Ipswich to Lowestoft - 22nd May

1.7 Ipswich to Lowestoft – 22^nd May 2016

This may sound rather odd to the non-sailor but one of the nice things about Ipswich marina are the showers, the cubicles were spacious and well designed, in that the shower water does not soak your belongings, there were plenty of hooks to hang your cloths and real luxury the heating was still on so the whole room was toasty.  So it was showers before departure.

Steve Whelan joined me yesterday, he had a successful liver transplant nearly 16 years ago. Steve had no sailing experience. Any skipper will understand with the enjoyment of having crew comes responsibility to ensure their safely and ultimately potentially their life.

We departed the marina and made our way slowly to the lock while I explained the locking procedure to Steve.  By 0815 we were safely through the lock and in the River Orwell

We passed Pin Mill, Levington and then the cranes and ships of Felixtowe.  At 1015 we were saying farewell to the Stour and Orwell and by 1100 we had crossed the shipping channel and were north of the entrance.

The sea was flat calm and we motored all the way.  We passed Sizewell nuclear power station and by 1500 we were off Southwold.

We arrived in Lowestoft 1700 to the hospitality of Royal Norfolk and Suffolk yacht club.  As you enter Lowestoft you turn sharp left to find their marina just inside the harbour.

We had covered 40 miles in 9 hours and Steve had has his baptism to motor sailing.

The day was ended by supper in Harbour Inn.

Monday 23^rd

The forecast for Lowestoft was Force 5/6 so we decided to stay put and walked to Lowestoft Ness which is the furthest point east in the UK.

 

 

To the south there was a promenade and the pleasure beach.

In the evening we met up with an old School friend of Steve’s a guy called Peter Ellis.

Tuesday 24^th

The wind was still blowing hard from the north, so we decided to stay put again and filled the Gerry cans with some extra fuel and visited the Maritime museum which was all about the history of the fishing fleets of Lowestoft.

 

The Royal Norfolk and Suffolk has a great sailing history and I know its off but the men's toilet had a rather grand cistern!  

 

 

Wednesday 25^th Lowestoft

The wind was still from the north and we started to kick our heels, it was time to leave Lowestoft but we made do with lunch in a seafront hotel and supper back in our old favourite the Harbour Inn