Saturday 27th may, Boston to Mablethorpe

Me and Marky Boy went through the grand sluice lock at Boston at 10.50 and then tied up to a pontoon to get reefing lines set, mast up and ready for sailing action. All was set fair for a good sail with a wind from behind forecast by inshore waters to be force 4 or 5 and the ebb tide flowing in the direction of our travel. The wind felt pretty strong when motoring down the confined channel of the Witham estuary, but when we got out there were just a few white caps on the waves so not too bad. We settled into an hour on hour off watch system with my very inexperienced crew mate getting his first real taste of helming. Our ambitious aim was to dry out on tetney haven in the mouth of the Humber or alternatively land on a beach;.decision to be made for 8pm which was high tide.

  Well, the wind got up and a couple of times I stopped focusing on the job in hand and when the kicker got caught up in a tail end of rope it resulted in accidental gybe number 1, after which I noticed that the second reefing ringle at the leech of the sail had pulled out. Then as the wind got up more, we were doing loads of long surfs down waves coming from right behind with the wind similar then I had accidental gybe number two which very nearly resulted in a capsize with a fair bit of water getting into the boat. Marky did a grand job of getting out the bailer & the self bailer worked well too. Then we noticed that the boom fitting at the gooseneck had been pulled out. So we dumped the boom and sail in the boat and proceeded under foresail alone which was plenty. The conditions were such that if i had known that we would have such heavy weather in advance I wouldn't have left Boston. The seas became very choppy with waves breaking around us, we were even surfing with just the foresail. The option of running up onto a beach was not looking very attractive either. But things were stable and safe on the sea running before the wind on the jib alone.

  As the day wore on the wind dropped a bit and the sea became a bit smoother with a long swell and a beach landing began looking more feasible. Around 7pm it looked like running onto the beach was definately our best plan and just after high tide we aimed for Mablethorpe. Got landed OK, turned the bow towards the sea and soon the boat was settled. We landed right outside the lifeboat station and one of the crew came over to see all was OK, he said it had been a force 6. I  fixed the boom, Mark bailed the boat, we put up tent and fired up the stove. Plan is to pick up the high tide when it is back again tomorrow at 8.20am, it'll  be a bit lower than today's .