Round Britain for the RNLI Blog

Today was a complete contast to yesterday… where yesterday there was a biggish sea running… today it was flat calm… yesterday, because of the sea, I was potentially low on fuel if I didn’t watch it and manage my speed in the rougher water… today I had plenty of fuel… yesterday I had a time window which I had to hit Hull at… today there was no timing issues at all… yesterday was quite a different day to today altogether.

Locking out of the marina at Hull I was greeted with a beautiful sight… a River Humber than was completely flat and calm! So, on the plane and speeding down the river at 20kts it was quite a thrill. Past the commercial berths at Immingham and then Grimsby and out into the North Sea. That too was flat and so I was keen to push on as this leg was again 120 miles to Lowestoft. That is pretty much how it stayed all across the Wash. The crossing was very smooth punctuated only by the occasional seal popping up its head above teh surface and peering around as if to say “what is that noisy thing passing by my house?”. I tried to get a phot again but they pop their heads down before I can get the shutter off.

Alas, things changed as I approached the Norfolk coast. The wind got up and teh sea developed a nasty chop that slowed me down to about 16kts. I moved in closer to the coast in the hope of finding smoother conditions and it was slightly better close in and I got a great view of teh coastline all the way from Cromer, past Great Yarmouth and on to Lowestoft.

I had planned on berthing at the Lowestoft Marina but a call from Sally informed me that a member of lifeboat crew was staff at the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club and they were positioned much nearer the sea so I decided to stay there instead. On calling them they told me that this Thursday and Friday is the Lowestoft Airshow, possibly busiest day of the year, so I was welcome to stay but it would be busy and rafting was likely. This was great news as I am a pilot and I love airshows so I decided to stay until the weekend. Then they told me that the powerboats are racing at the weekend so it looks like I may be here until Monday!

Entering the RNSYC basin I could see that they were not joking about being busy. Boats were rafted up 3 and 4 deep and there were people everywhere. I was greeted by Paul who suggested that I berth on the end of the hammerhead behind ta big motor cruiser and after they had moved it along a little I fitted nicely on the end. Shortly after tying up I had a call from Mike, the Lowestoft Lifeboat Station Press Officer and I have arranged to meet him tomorrow morning.

So, it looks like a few days of R&R with the airshow and powerboats and to cap it all it looks like there are early signs of another high pressure system developing early next week… let’s hope it sticks around longer than this one did!