One week in August this year the two Wayfarer dinghies owned by the Hostellers Sailing Club cruised north from their base at Paglesham and reached Aldeburgh and Snape. This cruise was blessed with near perfect weather and was notable for the lack of any difficulties encountered, so I hope that this cruse account is not too boring. Tales of shipwreck and capsize make good reading, but just occasionally everything does go to plan, and perhaps that too is worth writing about because it happens rather rarely, at least in my experience.

We left at about lunchtime on Monday and took the ebb tide is far as Clacton on Sea. Here the two boats came alongside each other for a brief discussion and it was decided to land on the beach by the pier for a fish and chip supper. Supper was followed by a ride on the Ferris wheel on the pier, my first experience of this and rather frightening. We then sailed on past Frinton and Walton hoping to get as far as possible at the beginning of the cruise so as to leave time for exploration on the way home. It was dark by the time we entered Harwich harbour heading for Pin Mill where Mark had suggested staying the night aboard his yacht to save putting up tents. A pilot cutter stopped and shouted “Switch on your lights or get off the sea!” which made us feel guilty since we had only a few torches for lights. However I feel sure that we could see any larger vessels from a great distance and meeting other small unlit craft is unlikely and probably not dangerous. We were rather late to bed that night being delayed by the ebb tide on the way up to Pin Mill where we tied alongside Mark’s much travelled cruising yacht, one Wayfarer on each side.

In the morning I tried out the new toy inflatable I had brought along as a tender for the Wayfarers. Unfortunately it seemed to be just a size too small having only about two inches freeboard with one person aboard so I shall have to replace it with a size larger such as the one I used successfully for many years until a split developed in the plastic. Mark and myself took turns to paddle around being photographed in this ridiculously small boat but returned hastily to the safety of a Wayfarer when a ship’s wash approached. We then sailed up to Pin Mill hard for shopping and an invitation to the sailing club.

We left Pin Mill after lunch and with a light wind and sunshine headed back through Harwich and on up the coast arriving at Shingle Street at low water. Mark was well equipped with new chartlets showing the exact route in through the shifting shoals, but in any case one can take some liberties with shoal water when dinghy sailing, at least in good weather. As the tide turned we were swept up the Ore to our campsite on the old barge quay up Butley River. As an offshoot of the Youth Hostels Association the HSC organises country walking as well as sailing and I think that these two activities go well together. A walk makes a change from sitting still in a boat for hours on end and also I find it more satisfying to explore the land after arriving somewhere by sea, after all that is the way that most of the original explorers of the world did it. So it was that after leaving the local pub that night, Joy, being a keen walker and having endless stamina, encouraged us to set off on an evening stroll which lead us miles along footpaths, through dark woods and spooky churchyards and past a ruined abbey. Returning in the early hours of the morning it was not difficult to fall asleep.

Next day was sunny again and we sailed on to Aldeburgh and after a salad lunch in one of the many pubs we explored the town and visited the museum and I dozed off watching a Punch and Judy show. About tea time we sailed on up the Alde and Mark steered one of the boats onto a breezy lee shore so that Joy, who was supposed to be learning the finer points of sailing, could experiment with techniques for getting out of such a situation. I think that both ended up in some difficulty and a passing yacht was considering salvage! We sailed up to Iken Cliff and then, because the tide was beyond half ebb and the channel is very narrow we started our one outboard motor so that one boat could pull the other the rest of the way to the quay at Snape Maltings. From there we walked just a couple of miles to stay the night at Blaxhall Youth Hostel. Feeling that we were the odd ones out amongst the walkers, the cyclists and of course the motorists I asked the hostel warden if anyone one else ever arrived by sailing dinghy. “Sure,” he said with tongue in cheek, “we get hundreds by boat, by planes, by hovercraft…” Unfortunately there are no longer many youth hostels accessible by boat from the east coast, although we do occasionally visit the one at Colchester which is right by the river at the head of navigation.

Next day was allocated mainly for walking rather than sailing and we enjoyed an interesting ramble through the Suffolk countryside in blistering sunshine. A pub salad lunch and a pot of tea at the Maltings cafe on returning were both very welcome. In the evening we sailed downriver and camped behind the seawall just below Orford.

The tide dictated a seven o’clock departure from Orford so that we could drift downriver with very little wind to reach Shingle Street just before low water. The wind then picked up and we entered the Deben on the early flood and stopped for a full sized breakfast at the Felixstowe ferry cafe. Bob also brought some fresh fish here. From Felixstowe ferry it was an easy morning sail up to Woodbridge for another pub lunch and sightseeing around the delightful town then a short row and a walk to see the Sutton Hoo burial site. This is now being very thoroughly re-excavated by an army of archaeologists and had we arrived at the weekend a guided tour of the excavation would have been possible. Then it was back down the Deben to camp at the Rocks, a spot I visited for a windy DCA rally quite a few years ago. We cooked our fishes using rather limited equipment since I had packed on the assumption that main meals would be taken in pubs with sandwiches in between. We then had a fairly long stroll followed by a visit to the Ramsholt Arms and this followed by lighting a small bonfire on the beach to bake potatoes and make toast. It was hours past midnight when I went to bed and some stayed even later to watch the flooding tide put out the fire. Not surprisingly it took an effort to get up again to catch the ebb tide at about 7 am.

At this point Joy and Bob who had some spare holiday decided to stay and explore Walton Backwaters with one of the boats while Mark and myself took the other boat back to Paglesham. We had allowed two days for this return trip but in the event did it in one day. The wind strength was ideal, just enough to need a reef at one point although we took it out again after a couple of hours. The wind direction was south so we were close hauled and made a few tacks; had we had a reaching wind we might have got home even quicker. Leaving the Rocks at about 7 am we stopped for breakfast at Felixstowe ferry cafe and then had a full flood tide all the way to the Raysand Channel. The last bit was against the strong Crouch ebb but the Wayfarer is a fast enough sailing boat to cope with that given some wind, even a headwind will do.

Altogether an excellent holiday. Sailing with two boats provided plenty of room for the four of us and we could possibly have taken five crew, or more by using our third boat. It can be very difficult for boats to keep together when sailing in company. It helps that they are both of similar design but even so we find that they get separated after an hour or two and the boat in front is always reluctant to turn back especially if this means giving up distance made against the wind. We made it a rule that the boat in front would always stop and wait before completely losing sight of the following boat, but otherwise we did not particularly try to keep in close company since opinions differ about when to tack and how close to the shore to sail. Apart from being more sociable sailing in company does offer some advantages in that equipment can be shared and one outboard motor will suffice for two boats. There may be a safety advantage in bad weather although one should not rely on this since if one boat were in difficulty the other would be struggling to some extent and so may not be able to help.