Day 64-Thursday 21st July- Wells to Lowestoft

Last night I did manage to get onto the Albatross for a drink. They sell real ale from  the Woodforde's brewery, which is based  in Woodbastwick. I confess I have never heard of it, but a pint of Wherry sitting on the deck of the Albatross and watching the river and the birds is a very pleasant way to spend half an hour. Other ales from the same company are "Once Bittern"",Nog,""Sundew","Mardler's", "Headcracker","Admiral's", and "Nelsons". The bar is below decks and it would be a pretty cosy place when its not nice enough to be outside.

The harbour really is a peaceful place in the evening and looked good after dark with the street lights. I felt the place has a Scandinavian feel to the place and was not surprised to hear the accents of Scandinavian holiday makers during the day.

The harbour office had a questionnaire for visiting boats. I had only positive things to say about the place, but the harbour guide is a bit wordy, and when the administrator's preamble speaks of "stakeholders", this sort of terminology reminds me too much of local government. Now if I was still in Whitby and Dracula country I could see the need for a few "stakeholders", but what does this really mean anywhere else and how long will it last as a word in common use?

The route out through the channel was a doddle this morning. Passing the beach huts I thought how colourful they looked. I wondered if they were all privately owned as there seemed to be differences between them.

On the sand bar, someone had built some very large sandcastles. They looked odd sticking out of the surf and standing taller than some of the channel markers.

The wind was light coming out to sea, but a continuous band of rain was approaching which indicated a change. Soon the wind was blowing more strongly from the north east, which was perfect for the leg to Lowestoft. This long convex curve of coastline is unlike anywhere else in the UK. It is like one big swollen headland. The tide sweeps around it like a headland anyway. I had timed it to make the most of the south going flow, I was never doing less than 6kn over the ground and mostly was between 7-8kns and we are only midway between Springs and Neap tides.

This area is full of wind farms already and many more are being talked about. There was a shop in Wells devoted to a presentation about one proposed opposite the entrance to the harbour.On the approach to Great Yarmouth there are 30 turbines on the Scroby shoal.You can see them for miles. The East Coast Pilot is quite exercised about them. It says that they compromise the routes available to small craft. It says that they interfere with radar but not GPS or VHF radios. There are fears about the current through the cables affecting compasses too. I don't really have a view about the navigational impacts and tend to think they make good use of a free resource. As they are built on shoals, which boats ought to be avoiding I don't really see how they are an obstruction either.

There is not much else to see along this stretch of the coast other than sand dunes and the occasional tower.

I was undecided whether to aim for Great Yarmouth or Lowestoft. The deciding factors for me was that Lowestoft was a bit further along and the marina at Great Yarmouth seems to involve a longish trek up river in a northerly direction. The entrance to Great  Yarmouth is marked by this heavy duty apparatus. I presume it is oil rig legs.

Lowestoft has its own turbine on the quayside.These things are becoming as identifiable as light houses.

Today was about sailing. The curve of the land meant that I started out on a port tack and ended on a down wind run over the 60nm leg. In the whole of that time I saw 4 yachts. This is mid summer. Where is everyone? When I was tacking one yacht motored past me with just the jib out which seemed a strange way to sail in that angle of wind. Another yacht under full sail was level with me for 3 or 4 hours it was a lot closer to shore so I couldn't see waht it was.