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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.
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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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After a successfully safe night moored to one of the GOBA mooring buoys, we set off in good visibility, light and variable winds and with the sun breaking through to cruise around The Wash in bright and warm weather until the tides were right to round the North Norfolk coast and arrive at Wells at high water. As we turned past the Wells Fairway buoy, the noise and vibration became bad that I put the starboard engine in neutral and so came in using only the Port engine and then we dried out on the sand later to diagnose the issue.
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We rode well on our mooring buoy and were still secure in the morning. Tom had wrapped the mooring rope twice around the buoy eye to guard against chaffing and had also secured another rope for safety. He advises a wired eye spliced onto a large bridle if we are to be regular users of mooring buoys in fast tidal streams. After breakfast and other preparations, we used Channel 14 for Lynn Dock clearance and then slipped our mooring buoy and set off in good visibility, light and variable winds and with the sun breaking through. We were proceeding with Tom as the helmsman and me the skipper and navigator and, as we were always going to be early in arriving at Wells tonight, I plotted a course to cruise around The Wash. Working back from our planned arrival time at Wells, where we wanted to be at high water, I calculated that we had a few hours and so took us north west to the Freeman Channel which gives access at all states of the tide to the Boston Deeps, a sheltered deep channel along the northern Wash.
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We escaped without harm from our grounding and then retraced our course to exit Blakeney and then cruised around to The Wash with the tide behind us and with a slight sea and good visibility. a little way up the Lynn Channel at Cork Hole and within sight of the tide gauge, we anchored and waited for the tide and then cruised up to the Boal Quay at Kings Lynn for the night, doing some servicing.
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I slept well The Paxton Princess was afloat again in the morning with no obvious damage in evidence. After making our preparations to leave, we raised our anchor and cruised in and around the other boats, establishing that there was more water (up to four metres) to the West, amongst the other boats in general, and close to a large catamaran in particular. We then cruised off, retracing our entrance course and this time leaving the black can buoys to our Port before rounding the green entrance buoy and heading west. The seal colony seemed even larger than usual with some bobbing in the channel with their heads sticking out, but most were hauled up on the sand banks. We cruised around to The Wash with the tide behind us and with a slight sea and good visibility. Tom sighted a Dolphin on his watch. Once a little way up the Lynn Channel at Cork Hole and within sight of the tide gauge, we anchored and I made us a cooked lunch (which we appreciated after our recent sandwich snacks) whilst we waited for the tide to come in to enable us to make the rest of the journey up to Kings Lynn.
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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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