Walton Backwaters : Thursday 26th May

We weighed anchor and motored back down the Stour as there was no wind. There was a little excitement as we approached Shotley when a PAN PAN was called from a yacht which thought he had lost drive from his engine and was in danger of being stranded on Shotley spit, it turned out that his depth sounder was faulty ( saying 5.3m ) and he was actually aground in about 2m of water. Another yacht had tried to help but backed out when his sounder was approaching 2m. In the end the stranded yacht managed to wriggle off the spit  and broadcast a very sheepish apology as the PAN PAN was cancelled. 

On the way into the Walton Backwaters we saw our first Thames barge sailing out of the backwaters, towards us.

Beautiful Thames Barge.

We picked up a mooring we had kindly been offered by a couple we met in Wells aboard ‘Moody Blue’. This was a lovely spot adjacent to the entrance to Cormorant Creek. 

'Norman James' on her loaned mooring.

A dinghy expedition to find a suitable landing placed was in order, but in the end this turned out to be only about 50m where a rail guarding a sluice provided a secure point to tie the dinghy up whilst we walked.

Above and below, views from the sea defence berm.

The beach outside Stone Point.

After following the sea defences near Stone point for a while we turned down the coast making for the Naze tower. We walked up the not inconsiderable number of spiralling steps, and were rewarded with some marvellous views from the top.

Views from the top of the Naze Tower.

We then walked through the outskirts of Walton on the Naze and back along the sea defences to where the dinghy was waiting patiently for us.

'Norman James' with some of the salt marsh in the foreground.

The dinghy at high tide with 'Norman James' behind.

On Friday we moved up river to Titchmarsh marina where the wind was gusting to ~20Kts. With limited options for walking from Titchmarsh, we decided to move again on Saturday and back to the Stour to explore the upper reaches of the river before heading up to Ipswich to leave the boat for a week or so.