Setting off from Wells in Paxton Princess on one engine, rounding the Norfolk coast and arriving in Great Yarmouth in early evening in the rain before cruising up the Bure and back to Heronshaw in Horning to be greeted by the Butterfields. I had tested out the sea-worthiness of the Paxton Princess and qualified for my RYA Day Skipper ticket.
The Scottish Tory Conference in Aberdeen is carefully orchestrated and the UK inflation hits an eight year peak at 9.4%. Elsewhere, despite a spate of air accidents, the main stories are of the three Baltic States meeting together to plan their anti-Soviet independence campaign. A riot in the occupied West Bank where an Israeli armoured car ran down and killed a 5-year-old girl lead to two other riot deaths of Palestinians.
We were understandably slower in getting going and then had to set off with only the Port engine in gear and propelling us forward. We kept the Starboard engine running to charge the batteries and power those systems that depended on them, but it was out of gear and the shaft was locked by clamping it with a pair of mole grips to stop the coupling clanking and causing further damage. The boat steered very well considering all this and we made a respectable 5/6 knots through the water. The hull seems to need little power to get up to these speeds and then a lot more to go much faster and so one engine is almost as good as one. Before setting off, we took the precaution of warning the coastguard that we were proceeding round on a single engine and cleared our departure with Wells harbourmaster.
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The northern exit leg from Wells was a bit choppy as we had a north-westerly wind across us and the waves across the bar. For the first half of the journey, we had the tide and wind behind us but as we rounded the coast, we were less sheltered and then the tide turned so that it was in opposition to the wind which made the waves higher. There were rain squalls on the radar for good measure which fell periodically as showers and it built up to what was the equivalent of a force 4 condition but fortunately, we did not have the sea across us. It made progress rather slow to be cruising on one engine against the tide. Once in Yarmouth Road, we were in more shelter again and we took the precaution of approaching the Great Yarmouth harbour diagonally to minimise the roll. It was 6.00pm as we turned into the harbour and by now the rain was pouring incessantly which was rough on poor Tom as we needed the mast and hood down to manage the three Yarmouth Bridges. We then had the long drag up the river against the ebbing tide which took a full four hours, with the last hour and a half in the dark.
The radar was helpful in identifying the bends in the river, but it was rather harrowing at the finish. We moored up with the assistance of Alf and Freda and, after Tom had collected his things together and left, I sank into bed, dog-tired, and went straight off to sleep as the rain continued outside. It had been a good test of boat and power plant to do this trip on one engine and in rougher weather but, despite some concern as we rounded the northern tip of the Scroby sands in the swell, we felt very comfortable throughout. In all, we had logged over 200 nautical miles (more with the tidal flow over the ground), investigated the tidal havens of the Wash and North Norfolk ports, tested out the sea-worthiness of the Paxton Princess and I had qualified for my RYA Day Skipper ticket which was very satisfying. Tom had been very complimentary about my navigational and general preparedness and was also impressed with the educational nature of a slow cruise to the Wash and back which had made a great change for him.
As far as developments elsewhere today, the Scottish Tory Conference in Aberdeen has been preceded by a carefully orchestrated series of speeches by government ministers pressing the theme that the worst is over for the party. The inflation figures released today have hit an eight-year peak at 9.4% but still the London Stock Exchange soars because the government's press officers had primed the market to expect a level of more than 10% which was clever. Overseas, despite a spate of air accidents, the main stories are of the three Baltic States meeting together to plan their anti-Soviet independence campaign and also of a riot in the occupied West Bank where the incident of an Israeli armoured car running down and killing a 5-year-old girl lead to two other riot deaths of Palestinians.