East Coast journey continued

 The thing I have learned from these months on the boat is that you can’t make definite plans and schedules.  Tide times can be researched in advance but the wind direction and strength often isn’t clear until 12 hours or so in advance. Our next destination was Whitby. We had hoped to spend two nights there to allow us to explore this rather lovely town but it was not to be. The first issue with Whitby is the swing bridge at the entrance to the harbour. This only opens on the hour and half hour two hours either side of high tide. The day we came into Whitby that meant entering at eight in the evening. We arrived at the fish quay at seven p.m. and rafted up to Bonita. We had an hour - just long enough to get some fish and chips and eat supper on the boat. Rachel and Alan climbed up the high metal ladder against the harbour wall and bought back our fish and chips, lowering them down on a rope! 

At eight pm we successfully negotiated through the open swing bridge and after mooring up and working things out a bit, just had time for a pint in Whitby Wetherspoons. We looked at the weather for the next few days and reluctantly decided that we had to take advantage of the  weather window and get further south and go on to Scarborough. 

The impressive entry into Scarborough

 

The following day didn’t start well. We had been having a bit of bother with a squeaking and stiff heads pump handle. Roger decided to sort it but having dismantled it didn’t manage to get it back together again. The crew were not altogether pleased, as after Scarborough we were facing a long overnight sail and the prospect of doing that without a functioning toilet was not a happy one.  Things didn’t improve when we arrived at Scarborough. The harbour master (thinking he was putting us next to friends) told us to raft up against Letty.  We are indeed friends with Letty, but their boat is much bigger than ours and it is fairly difficult to climb over to their boat from ours. But it was worse than that. Between Letty and the harbour wall, were two large fishing boats. Then beyond that a long metal ladder up to the top.  Given I needed a loo (ours still not working properly), there was no option but to attempt the obstacle course.  By the time I got to the top I was very near a melt down.  But how lovely it is to journey with friends. I was greeted at the top with the offer of a cup of tea on Susan J and even more wonderfully, a key to the shower block. Roger negotiated a move to a pontoon with the harbour master (and our own key to the showers) and at the same time we heard that our resident engineer Rachel, ably assisted by Alan, had fixed out toilet.  Life took on a rosy glow. 

The next stage of journey was challenging as there are very few places to stop between Scarborough and Lowestoft that are not either quite a bit out of the way or with tidal restrictions. We had to seize the opportunity of a reasonable weather window over two days and prepare for a sail of around thirty hours. We decided we had to leave the following morning.

Hartlepool to Whitby         25.9 nms

Whitby to Scarborough        18 nms