Friday, 2 June 2017

Tetney haven to Bridlington, 31st May, 1st June

Tetney haven to Hornsea


It's working out well so far, going the 'wrong way round'. I leave at high tide and the ebb takes me up north.
Today I planned to leave at 10.30 on the high tide, but had a fender go AWOL, fortunately the wind took it to shore but it was very shallow, oars came in handy. Winds started off brisk from the east which was the direction I needed to go to get out of the Humber Mouth. First I had to head West to clear the sand bars, then a beat to windward, this was with two reefs in and playing with the jib area to keep the boat level. I felt that I was playing with the big boys when my first marker for crossing the shipping lane, tetney monobouy, was occupied by an arabic named tanker being held at the stern by a tug, gave that a wide bearth. The Humber traffic control said that they could see me on radio and gave me the all clear to cross over.

Then having got out East for the crossing I headed North following the coast. There was pretty big surf in the shallows of spurn point, there's summat about the noise of breaking waves en mass that jangles the nerves, obviously Wayfarer took it in it's stride with nose pointed in. Then it was a simple reach for quite a while, then wind dropped and I lost two reefs in quick succession.
It then felt like the wind was trying to sneak up on me, it came from behind very gently, then built up, so, learning from last Saturday I flew just the jib for the rest of the day, I reckoned I wouldn't get to Bridlington in the day anyway and it was to be a long days sailing. Once I cleared spurn point and the wind came from up the chuff it was bright sunshine all day.

I headed for a sticky up thing on the horizon which turned out to be a lighthouse at Withernsea and carried along a monotonous cost with soft cliffs with very narrow beachessian. I was wondering if there would be space to park a boat at high tide but logically we're near neaps so tide should not be so high. High tide was 10.15pm and I had to work out some where to stop for the night, scoped out what looked like the best prospect just north of Hornsea and anchored off there in very wavy seas. The waves were coming onshore at an oblique angle, when it was time I let the anchor rope out but it got me no where near the shore. The beach sloped at a sharp angle into the sea so I got in close with the outboard board, chucked out the anchor, and just about managed to land stern first in big surf. It took ages for the boat to stop moving and once it had I set up home and went to bed, no food,no tea, just sleep. Set me alarm for 5 low tide to dig anchor in to help get off.

Dodgy beach to ground on

Hornsea to Bridlington

Up early to catch 10.20am tide the anchor just pulled free! Must be summat to do with surf churning it up, managed to get out on oars against a gentle onshore wind then, tho' wind did steadily build up it was a pretty simple run to Bridlington ending with two reefs. Bridlington! Civilisation! They got toilets n showers n restaurants n everything. Arrived at 1pm, made a cup of tea, topped up outboard and filled stove on which the seal popped out, the plastic had got soft so mended it with a cable tie. Had a curry and bouteille de vin rouge, came back to boat, put kettle on and the stove leaked PETROL FIRE ON BOARD! (Wooden boat). The fire extinguisher I have worked very well. I think I suffered mild flash burns, the tarp has a hole melted in and I have no stove.

Dreamtime in Brid Harbour

3 comments:

  1. Congrats, mate. As a new converter to dinghies from cruisers, and a new owner of an old Wayfarer, your blog has become essential reading for me...

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  2. Hello Nick. Good to meet you in Brid yesterday. Best of luck. Will follow your blog with interest. John Best

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  3. Proud of you, Nick old bean.
    Break a leg as they say.
    Phil the fire eater

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