For a while, life seemed to get in the way of sailing: terrible weather near the end of summer 2023 foiled a Blackwater cruise I’d planned with my dad, and then my looming GCSE exams meant my Jeanneau Sun 2000 Victoria remained dormant, writes Jack Gore.

However, as soon as I strode out of my last exam in mid-June 2024, getting Victoria launched and ready for the season became my top priority.

We took the mast down, adding a lazyjack system for the stackpack that a skilled family friend, Sue, had made, as well as fitting a NASA wind indicator.

Other jobs included installing a new – to me – Raymarine E7d chart plotter on a swinging board and safety netting on the guardrails, assisted by my friend Sharu.

In a rushed few days, Victoria was ready – just – for the East Coast cruise that my sailing club was running, and was launched with lots of help from Up River Yacht Club (URYC) members.

Setting sail

With Mum as crew, we dropped the mooring in Hullbridge, Essex, on a Friday evening and sailed down to Fambridge where we went alongside Esmerelda, my parent’s Sun Odyssey 40.

That evening we did a few more jobs, such as tidying up the wiring with sticky-backed clips, which turned out to be about as useful as a chocolate teapot: by Saturday morning, they’d all but fallen off.

I also plotted a route to Osea Island, familiarising myself with the fancy new chart plotter.

We set off from Esmerelda at 0700 the next morning, into doldrum-like conditions; whatever wind there was seemed to go round in circles, and after an unsuccessful attempt at trying to fly the asymmetric, we resorted to the outboard, which soon competed with retro tunes blasting from my speaker.

I started my RYA SafeTRX, a tracking app, which my Scout leader Martin had recommended to me a while back –it worked really well as a free alternative to AIS and meant Dad could follow our progress throughout the week.

As we edged towards the Swallowtail and Swin Spitway, the wind picked up and we hoisted the main and unfurled the jib.

In a very satisfying manner, we began to catch up with the larger boats, namely Dad and my sister Rosie, as well as Dennis and Martin in their Sadler 290 Island Dreamer as we crossed the Spitway.

Near the end of the Spitway, we hoisted the asymmetric again, more successfully this time.

We cut the corner coming into the River Blackwater, keeping half an eye on the depth sounder, which remained constant at around 0.6m under the keel.

We dodged the Knoll, successfully, before the wind picked up and we entered the river at speed; we hit 7.4knots (a record for me!), before broaching. More practice with the big sail methinks!

The wind swung around more towards the east, and it became a slightly more upwind leg.

We turned the outboard on again, but as soon as it began to idle it stopped and wouldn’t restart.

Fortunately, we quickly realised it was out of fuel – crisis averted.

After filling the internal tank, we motored towards Osea Island, anchoring in a couple of metres of water.

We tidied the boat before my sister and dad came for a drink and snacks.

Afterwards, we motored to the beach in the inflatable and had a barbecue with the rest of the URYC group.

That evening, we had drinks on Esmerelda with the rest of the URYC crew, watching the sunset.

Overnighting

Originally, we’d planned to put Victoria alongside Esmerelda for the night as I only had 4m of chain, the rest being rope, however as the night was so still, I decided to risk my own night at anchor.

Victoria was swinging round lots, so I put the rudder down, to give us some stability.

We awoke the next morning, and I checked the window to see if we had drifted – luckily, I couldn’t see Maldon, so that was a good start.

We pulled up the anchor and found a huge ball of weed and mud on the anchor itself: I put the anchor into a bucket for a minute, before I motored alongside Esmerelda.

We had sausage and egg sandwiches, before transferring a few bits – there is no point wasting gas for a cup of tea if I’m paying through the nose for the electric as well!

We left about 0800 into what seemed like another lull.

We pulled the asymmetric up, but the wind seemed to grow incredibly quickly so we dropped it again, not desiring a repeat of yesterday’s broach.

In sod’s law fashion, the wind then dropped completely, and we motored along while the sails flapped above.

We were being chased by black clouds however, and the wind once again filled in from behind, more consistently at around 16-18 knots, bringing rain with it – this was when we discovered a flaw with having the chart plotter on a swinging board in the companionway, in the fact that you can’t put the washboards in place while still viewing the chart plotter.

We solved this issue for the time being by placing a large cushion in the gap, which minimised the amount of rain entering the cabin.

When we turned north towards the Orwell, it became a fetch, and we put a reef in the main as we passed Jaywick Beach.

We stayed relatively inshore, just a few hundred metres off the coast.

Low battery

I was protecting the battery at this point – two days without charging was beginning to take its toll – so we checked the chart plotter every 5 or 10 minutes, to ensure we weren’t heading straight into a sandbank or other submerged obstacles, before turning it off again.

I think a new battery is in order for this winter: my current one is nearing the end of its useful life, to the dismay of my savings.

Around the Medusa Channel, the swell began to increase – I assume it got rougher due to it getting shallower – and we had a few waves over the bow as we pointed up towards the Orwell.

The wind seemed to die as we beat into the Orwell, past the huge ships at Felixstowe.

