Eastern promise
By the end of September, most prudent sailors in the UK are packing up their boats for the year ready to return to the water with renewed vigour and enthusiasm in the spring.
Instead, Pete and I were preparing to embark on a 600nm voyage down the east coast, from Inverness to Southampton, as we needed to get N’Tiana, our beautiful Oyster 435, back to the Hamble River to be put up for sale, before winter frost really set in.
It was the final leg of a voyage that had taken us from southern Portugal up to Galicia, across Biscay and the Channel to the Isle of Wight before sailing around the UK.
Sailing, like many of the best things in life, rarely runs on schedule. Inevitably, we had reached western Scotland weeks later than planned and despite giving up on our dreams of Orkney and taking the shortcut offered by the Caledonian Canal and Loch Ness, we still didn’t arrive in Inverness until late September.
Having cruised at a relaxed pace for much of the previous six months, we decided to treat this journey as a delivery sail. We would hunker down against the North Sea chill and get N’Tiana and ourselves back as quickly as possible. After the abundant loveliness of the west, we felt little excitement about the UK’s featureless, flat eastern shores. If we were able to have some fun enroute, it would be a bonus.
There is nothing romantic about the North Sea. It’s a cold grey sea best left to shipping and fishing vessels. Hartlepool, Hull and Grimsby do not hold the same allure as Penzance, St Davids and Tobermory. The mudflats of the river Humber cannot compete with the drama of the Scottish lochs.
Despite the absence of the Atlantic swell, we knew the east coast would present its own unique set of challenges. It may be protected from the Atlantic
