Breakers at bedtime

A combination of weather and circumstance have led us to a situation where we both agree that we would like to do a little more actual sailing. Even better, sailing in the absence of gales, fog or electrical storms. It seems that our wishes may just come true, certainly regarding the quantity, if not quality of the sailing.

Having been woken early by the insistent tapping of the mooring buoy at Felixtowe Ferry we rise and have a smart breakfast while we ready the ship for the sail back to Pin Mill.

On a lovely warm sunny morning we set out sailing into a F3 headwind which is being ably assisted by a foul running tide. The sailing however is lovely, Flamingo is at her best sailing close hauled and feels as though she is loving it. We have decided to sail the whole trip if possible, partly because we want to enjoy an extended sail with no deadlines and partly due to some concerns over the engine’s possible longevity.

Flamingo’s single cylinder diesel engine has always threatened to do something dreadful, while continually plugging on regardless, almost to the point of being contrary. It is reluctant to start, but has always started; once running it bumps, bangs and leaps about in the engine bay while it settles, yet once running is as smooth as you could hope and it always goes on running, 30hrs continuous back from Holland being it’s best effort.

Now however the reluctant diesel is showing symptoms that suggest that all is not as it should be. At higher revs she is beginning to produce characteristic blue smoke as if she is burning engine oil, checking the district confirms that for the first time she is indeed burning oil. So we have decided to ration the use of the engine, Flamingo is after all a sailing boat with auxiliary engine. I have also accepted some teaching work over the winter to finance what looks inevitably like an engine replacement during the closed season.

Anecdotally we appear to be making limited progress as we enjoy beating down the coast but we are sailing and the sun is shining. A bit of careful plotting however reveals that a one hour tack has gained us 0.2NM towards the turning point at the mouth of the Orwell, so we treat ourselves to 50 minutes of motoring. Soon we are able bear away, silence the engine and reach up through the container terminal and into the river, finally sailing onto our preferred buoy in time to prepare an evening meal as the wind again dies to nothing.

We were not to get away lightly again because just as we were planning to retire to bed the wind whistled up to an unforecast F7, straight up the river and against the ebbing tide. This raised a horrible and remarkably large chop which has us bucking around on our mooring in the now pouring rain. We spent an anxious 45 minutes watching the boat anchored immediately to windward of us but to their credit their anchor held. Almost as quickly as it started the wind dropped back to nothing, the rain ceased and we were able to retire, sleep soundly and wake to a lovely calm and sunny Friday; the start of the bank holiday with it’s attendant gale forecast.

So off we motored in the flat calm trailing our own little hydrocarbon mist up through the lock to the protected sanctuary of Ipswich Haven marina. A hearty thanks goes out to the crew of the enormous motorised tupperware tub who beckoned us to raft alongside them in the absence of a safe space for us. To the crew of the 55ft wooden ketch who stuck their hands in their pockets and whistled while staring at something important on the lock side, shame.

Ipswich Haven marina has a lot to recommend it, easy access to good shops for provisioning, nice bars and restaurants and it is very picuresque. Three streets back from the waterfront, as in many ports it is less salubrious. It has to be said that the friendly and helpful staff are a little disorganised. It took them two hours to find us a space as they were ‘very busy, it’s the Bank Holiday’, and the space that we were allocated was only suitable for a ‘slim yacht’. Why we couldn’t have used one of the eight adjacent berths which remaimed empty all weekend is a mystery. I suspect that having paid for two nights we could have remained until the end of the season unnoticed.

Ipswich is great, along the waterfront it has pretensions of being San Tropez, which it isn’t. Over the weekend we saw a lot of white trousers that probably fitted when bought, and a lot of those white jackets with sail numbers stitched to them. We finally got to eat in Isaaks on the quay, which is legendary with local sailors. They coped well with the current predicament creating a friendly atmosphere, as did The Nelson, and The Steamboat.

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Spirit Yachts did not disappoint with three of their incredible boats being afloat and in the final stages of production. Commendably they were tied up to the public pontoons and unattended. I can confirm that the heads on the larger of the three is beautifully fitted out and functions perfectly. A little research revealed that the Spirit Yacht used in Casino Royale with Daniel Craig had it’s mast craned out at each of the ten bridges in Venice to give the appearance of her sailing up the Grand Canal!

Tucked up amongst the high rise buildings we hardly noticed the gale but the messages from friends suggested that it was bad elsewhere. Bank Holiday Monday dawned sunny and warm with a light northerly breeze so we headed back into the river. Having monitored the lock on the VHF it was becoming clear that the tide was only just going to be high enough to allow free-flow, and if it did it wouldn’t be for long. Fearing a scramble we motored round ten minutes early to be third in what was becoming a very big queue; all administered with humour and an air of drama by the lock keeper.

Once out in the river the engine began to give real concern, a local forecast of visibility poor was issues for areas immediately astern of Flamingo. We shut down the engine and had a delightful sail once again to Pin Mill to assess the state of play.

The engine still starts and runs, but for how long? A chat with Dan, who knows about these things suggests a hole in the cylinder head! So we now have to consider the engine as being utterly unreliable, we also feel that whatever hours (or minutes) it has remaining need to be saved for essential docking. We also have to ensure that we don’t get into a situation that we can’t manage under sail alone.

So with the sky and the Bank Holiday boats clearing we will sit tonight to plot out what the remainder of the trip will look like. Marooned at Pin Mill in the sunshine, what an earth will we do?