Explorers News

Explorers Cruise, Year 2000 July 22-29, East Coast

or "They can't believe it's all over"

It's always difficult to decide whether the week of Explorers comes quickly or not, but one thing's for sure - it certainly goes quickly. A week hardly seems long enough. Anyway, it was a great time and all went very well.

The gathering is always rather tense, as there is a lot that has to come together in the right place at the right time. The added complication this year was the chartering of a fourth yacht from Sail East a few miles upriver at Fox's Marina. By the time I turned up, there was a veritable log jam of food on the car park, with several people picking bits and bags out of the heap. At that time I wasn't sure they were all Explorers, but as nobody went hungry during the week, most of them probably were.

Angela sailed down river to Woolverstone with a reduced crew to pick up her victuals, and then we all sailed down the Orwell to meet up again at Shotley Spit Marina, into which we locked. Only a few miles at best, but for a first day, with work tiredness, long journeys and a new boat, it was quite enough, thank you.

The following day we sailed down to Bradwell Marina, in the shadow of Bradwell Nuclear Power Station, and stayed there the following morning while a small hooley blowed itself out. On the way to Bradwell, I picked up this call from 'Twinkler' on Ch 77, which was a bit of luck because I rarely have my radio on, and even if on, not always tuned to the right channel. Anyway, there was Ted Evans wanting to join us for the week. It was good to meet them at the mouth of the Colne, where we could watch them putting up a spirited defence against a freshening Easterly.

The evening meetings were beginning to settle into a pattern of fellowship and songs. But the fact remains that you always get to know the people you spend the week with a lot better than the others (I suppose that's obvious really).

(If this is sounding a bit boring up to now, nothing really exciting happened up to this point).

After Bradwell (where the Commodore failed to locate the Old Chapel and just wandered round a disused airfield in the shadow of Bradwell Power Station) we went North to the Walton backwaters and Titchmarsh Marina. I don't think Explorers have ever used Marinas to this extent before, but it does have its advantages (read on). Wednesday, to the River Ore. Duly warned about the entrance, and armed with the chartlet (current) and even having made a big effort to get the tides right, guess who still went aground? Everyone was very nice about it though. At least it was on a rising tide. Going up the Ore on the flood was a dream, watching Oystercatchers, Redshanks and, particularly, Avocets on Haverholme Island strutting their stuff. We managed to quay up at Orwell while the crew had a look at this delightful little town. Back downriver to anchor for the night.

The following morning, managed to get out without trouble, and spent a few hours doing navigation exercises around the sand banks of the North Sea. The time was available because the Ore had to be left no later than half tide, and the Deben entered about HW +2, so that left about five hours to do five miles. It's surprising how time flies when you are trying to find buoys in the mist when the tides are running too. The system works surprisingly well though.

The Deben was a dream, once the entrance was accomplished. OK it got a bit shallow, but it never felt uncertain. We met a chap at anchor on the way out who seemed seriously concerned that we would get out. A bit worrying, until I realised that the mud banks we had enjoyed when coming up river were now covered, and therefore there was more water than there had been previously, and therefore (I hope you're following this, the grammar checker certainly isn't) there should be even less trouble at the entrance, not that we had experienced trouble before, if you see what I mean.

The overnight anchorage caused a little trouble for some (OK, OK I know). It is surprising how a gentle still river can turn into quite a nasty tide race (well canter) in not much time at all. Yes we will have an outboard motor available in future.

Friday, out of the Deben, and back to the respective moorings in the Orwell, in torrential rain (good on yer, Kate), and avoiding large merchant ships making their way up to Ipswich (no it wasn't us).

In Summary, the week was so good because there was no attempt to try and do too much. Obviously, the weather being so good made the week - sunny but not too hot, and enough wind, and more often than not in the right direction too. What more could we want? Food of course, and that there was in abundance - thanks Nicky!

On the Saturday, group photos were taken, and people just hung around and chatted. They couldn't believe it was all over!