Day 11, Passage 6 and Day 12

Left Shotley Marina at 8.30.  Started out fine with a good wind and tide to get on to Lowestoft.

Pretty imposing site as we left the marina

However the lift by the tidal stream got much stronger and although we were tramping along, there was a lot of yawing about.  We passed Sizewell but although pretty impressive from the sea, not so when I looked at the photo - sorry.

Wind picked up and put in first reef.  Tide got stronger and wind changed direction to SE - not the direction we wanted.  We were surfing down waves and showing more than 8 knots - not really what we wanted.  All this meant that we would arrive at Lowestoft too early, making it hard to get into the harbour due to strong N setting tidal stream.  Bertie was starting to show signs of strress.  This was all quite a handful for three hours! 

Got to Lowestoft too early, but got permission to enter the harbour and whooshed in!  Turned a sharp left into the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club - tied up.  Wind was increasing all the time and pushing us off the mooring.  A cup of tea later, went down to the sea front, waves really crashing in now.  Perhaps it was better that we arrived early!  Had a portion of chips, but halfway through, wind picked up the packet - and that was the end of that.  Don't think we'll be moving tomorrow and Bertie is fine now.

Day 12 - I couldn't type up day 11 yesterday as we had poor wifi signal.  I am now in the club catching up.  Confirmed, that because of the weather we will not be leaving today (or tomorrow probably) due to weather pattern.  Wind in wrong direction - again.