by Malcolm Sadler » Fri Aug 05, 2016 12:18 am
30th and 31st July on the Orwell.
Having spent most family holidays in the south west, I was unaware of the east coast rivers, and it is a delight to discover them. Rondo (sail 123)?lives on her trailer wherever I can find storage, and has been in a farmyard in Essex for the last few weeks. As nearby sailing waters, I reconnoitred the Deben, Orwell and Stour and the Walton backwaters and their respective slips and moorings before choosing Woolverstone marina to launch and sail on strong recommendation of a locally based sailor. He was right. At all stages of the tide there is much more room to enjoy Rondo on the Orwell than on the Deben or the Stour, let alone the backwaters.
29NM on 31st July, down and up the Orwell twice. Wind NW f3-4, but 4/5 at confluence of Orwell and Stour.
First lap was solo with first reef in main and flying staysail only. I really understood the meaning of weather helm and the need to balance the sails. My crew joined me in the afternoon so we could handle the genoa (sans staysail), again with one reef in the main, and she was perfectly balanced, albeit with gunwale almost in the water where the wind blew strongly out of the mouth of the Stour. The yellow track on my Navionics iPhone app showed how appalling had been my tacking in the morning, but happily how it improved during the day (about my 12th day since first sailing a Cape Cutter)
For information I should mention that launching and recovery at Woolverstone is really only recommended within an hour or so (2 hrs max) of HW. The precarious looking structure on the downstream side of the slip is condemned and inaccessible, so someone needs to wade in and hold the boat while the trailer is driven up to the park, then motor the boat to the mooring. This was definitely a two person job. Recovery was easier, but possible only by motoring straight onto a fairly deeply submerged trailer, jump over the side and throw a bow line to a very helpful passer by who held Rondo's bow close to the winch while I hooked on the winch line. If Woolverstone chooses to replace the old structure with a floating pontoon close to the slip it will make a very pleasant marina even better.