Poldeaux - Tradewind 35: Lowestoft to Grimsby

1.8 Lowestoft to Grimsby – 25^th May

Poldeaux ready to leave the Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club

The say was spent rather nervously preparing for a night time passage, my first for a number of years. It was also going to be one of the longest passages of the trip, just over 100 and would take in the region of 20 hours so whatever time we left was going to include so night sailing. My choice was to make the night sailing as short as possible by leaving at midnight, it would only be about 4 hours as dawn will break about 4am. We would also be fully awake and not tired. Added to the mix the sea still had a good degree of swell but it was time to leave Lowestoft.
At midnight we left the safety and hospitality of the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club. With a degree of apprehension we stowed the lines and fenders in the harbour and put up the main sail.

Earlier in the evening I had taken Captain for a walk along the harbour pier to try to envisage the sea and the navigation lights. It seemed quite simple from the shore and a static position but I knew it would be different on the water with the swell and the tide pushing us backwards. In an attempt not to concern Steve I didn’t really share my feelings but I’m sure he picked up I was on edge. One of the joys of being new to sailing is you have a certain naivety as you don’t know the full power or dangers of the sea.

The first half hour was certainly challenging as we got used to the considerable swell and orientated ourselves and Steve began to see and understand the difficulties of night sailing. There were lots of navigation lights but at nights your perspective is easily upset as a bright light that is more distant can seem closer and you need to know the light sequences to identify the correct light to head for. To explain a little more, each light has its own sequence of lashing for example three flashes every 10 seconds or two flashes every 5 seconds.

At 1230 we had past our furthest point east and were off West Holm and by 0145 we were off the bright lights of Great Yarmouth. By 0300 and my eyes feeling as though they were on stalks we were through the channel and now needed to avoid several ships, but the merest glimmer of dawn was on the horizon!

Off Great Yarmouth

During the morning we took it in turns to take an hours sleep each.

By 0415 we were off Eccles and by 0600 were we off Cromer. It was now a case of working our way through the sand banks off the Wash. At 1400 we were approaching Protector buoy on the run into the Humber. At 1445 we spotted Spurn Head light house.

At Protector Buoy we met with Benito a Dutch yacht we had first met in Lowestoft

Steve after his first night sail

As we approached the Humber we decided to take a quick look at Spurn Head anchorage so the Port authorities was called to obtain permission to cross the entrance. Although Steve was quite keen to anchor it looks an inhospitable place to me so we decided to press on to Grimsby. I knew we were both tired and have much more rest in a marina.

We ploughed on up the brow Humber to Grimsby. When we arrived we found we had to wait for an hour to lock in to the basin run by the Humber Cruising Association. At 1945 we tied up in Maridian Quay.

I have to say the members of the club gave us a very friendly welcome.

Even though the marina lies in a rather down area it's still possible to get a romantic photo of a fish dock!