Under way

 

Deben looking lovely

On Thursday 9 May I sailed Kalessin out of SYH for the first short hop on the journey around the UK. I was accompanied by two CA Crewing Service members, John and Sheela, who contacted me out of the blue to ask if I needed crew for any short passages. They decided to take up sailing because of Sheela's health problems - she can't walk far or lift anything heavy but she is reasonably agile. They very kindly treated me to dinner on Wednesday night and stayed overnight on the boat.

We had an unexpectedly pleasant sail in warm sunshine, with the engine actually off from Landguard to the Deben entrance. By extremely good luck, the Deben entrance chart had finally been published at  https://www.eastcoastpilot.com/downloads at 8pm the evening before we left (the buoys were apparently not quite right originally and the chart couldn't be published until they were moved a few days before). There are more buoys than there used to be but plenty of depth, phew, and the Deben was its usual lovely self.

I picked Tidemill Marina because my son Guy works there but sadly he was off with a cold! Still they found us a nice berth, and it is a gorgeous location. We got a taxi back to SYH. 19 miles sailed.

I was distracted for a bit by the Norfolk Coast Macmillan Mighty Hike, 27 miles from Cromer to Holkham including four notorious miles along the shingle at Weybourne. By this time I also had Ivy's cold, but adrenaline carried me along and I finished in 10h 30m, raising over £700 in the process. You can sponsor me at https://www.justgiving.com/page/camilla-herrmann-norfolk .

Kalessin safely tucked into Tidemill Marina in Woodbridge

Me on the Mighty Hike