Heading north

Saltfleet Haven hasn't a big entry in the pilot books, although historically important to Lincolnshire it has mellowed in old age into a peaceful spot for the yachtsman who has the nerve for a narrow channel over a sandbar backed by a landscape not overly endowed with any distinguishing features!

I'd been talking about going for a while, quite a while in fact, and with settled weather and a forecast for F4/5 Southwesterlies I had run out of excuses.....

After dragging ourselves out of bed at 5am and, after a 70 mile drive, Alison and me left the mooring in Boston at around 7.30. I kept the engine on until we were past Tab's Head as it is a fairly long passage and I wanted some early progress...
It was clear, after a couple of hours, that we were getting just that. The speed on the GPS rarely dropped below 5kts and often went over 6! The tide really does make a difference in The Wash.

We took the inshore route past the entrance to Wainfleet Haven, situated on the northern corner of The Wash and out into the North sea proper.
The speed stayed high as the wind increased to an F5 and the tide slowed. Heading a couple of miles off the coast we could still hear the noise from Skegness, it's best seen from the boat, although 2 miles might still be a bit close....

As the day went on I ticked off the landmarks, Skegness, Butlins, Ingoldmells, Chapel St Leonards.... Mablethorpe is marked by a massive new red brick building - I assume flats to house the retirees who seem to congregate on the coast of Lincolnshire!
Theddlethorpe gas terminal (slightly inland and unobtrusive) chimneys marked the last inhabitation before Saltfleet, from here the coast is low dunes backed by clumps of trees.

By now the speed had dropped due to the tide running against us at about 2kts, the wind had also dropped to a calm F3, once or twice the GPS indicated 1kt!

A very unusual thing (at least it is where I sail!) then happened, the VHF came to life, I was called up by Billy, the commodore of Saltfleet boat club. He'd come out to meet me at the channel entrance and could see me clearly, sat low in a 12ft rib he was just about visible with the binoculars.
With the light beginning to fade and the temperature dropping, I did the gentlemanly thing and started the engine in order to shorten Billy's wait, it would have been another hour by sail.

Greeted at the inner bouy by Billy and Pete, I followed them in over the bar, watched by seals on either side, halfway along the short channel a Porpoise surfaced between us!

Turning the boat in the river (creek? It's hardly big enough to be a river!) was "interesting", only accomplished with help from the bank, there is probably less than 30ft of width where I was turning.
Moored up, we headed to the New Inn for a meal (very good) and a pint (nothing to write home about), we had to make a quick move to The Crown (Speckled Hen, mmmmmm) after they got the bingo machine ready at the New Inn!!! I did mention the retired often head for this coast.....

The night on the boat was eventful. The visitor's mooring is newly built and the bank still slopes steeply, this meant that as the tide went out the boat sat at such an angle that the "uphill" side berth was unusable, only having 2 berths left us with a problem!
We arranged ourselves to sleep across the boat, me squeezed in front of the mast where the beam is probably about 4ft... We didn't sleep a lot!

As the morning's tide lifted us a couple of hours sleep was grabbed before it was time to get up.

Plan was to leave the boat there for a couple of days until the wind was forecast to go north, ideal for the return trip.

Monday's adventure was to be a journey back to Boston by bus to pick up the car, 40 miles - about an hour by car - this took 3.5 hours. Enough said....