A peaceful time in Suffolk

Thursday morning was spent doing a little shopping in Aldeburgh and visiting an art exhibition in the local cinema. Very cultural! We bought smoked haddock from a smokehouse on the beach which made a very pleasant lunch poached in milk. After lunch we waited for the tide to turn before dropping down river to Orford for the night. We delayed leaving until the young sailors at Aldeburgh Yacht Club had finished their race, they had enough to contend with with the tide and the strong, gusty, wind without having a yacht manoeuvring in their course area! We did have one of the AYC RIBs attached to our anchor cable for a moment as the instructor was intent on dealing with the young sailor in an RS Tera who had just capsized. We sympathised with him, we've been there a few times ourselves!

AYC young sailors at close quarters!

After what must be our shortest passage yet, 3.14 miles on the log, we picked up a visitors mooring off Orford and headed ashore in the dinghy for a walk around the very pretty village and up to the keep, the only remains of Orford's Norman castle. The harbourmaster (another helpful one) gave us a low down on what was where in Orford and the current state of the sand banks at the bar. I think he was impressed that we used the latest download off the East Coast pilot's website coming in, he had many yachts using out of date editions of charts to come in! We just made the local general store but the bakery had closed for the day, giving us a reason for another call ashore in the morning. Arriving back to the dinghy, which we had left on the Orford SC jetty, we found her in a rather muddy state with some local young children playing in the water and the mud off the jetty. They were very apologetic when they realised just how much mud they had got on her and did their best to get it off, leaving us a little bit of cleaning to do when we got back alongside Lacerta, again we have been there before and weren't too upset.

Orford Castle keep.

Orford village and the view to the river.

In the morning we had time for a quick trip to the local artisan bakery before heading down the river to cross the bar at high water and make our way Southwards to Harwich and the River Orwell. We had wind (southerly force 4 gusting 5) and tide against us so what was a 15 mile sail over the ground turned into a 36 mile sail through the water. We had plenty of time and the sun was shining so we enjoyed the sail. There was plenty of shipping to deal with entering Felixstowe, with huge container ships alongside the quays.

Ships entering and leaving Felixstowe.

Container ships unloading.

We were due to pay a visit to Parker and Kay sailmakers in Suffolk Yacht Harbour to collect Debbie's latest order of aloe vera products and chat about some new sails but we were too late on Friday so we headed on up the Orwell to an anchorage inside the moorings south of Pin Mill. We saw more yachts than we had done on the rest of the journey since leaving Torquay, including one Southerly who insisted on motor sailing under autopilot with no one on deck. As we were still sailing with our speed altering as the wind strength varied he was a real menace! Despite this challenge we sailed almost up to the anchorage. As there was rain in the sky we settled down to dinner on board with a visit to the Butt and Oyster to look forward to at lunchtime on Saturday.

The Pin Mill anchorage.

Barge Thistle, doing day trips.

A little boat cleaning was the order of the day for Saturday morning, amazing how much easier that is when the weather is warm! Approaching high tide we headed ashore for lunch at the Butt and Oyster, last visited on a cold Easter cruise in our E boat when we were looking for the comfort of a warm log fire and a pint of Tolly Cobbold straight out of the barrel. It was good to see that the bar hadn't changed with barrels still lined up behind the counter, now with Adnams beers. This time we opted for lunch outside in the sunshine, watching the tide gradually creep higher (springs tomorrow). After lunch we walked up to Chelmondiston and visited the well stocked village shop then rewarded ourselves with ice creams on the quayside, by which time the tide was on the ebb, giving us quite a walk down the hard with the dinghy to find enough water to float her.

The Butt and Oyster at high water.

Someone hasn't done their tidal calcs!

On Sunday morning we made contact with an old friend, Fiona Wylie, who David met on the 2001 Fastnet race when Fi provided hot food on board Sir Jasper II irrespective of the weather conditions. Fi was going to Pin Mill SC for lunch and recommended their bacon sandwiches so that settled our lunch plan.

View from Pin Mill SC.

Our future plans are dictated by the sad need to travel to Lichfield on the 24th to attend the funeral of Robyn's old friend Charlotte Watsham who, on her 28th birthday, finally gave up the 18 year old struggle against illness, including 3 liver transplants. We have arranged to leave the boat at Burnham Yacht Harbour and travel to Lichfield next Sunday, returning on Tuesday to resume the voyage.

On a lighter note we enjoyed lunch with Fi, it was good to see her again although she has her own health problems at the moment which she seems to be overcoming. Pin Mill SC lunch was considerably cheaper than the Butt and Oyster, and their bacon sandwich turned out to be a bacon filled baguette with a substantial salad. We needed a walk through the woods to work some of that off, getting back to the jetty where we left the dinghy just in time before she dried out. Back on board Lacerta an afternoon siesta was in order.

View of Lacerta on our woodland walk.

Tomorrow we call into Parker and Kay at Suffolk Yacht Harbour before heading to Walton Backwaters and onwards to the River Blackwater.

 

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