Onwards and Upwards


Well, welcome back, the last time I left you was about 6am in Southwold and I am now writing this in a hotel room in Hull.

After being woken by the charming Dutchman at 5.30am we tied up and went back to bed. We woke to a lovely morning but a bit chilly and it was decision time. After the disasters we had experienced and the bad weather, was the trip jinxed and should we go back to Ramsgate and try again in perhaps a month’s time or even postpone the whole trip until next year? As you know we decided to carry on to Lowestoft at least and assess the situation there, so we made the two hour trip in not very pleasant conditions but at least the tide was with us and we got there quite quickly.
The log entry shows two persons on board, Josh and Julia (under protest)!

There was no room at the marina at the mouth of the River Orwell so we had to go up the river to Haven Marina, which meant waiting about half an hour for the bridge to open to let us through. We moored up on a vacant pontoon only to be told over the radio that this was a private pontoon. Did we care? Not at this stage, we put the kettle on and waited for the bridge to raise and pootled up the river to Haven Marina. Not the prettiest place but it would do for one night. That evening we met up with some friends for a drink in a local restaurant so that was very pleasant.

Come morning we treated ourselves to a cooked breakfast in the local restaurant and then went back down the river to the marina at the mouth of the river, the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club marina, where they now had space for us. Once through the bridge we moored up and found it to be a charming little marina and the yacht club was lovely with superb facilities. Things were looking up! Josh’s son Andrew joined us by train to help with the next leg which was to be a long overnight sail to Hull. The cavalry had arrived and I began to feel a lot more positive about the trip.
We had a superb meal in the yacht club and they were very welcoming. The facilities were top class (by which I mean the Ladies Showers!)
Next morning, we were due to leave at 11.00 so we cast off well prepared for our 120 mile 24 hour trip. A couple of hours in we rang Hull Marina just to check they had space for us only to be told that the lock gates had broken and would not be fixed until the weekend (today being Tuesday.) So plan B was to go into Grimsby instead, on the opposite bank of the Humber. However, with things going well and Andrew on board we decided to make for Scarborough, which would be our next stop after Hull. This added about an extra 20 miles to our journey but would put us ahead of time, but I was disappointed that we wouldn’t be seeing Hull, a town I wanted to visit because it is the City of Culture this year.  However, as you see we did get a couple of days in Hull as we came here by train from Scarborough, which is why I am writing this now in a hotel room in Hull!
My next blog will cover the journey to Scarborough together with a bit about that town and the City of Hull.

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