A life on the ocean wave
Well, in my last blog I promised a note on our onward voyage from Ipswich to Lowestoft.
We set off from Neptune Marina at 8.20 am fully expecting to be in Lowestoft by 6pm if not before. How wrong can you be! The wind was a cold and steady 20 knots on the nose and although the tide was with us it was wind against tide so a very choppy sea. It wasn't nice. However I had made sandwiches for lunch and a flask of tea for me in case it wasn't possible to go below and boil a kettle.
Things started to go wrong at 13.00 ...the engine stopped. Josh, being the marine engineer he is sorted it quite quickly and we were on our way again shortly, I wasn't too worried at this point.
Twenty minutes later the engine stopped again...oh dear!
Thirty minutes later it stopped again, oh dear double oh dear with knobs on!!. I was getting worried. The seas were still choppy and the wind remained a steady 20 to 24 knots and had not abated as had been forecast. (It will be alright the winds will be dropping by the afternoon were Josh's words that were ringing in my ears!) I was desperate for a cup of tea by this time, it was 14.05 and Lunar Sea was banging up and down through the waves so it was not nice to go below let alone try and boil a kettle. However, Josh managed to get the engine going again so we carried bravely on, tide starting to go against us and the Sizewell power station didn't seem to be moving.
An hour later the engine died again, Oh ******* dear!! Josh says calmly to me .. just sail it for a while, I am going below to bypass the fuel tank, I may be some time. So with the wind and sea conditions we had to head out to sea, the coastline was getting fainter and our plan to be in Lowestoft in time for tea was rapidly diminishing like the coastline. Imagine being a co-pilot in a plane and the engine stops and the pilot turns to you and says "Just fly her for me while I see if I can fix it". That is what it felt like to me. 45 minutes later Josh appears and the engine started, apparently we are running from fuel in a barrel fed by a tube into the engine and out again into the fuel barrel, which needed to be checked every so often to make sure there was enough fuel in the barrel. At this point I didn't care as long it was going again.
I am not a happy bunny nor a particularly warm bunny at this point. However I have decided I can't go on without tea so I steel myself and somehow manage to go below and boil the kettle and make some tea. We are heading back towards the coast but Sizewell is in exactly the same place it was several hours ago. Oh dear!!!! Memories of Dungeness come flooding back,but that's another story.
While I was below making tea I heard an unusually loud banging, what could it be? Josh had heard it as well and we thought it must be something loose in one of the deck lockers. It went on for about half an hour. Suddenly Josh shouts "Oh Shit it's the anchor, I'l l have to go up front to see what's happening" "Don't go onto the foredeck Josh," I shout as I see him disappearing out of the cockpit with no lifejacket on. The anchor had come loose and disappeared over the side and the chain had been banging against the side of the boat. The bitter end rope had just snapped as Josh got there, so bye bye to an anchor and 50metres of chain. We checked the bilge to make sure the anchor hadn't made a hole in the side and we were sinking, but that was all clear thank goodness.
Emergency plan B we decided we would go to Southwold thus cutting off several hours of the journey and we would continue to Lowestoft the next day. By this time it was getting dark and we had only had a sandwich each all day so I decided to yet again brave going below and open a tin of soup and warm it up on the stove. It got warmed up in a casserole dish as that was first thing that came to hand but by this time I didn't care.
We finally tied up in Southwold at 21.30, tired, cold and exhausted. We had to raft up to a Dutch boat that was leaving at 6am but we didn't care, we just flopped into bed until we were woken at 5.30am by the charming Dutch man who wanted to leave to sail to Amsterdam. His wife had been with him but she had decided to go home on the ferry...sensible woman I thought!
We set off from Neptune Marina at 8.20 am fully expecting to be in Lowestoft by 6pm if not before. How wrong can you be! The wind was a cold and steady 20 knots on the nose and although the tide was with us it was wind against tide so a very choppy sea. It wasn't nice. However I had made sandwiches for lunch and a flask of tea for me in case it wasn't possible to go below and boil a kettle.
Things started to go wrong at 13.00 ...the engine stopped. Josh, being the marine engineer he is sorted it quite quickly and we were on our way again shortly, I wasn't too worried at this point.
Twenty minutes later the engine stopped again...oh dear!
Thirty minutes later it stopped again, oh dear double oh dear with knobs on!!. I was getting worried. The seas were still choppy and the wind remained a steady 20 to 24 knots and had not abated as had been forecast. (It will be alright the winds will be dropping by the afternoon were Josh's words that were ringing in my ears!) I was desperate for a cup of tea by this time, it was 14.05 and Lunar Sea was banging up and down through the waves so it was not nice to go below let alone try and boil a kettle. However, Josh managed to get the engine going again so we carried bravely on, tide starting to go against us and the Sizewell power station didn't seem to be moving.
An hour later the engine died again, Oh ******* dear!! Josh says calmly to me .. just sail it for a while, I am going below to bypass the fuel tank, I may be some time. So with the wind and sea conditions we had to head out to sea, the coastline was getting fainter and our plan to be in Lowestoft in time for tea was rapidly diminishing like the coastline. Imagine being a co-pilot in a plane and the engine stops and the pilot turns to you and says "Just fly her for me while I see if I can fix it". That is what it felt like to me. 45 minutes later Josh appears and the engine started, apparently we are running from fuel in a barrel fed by a tube into the engine and out again into the fuel barrel, which needed to be checked every so often to make sure there was enough fuel in the barrel. At this point I didn't care as long it was going again.
I am not a happy bunny nor a particularly warm bunny at this point. However I have decided I can't go on without tea so I steel myself and somehow manage to go below and boil the kettle and make some tea. We are heading back towards the coast but Sizewell is in exactly the same place it was several hours ago. Oh dear!!!! Memories of Dungeness come flooding back,but that's another story.
While I was below making tea I heard an unusually loud banging, what could it be? Josh had heard it as well and we thought it must be something loose in one of the deck lockers. It went on for about half an hour. Suddenly Josh shouts "Oh Shit it's the anchor, I'l l have to go up front to see what's happening" "Don't go onto the foredeck Josh," I shout as I see him disappearing out of the cockpit with no lifejacket on. The anchor had come loose and disappeared over the side and the chain had been banging against the side of the boat. The bitter end rope had just snapped as Josh got there, so bye bye to an anchor and 50metres of chain. We checked the bilge to make sure the anchor hadn't made a hole in the side and we were sinking, but that was all clear thank goodness.
Emergency plan B we decided we would go to Southwold thus cutting off several hours of the journey and we would continue to Lowestoft the next day. By this time it was getting dark and we had only had a sandwich each all day so I decided to yet again brave going below and open a tin of soup and warm it up on the stove. It got warmed up in a casserole dish as that was first thing that came to hand but by this time I didn't care.
We finally tied up in Southwold at 21.30, tired, cold and exhausted. We had to raft up to a Dutch boat that was leaving at 6am but we didn't care, we just flopped into bed until we were woken at 5.30am by the charming Dutch man who wanted to leave to sail to Amsterdam. His wife had been with him but she had decided to go home on the ferry...sensible woman I thought!
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