Gone sailing again

I began the week by repairing a few more areas of damaged gelcoat around the cockpit and deck there are no photographs as it was only small areas which required attention it was just a matter of opening them out giving them a good sanding, cleaning with acetone and then refilling with gelcoat as previously detailed.

As the weather was looking reasonable for the remainder of the week, well at least until Friday I decided to go sailing again to make the most of what was left of the fine weather. The plan was to leave on Wednesday's high water which was around 13.00, which would mean I would be able to get away about 11.30, and sail across the Thames estuary up to the river Colne and anchor up near Pyfleet for the night then spend the day sailing the area before returning home today. The trip up there was uneventful with the forecast force 3 or 4 nowhere to be seen so it was a matter of motor sailing most of the way with only a couple of brief interludes of sailing. The route was the same as the previous trip just the destination slightly changed I did not fancy another sleepless night rolling around off Jaywick.

Red Sand forts again

The forts are or were the subject of a restoration project under the title of project Red Sand I am not sure whether of not it is still active, they have a website but it has not been updated for some time there is plenty of information on these wartime relics on t'interweb. I arrived in the Colne around 19.00 and met up with a colleague who had sailed up the day before.

Sunset over Essex

Friday's weather forecast was not looking good for the return trip and with the weekend weather also looking poor after a brief discussion we decided to return home on Thursday morning. We upped anchor at 05.30 to make the best of the ebb tide as far as the Swin Spitway so that once out into Middle Deep the tide should be on the turn and then the flood tide would carry us all the way home. The forecast north westerly or westerly 3 or 4 certainly arrived on cue and with the help of the tide we had a spirited sail all the way home arriving in Conyer Creek about 12.00. On crossing the shipping channel to the Red Sand forts every other ship on the planet seemed to turn up in fact I have never seen it so busy but however I managed to get across safely with only a brief delay while passing astern of a large car carrier.

Today has been a clean and tidy up day with the aim for next week being to get the work out on deck moved forward.