We took another hour and a half to tack up the river, past Levington, Pin Mill and finally to Woolverstone.

One part of this trip I was looking forward to was getting more confident in boat handling in marinas, and it has certainly improved.

National 12 friend George and his young daughter Rosa had come out to meet us in their tender, and once we had tied up, we had a drink and caught up with them.

Afterwards, we had Pimms on Gerry Ledger and Liz’s boat – there are downsides to having the biggest boat – who’d skipped Osea Island and travelled straight to Woolverstone.

That evening we had a lovely meal in Woolverstone Marina’s MoniMar restaurant, which had only opened the night before.

We had a day off the next day, so the URYC crew made the mandatory crusade to Pin Mill and the Butt & Oyster pub.

Afterwards, we went for a walk around the Webb Boats yard to look at the boats awaiting restoration, among them a Contessa 32 and a Hunter Duette.

When we returned from the pub, I went to find Arthur Ransome’s boat, Nancy Blackett, which features in many of his books including We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea.

We had our dinner, tortellini, on Choc Orange that night with Gerry and Liz, as the weather was not playing ball and space inside Victoria is cosy at best – she’s the sort of boat you live out of, if that makes sense.

On our way to brush our teeth in the marina bathroom block, we heard voices undercover on some benches overlooking the marina.

We wandered over and had an impromptu social, although I did have to go back and get coats and jumpers, as well as drinks, as it was surprisingly bitter for a June evening.

Worries began to arise about the weather window for a return on Friday.

Trip curtailed

These worries were not dispelled the next morning, and a skipper’s meeting on Island Dreamer found a consensus to return that day, lest we be storm-bound in an expensive marina for an extended period of time.

It was a shame to miss out Ipswich Beacon Marina in the town centre, and Levington, though especially Beacon Marina as I was looking forward to ‘locking in’ for the first time as the skipper on Victoria.

However, I knew an early departure was probably the correct decision overall.

We left Woolverstone at 1200 after I cooked a breakfast bagel of sausage, egg and bacon, all in the same saucepan to minimise washing up!

We sailed down the Orwell, but the wind became flukier and flukier so we began to motor.

As we were overtaken by Dave Payton on his Southerly 110, he asked if we had a toilet, and when I replied sadly not, he graciously offered me a Jabsco one – I think Mum was more pleased than me, as she wasn’t particularly impressed with the ‘bucket-and-chuck-it’ solution we’d used so far!

Fitting a loo will be an exciting job for this winter, as it will make anchoring overnight far more civilised, and I will be more self-sufficient.

We continued to motor southwards down the coast, trying to sail at various points as I was trying to conserve fuel.

However, this led to another issue as at one point we couldn’t restart the outboard at all – the rope to start it felt very notchy and didn’t want to be extended.

After some investigation, I managed to start it, with me having to manually hold the gear in neutral within the engine itself before starting it – I think the neutral lever isn’t quite disengaging the engine, so the reel won’t unwind as it won’t start in gear. I’ll need to check this before my next trip.

We continued to motorsail, through the Swin Spitway, before taking the sails down at Outer Crouch Buoy 1.

I turned the engine up at this point, as it was getting dark and I was exhausted, and we blasted back at 6.5 knots with the tide.

We eventually reached Burnham, where outside the marina we put the fenders starboard-side-to, so that we could reverse into our pontoon – the lack of wind felt like a good opportunity to try to hone this skill.

However, as we edged down the aisle, it turned out the pontoon was to our starboard side anyway, so I went bow in, slightly disappointed but mostly just glad to be safely tied up.

Gerry and Liz kindly cooked us dinner aboard, as we both didn’t fancy the Indian meal the rest of our friends were planning to have in Burnham town.

They’d been waiting for two and a half hours for us to arrive, which was admirable self-discipline!

I then bumped into a school friend, Alex, who wanted to have a look at the boat.

Mum and I were winding down afterwards, ready for bed when the rest of the URYC crew returned from their Indian – we ended up on David’s boat until 0100 in the morning! I was introduced to ‘proper beer’ – Sharp’s Doom Bar.

Exhausted, we collapsed back on Victoria in the early hours of the morning.

The next morning, I crowbarred myself out of my cosy sleeping bag into the grim, wet morning.

We paid our harbour dues, where I grimaced – minimum charges of 8m meant that my small 6m boat only cost £6 less than Choc Orange, a 9m racing boat.

Familiar jetty

We left about 0900 and motored down the river.

I went past my mooring, instead tying up at Fo’c’sle Marina – aka Nanna and Grampa’s jetty – to unload all our stuff with help from Uncle Ben, and to borrow their rowing dinghy so we could get ashore.

We left and tied onto my mooring, before rowing to the slipway to drop Mum off.

I then rowed all the way back to Nanna and Grampa’s jetty, whilst mum drove the car around.

Tying the dinghy to the jetty brought our trip to a close.

It felt like a huge shame to come home early, but probably the best decision overall.

