel at Wells-next-the-Sea by the harbour launch.

Whilst in Wells we were joined on the pontoon by Moody Blue and her crew who were heading north from the Walton Backwaters. Their knowledge of Walton and the nearby Harwich Harbour was eagerly taken in for future reference, along with spare current guides which they happened to have on board.

'Moody Blue' and 'Norman James' in Wells.

Another early start on Thursday 19th May was required to make the most of the fair tide, leaving Wells at 0530. There was patchy fog in the forecast but the weather seemed fine as we started out from the visitors pontoon, however, past the lifeboat house the fog descended very suddenly and required a sharp lookout from the bow to move from buoy to buoy, eventually finding the West Cardinal buoy which marks the seaward end of the channel. 

Once clear of the channel we turned east and with the aid of AIS and radar had a good run along the north Norfolk coast, with fair tide until we were six miles south of Happisburgh. The tide then turned foul and we had a frustratingly slow passage from about 10-30 until we arrived at Lowestoft where we moored in the Hamilton dock marina run by ABP. 

The following morning we moved over the harbour to the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club to fill up with fuel, this involved dodging traffic coming through from lake Lothing (through the lifting bridge) and also liaising with harbour control and a large dredger ‘Orca’ which was working in the vicinity of the entrance to the RNSYC, this procedure then needed to be repeated for the return journey to our pontoon. 

Saturday was forecast to be wet but the rain came through early in the morning leaving quite a pleasant, though breezy  day, so we took a taxi to Oulton Broad and had a good walk around the shoreline and sat watching the sailing club racing on the water. 

Racing on Oulton Broad.

Lowestoft is one of our favourite destinations because it is a busy port with many different ship movements; whether it be dredging of the harbour, the coming and going of the wind farm  support vessels  and the routine traffic in and out of the Broads. The town is handy (Marks and Spencers is perhaps a bit too close for comfort as Sue satisfies her "shop until you drop") and it is a nice holiday destination. For us it also represents a good port of refuge after several longer passages heading south.

Wind farm support vessel 'Iceni Venture' at her overnight mooring next to 'Norman James' 

We have now revisited  the  ports we stopped at during our circumnavigation in early 2012, and for the rest of this season we intend to explore one of the areas we bypassed in 2012, the Suffolk and Essex rivers, The Medway area and the inner Thames estuary.