Blakeney Point
Blakeney Point

Setting off with Day Skipper tutor Tom Phillips down the Bure to great Yarmouth and then north and round the Norfolk coast to Blakeney, where we anchored in ‘The Pits’ but dried out in the Spring low water. No obvious sounds/signs of damage but nothing could be done anyway.

Gorbachev wants the move for German unity delayed and is trying to extend "Perestroika" to the Red Army and has sharply attacked the war record of Stalin

I slept well enough and got up early at 7.00am and, after Freda had given me a nice breakfast of fried bacon and tomato at 8.00am, I topped up with fresh water and diesel and got the boat right ready to go. Tom Phillips arrived on time and we were soon slipping our mooring ropes just after 9.00am and heading off downstream to Great Yarmouth with a following tidal ebb. We lowered the canopy and mast to get under the Haven Bridge and then finally cleared the harbour at 1.00pm. The water was quite broken at this point with a light S.E. breeze and we rolled about a bit beam-on to the swell until we got further out and had it behind us as we turned north up Yarmouth Road. The cupboards burst open under the weight of their contents (as I have not yet got the correct type of safety catches on them) and most of my drinks glasses smashed on the floor! I was not too worried as I was planning to change them for the unbreakable variety anyway as glass in dangerous to have onboard, but it looked quite dramatic at the time.

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The tide was nicely with us and we completed the trip around to Blakeney in six and a half hours with forty nautical miles through the water. I kept a log book of the whole voyage and noted the details of the seals that we saw and the funny black cans that are used as starboard hand buoys. We had a look round the inlet but decided against going up to Blakeney itself due to its drying out. We moored in a very sheltered spot in what we thought was The Pits and spent a quiet evening phoning home, plotting the tides and course up to Kings Lynn for tomorrow. Later in the evening, we realised that the bottom was drying out fast with the Spring tide and then we became fast aground with an uneven bottom of stones and sand. There was nothing that we could do and could hear no sounds of damage and so went to bed. The news tonight was still about football after the weekend soccer riots of Leeds "fans" at Bournemouth where the Football League had decided to go ahead with the game despite police advice against it. The complications to world affairs caused by the move for German unity are still troubling the Soviet Union who have called for a delay in the process. In the meanwhile, Gorbachev is trying to extend "Perestroika" to the Red Army and has sharply attacked the war record of Stalin who remains a hero to many of the older generation.