For our next extended voyage, Dad will swap with Mum and be my crew.

We’re planning a trip to turn right out of the river (a new experience for me on Victoria) to sail to Ramsgate and circumnavigate the Isle of Sheppey on a long weekend.

Tips for sailing on the East Coast: the Crouch, Blackwater and Orwell

Passage planning

With this being my first extended trip on Victoria, having Dennis of Up River Yacht Club (URYC) sort out the passage plan for all the members of our cruise was a godsend.

I studied the route he created and got my head round the choices made in terms of tides etc, as a learning exercise.

Dennis had provided three options, we mostly went with Option A, but instead of visiting Titchmarsh we ended up in Woolverstone and obviously, we didn’t make it to Ipswich and Levington marinas, and instead returned early to Burnham:

Option A

• 30 June depart Osea 0800 destination Walton/Titchmarsh, two nights.
• 2 July depart Titchmarsh 1100 destination Ipswich (16 miles), two nights.
• 4 July depart Ipswich 1130 destination Suffolk Yacht Harbour (Levington), one night.
• 5 July depart SYH 0500 destination Burnham Marina (30 miles – high water 1300), one night.
• 6 July depart Burnham 1100 destination URYC (arrive before high water 1448). The Harwich Harbour Authority provides a tide time table: www.hha.co.uk

Option B

• 30 June depart Osea 0800 destination Woolverstone Marina (36 miles) or Suffolk Yacht Harbour (33.5 miles) on the River Orwell (low water 1251), one night.
• 1 July depart Woolverstone 1230 or Suffolk Yacht Harbour at 1300, take the last of the ebb to Landguard Point buoy (7.5 and 5 miles respectively) then head for Woodbridge Haven arriving no earlier than 1600. Enter River Deben, destination Waldringfield (6 miles) arrive 1700-1800 pick up buoy. Stay overnight or push on to Woodbridge Marina (3.5 miles) arriving no earlier than 2000 (one hour before high water 2100), one night.
• 2 July depart Waldringfield 0845 destination Woodbridge (3.5 miles – high water 0945),
  one night.
• 3 July depart Woodbridge 1100 destination Felixstowe Ferry (5.5 miles), pick up buoy as indicated by harbourmaster. Arrive no later than 1700 if stopping en route, eg for a swim at ‘The Rocks’. One night.
• 4 July (low water circa 0400) depart Felixstowe Ferry 0730 destination Suffolk Yacht Harbour (12 miles – high water 1120 at SYH, one night.
• 5 July depart SYH 0500 destination Burnham Marina or URYC (arrive before high water 1448).

Option C

For use in the event of adverse conditions (especially a forecast for strong north-east winds):

• 30 June depart Osea 0600 destination Heybridge Basin (4 miles) 0700, stay two nights.
• 2 July depart Heybridge 1000 destination West Mersea (11 miles), one night.
• 3 July depart West Mersea 1100 destination Brightlingsea (7.5 miles), two nights.
• 4 July excursion – take two or three larger yachts up the River Colne to Wivenhoe (5 miles) depart 0800 with as many members who want to go, arrive by 1000 on Colne SC hammerhead, depart one hour after high water circa 1330, return to Brightlingsea berth by 1530 at latest.
• 5 July depart Brightlingsea 0830 destination Burnham Marina via Raysand Channel (18 miles) arrive 1300 -1400. Stay one night.
• 6 July depart Burnham 1100 destination URYC (arrive before high water 1448).

Anchoring

Anchoring is commonplace in areas such as Osea Island and Pyefleet Creek, and I found the former to have good holding, although I picked up lots of weed on the anchor when I pulled it up – a bucket is to be advised to chuck all the debris in as the chain comes up.

Coastal hugging

You can choose whether to remain inshore or further offshore depending on the circumstances. While I hugged the beach south of Walton for a shorter route, bigger boats remained further offshore, for a longer passage but with more consistent wind, as well as the reduced risk of lobster pots.

Shipping activity

Going into the River Orwell, there is obviously significant shipping activity at Felixstowe, and we followed a ‘recommended track for yachts’ on the chart plotter, as well as keeping our heads outside the cockpit on lookout.

We were lucky to enter with good visibility and it turned out no ships were moving at that time. Inclement weather While it was a shame for our trip to end early, it was a lesson to me as an inexperienced skipper on how imperative keeping an advanced eye on the weather is.

Although the weather was fine for most of the week, our return day back to the Crouch was forecast to be stormy and bang on the nose.

Had I been on my own, perhaps I might have continued onward to get further from home while bad weather brewed later in the week – and that would have culminated in Victoria being stormbound far from base.

About the author

Jack Gore’s first channel crossing was aged two with his parents on their Westerly Fulmar and he has dinghy sailed since he was four or five.

He now sails competitively in a Streaker both on the open circuit and at club level, and gets out on Victoria as much as possible.

Balancing sailing with school is challenging, but Jack’s dream is to circumnavigate mainland Britain then cruise the world.

Follow his adventures on Facebook and Instagram @victoriatheboat

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