Sunday 24 July
Well, I was beginning to wonder if my crew had forgotten how to actually sail me properly, but today they gave me a really good run. We started by weaving our way through the Brightlingsea Regatta Sunday race fleet, including a very daring close encounter by a couple of the Junior GB Sailing Team boys. My sails went up and I was soon overtaking a bouncier yacht and loving 6-8 knots North East up the coast past Clacton on Sea and Walton on the Naze.
Skipper got his own back on the Mate this afternoon: one minute he was quietly sailing me goose-winged while she stole a few zzzs, and the next he’d turned me North West into the approach to Harwich Haven and all hell let loose, as the flat grey stratus clouds in the West should have warned the crew it would…if only they’d been paying attention. Suddenly the wind had increased dramatically and I was a little over-canvassed, but they held on, allowing me another cheeky little overtaking of a smaller yacht, bless her. Making a last-minute change to the plans and turning North into the River Orwell instead of starting in the River Stour made for a much easier end of day. The sails came down relatively easily as I was now heading straight into the wind, and we soon found a convenient mooring buoy to borrow, on the opposite bank from Pin Mill, a very pretty spot.
I slumbered under a velvet canopy of stars set off by an ochre half moon.