2024’s “Epic Voyage”

It’s been a long time since I updated Goshawk’s blog – or indeed any of my website! I was going to write a post about the (inevitable!) issues that we encountered with Goshawk of Mon last summer, but I thought that before I did so, it might be good to report on the fun that we all had on what we called our “epic voyage.”

We loaded Goshawk up on 5th August, and then, on 6th August, we cast off from our mooring on a bright, warm and sunny morning. We were blessed with a steady breeze from the south, which could not have been better. We flew down the Stour, through Harwich Harbour (where we picked up a decent bit of speed), then straight up the Orwell towards Ipswich. We were sailing so well that we only dropped the sails as we approached the commercial port in Ipswich.

As we reached the head of the river, we radioed the Ipswich lock operator – only to discover that whilst our radio had functioned well enough during a test between Goshawk and my brother’s boat the previous day – the radio operator could not hear us. We managed to call the operator who assured us that the lock gates were open and we could simply motor through. This was a massive relief as, having never passed through lock gates in Goshawk before, I think we were all a little worried!

We passed through the lock gates with ease, and then tried to radio Ipswich Beacon Marina – inevitably with no success. We managed to phone them and were allocated a side-to berth, between two other boats. The gap looked very small and tricky to get into – not helped by the Orwell Lady getting a little impatient. Feeling under intense pressure I slipped Goshawk into reverse and – to my very great delight – performed an absolutely perfect docking!

We were very impressed with the Ipswich Beacon Marina – its central location was very handy; we were able to walk into the town centre to meet my cousin and her daughter for coffee, as well as do a little shopping in Tesco Express. Its proximity to a Pizza Express (indeed, we could see Goshawk from our table!) was particularly appreciated by our children. The facilities were ideal, and the charges were very reasonable.

Unfortunately we were disturbed a little by a plane circling overhead for many hours. We became aware after a while that a plane had been flying above us for some time, and when we checked my Plane Finder app, we spotted that a police plane had indeed been flying in circles immediately overhead for some time. The next morning it transpired that a person had been tragically murdered just outside the marina, which meant that we were left with a rather sour taste of Ipswich as we left.

Our sleep was also initially disturbed by the automatic bilge pump activating every five minutes… Luckily I was able to disable this without too much difficulty (there being no way to turn it off)!

On day 2 of our epic voyage we motored out of the marina and then, under just the foresail, gentled sailed down to Suffolk Yacht Harbour. As we sailed down the Orwell past Pin Mill we spotted Arthur Ransome’s former boat, the Nancy Blackett, which greatly excited the children (and, if I’m honest, me!), who are big fans of Swallows and Amazons.

Docking at Suffolk Yacht Harbour was a little more tricky, but we managed to berth without issue, nose first against a pontoon. The previous year when visiting SYH we found ourselves tucked in next to an outfall pipe, so we felt very lucky to have a proper berth on this occasion! Having eaten at Pizza Express the previous night we had a “boat tea” before using the excellent shower facilities and getting an early night.

Day 3 began with a bit of exploration by foot of the area around SYH, before heading back to Wrabness. The wind was directly on our nose leaving Suffolk Yacht Harbour so, whilst some brave people tacked down the Orwell, we motored to Harwich, when we put the sails up and took advantage of the stiff breeze to get back to our mooring in a pretty decent time.

I think it’s fair to say that we all enjoyed our epic voyage, and, apart from the issue with the radio, Goshawk treated us well and performed beautifully!