 | 24 th of August 2012 - Circumnavigation complete |
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| Crew : | Helen and Andy | |
| Destinations : | River Orwell. | |
| Distance : | 61 miles |
Friday 24 th August
By 0550 we had slipped our mooring and were followed closely by two other yachts. We exited out of the Eastern Entrance under instruction from Port Control, who made us feel protected from the ferries coming into the harbour. Swift went out of the Western Entrance which was very brave as this meant they had to do their own collision avoidance as they crossed the Eastern Entrance on the outside of the harbour. We motor sailed around the Kent coast from South Foreland to North Foreland, with the tide in our favour until just before North Foreland. We were expecting gales in the next day and had hoped that we might have strong south westerlies to give us a quick passage across the Thames Estuary. As it happened the wind was right behind us and not strong so we ended up motor sailing for most of the way. Swift followed with her cruising chute flying all the way.
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SOUTH FORELAND |
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NORTH FORELAND |
We left them quite a long way behind as we motor sailed up the Kent coast. However, as we passed through Fishermans Gat and into the Black Deep they gradually started to catch us up. We sailed once we got a better wind angle out of Black Deep, and watched as Swift approached and overtook us just before Harwich entrance and disappeared up The Orwell River.
We gybed in and passed Languard north cardinal mark and Felixstowe Docks, making us feel we had returned home and it was truly the end of this circumnavigation of Great Britain. We picked up a mooring in the river just as it started to rain.
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