Newcastle to Lowestoft – 222.4 miles in 35 hours and 35 minutes
A long passage this one as there were not many possible places to break the trip, so we decided to go for it in one hit. We started 4am from Royal Quays and then arrived in Lowestoft just before 4pm the next day. Sods Law meant that, as we were heading south east, the wind would blow consistently directly from the south east, so much of the passage was done motorsailing. In total we only sailed around a quarter of the trip, either because of the wind on the nose, or more often, because there was not sufficient wind.
Despite this, there was plenty to keep us entertained. First off in the evening a vicious thunderstorm – torrential rain, lightning all around and winds gusting 32 knots. However, this went through in about 20 minutes leaving us with no wind at all afterwards. Then it was just a matter of dodging the gas rigs (relatively easy as they are fixed) and the gas rig supply ships (much more difficult as they go all over the place and you can’t see their navigation lights). Once round the corner, the wind came back a bit and we did manage to sail from Cromer much of the way down to Lowestoft, though it did die after lunch.
