Waterside, Brightlingsea, Essex,  CO7  0AX

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Cruising News

August Bank Holiday Shotley Blue Cruise 2011

his took place with interesting weather as usual!!  13 boats attended and a good race/rally up the wallet ensued with wind mainly on the stern most of the trip until approaching Languard buoy, the finish, when the wind died and Janice and I short tacked 3 or 4 times to actually cross the finish line!  Then, we all experienced a dramatic thunderstorm with strong winds, nil visibility and huge hailstones. We could not see the posts at Shotley 400 yards from them!! All the crews had a good soaking but when the storm passed, we spotted ‘Cracker’ on the mud on the edge of Shotley lock entrance channel.  The skipper and crew looking suitably embarrassed.  When Cracker did eventually enter the marina, they had a standing ovation from the rest of crews from the dockside. Tony claimed that he had been bait digging!!  Well done Tony!

A good evening was spent ashore in the Shipwreck restaurant with staff attending to us with patient good humour.  The rally/race was won by Alan Lee and Karen on Shazam with Rick and crew on Le Bot taking 2^nd place, Janice and I on Time Spirit came 3^rd!  Shazam won the Bostock Cup with various crews winning ‘jolly’ prizes.  There was a wooden spoon for Cracker, and a rendition of Mud Glorious Mud sang by everybody, on the crews entry to the restaurant and various other prizes i.e. youngest member attending, first attendance on a rally, single handed sailing, and being the grumpiest person there ( no guess’s to who that was!)  All was taken in the good humour that was apparent on the evening!

The subsequent forecast for the weekend was not good with strong winds forecast for Monday! So boats dispersed, some going up to Ipswich and others scuttled back to Brightlingsea.  Janice and I had a slog up the wallet in company with Merlin II and Dawn Mist III and we anchored in Pyefleet to wait for depth. In all a successful rally despite the unsettled weather. 

Boats attending were:

Levington Cruise July 2011

The 2nd Cruising rally took place at Levington in glorious sunny weather with light south easterly winds. A fleet of 13 boats attended with 30 persons sitting down for a lovely meal in the superb dining room below deck on the Suffolk yacht marina Lightship. The fleet comprised of 5 motor boats and 8 yachts. The racing crews competed as usual and in light winds, it was an interesting race.

    Silver Salver Presentation.

1st Pinnochio Silver Salver
2nd Shazam
3rd Breakspear
4th Le Bot
5th AWOL

The Rear Commodore of the Havens Port Yacht Club welcomed us as visiting yachts men and Jane Long, our commodore responded with a thank you and presented them with a Colne Yacht Club burgee.
Janice and I sailed in Barbary Rose with owner Adrian Espin, to the venue, which enabled us to collect our newly purchased Sadler 32 ‘Time Spirit’ . Thanks Adrian.

A gentle sail back for all boats on Sunday, completed another successful rally.

Roger Burrows
Cruiser Captain

Pink Cruising News -2011 Bradwell

The first rally of the season took place to Bradwell on Saturday 7h May 2011. This was designated the Pink Cruise following the success of the Blue cruise in 2010.
Everybody attending had something pink and it was a tremendous effort by all with pink boas, shirts, pants worn outside trousers and Le Bot being dressed overall with pink balloons and streamers. Mick Collins had so much pink on he resembled a pink blancmange!!! Well done to everybody.

19 boats attended, a good turn out. 47 people sat down to eat, packing the Green Man pub out with the overspill from the family room being catered for in the bar. A lot of socialising took place after the meal with various groups dispersing to various venues for night caps. The weather was kind throughout the weekend with light winds on Saturday and a good breeze on Sunday for the homeward trip.
As usual there was an optional race with 5 yachts competing. The results were:-
1st Le Bot
2nd Deben Huntress
3rd Shearjoy
4th Shazam
5th Silver Pearl (we were becalmed, honest!!)
It was nice to have a mix of power boats and sailing vessels and it was agreed by all that it was a successful rally.
Happy Sailing
Roger Burrows
Cruiser Captain

Shotley Bank Holiday Cruise in Company

The 3^rd CYC Cruiser Rally took place on August bank holiday weekend 28^th – 30^th August 2010 with 13 boats attending and one crew by road having torn their genoa at the start!!

The weather was typical for a bank holiday with gales over part of the weekend!!  Saturday saw the start of the rally with light to moderate WNW winds. The fleet had a great sail up the Wallet, Pinnochio’s bow wave could be seen from North Foreland to Harwich as Thames coastguard looked anxiously on as Jane and Bruce took 1^st  place over the line with Le Bot runner up crewed by Rick Wick and new  crew Jackie, these two boats being the only entrants in the passage race.

There was a venerable fleet of yachts and power boats, the smallest being Merlin II sailed single handedly by Shaun Robinson.  Beulah IV with Colin and Sandra on board did the trip in 40 minutes and no gin was spilt and they made light of the conditions and were soon moored up with Jacuzzi, microwaves TV etc  all running!!  Karen on Fortune was actually seen hoovering whilst Dave was mixing cocktails!!

A good run ashore followed in the Shipwreck Bar/restaurant.  Kate Holland having discovered that the cruiser captain had turned 70 that week had covertly decorated the place with balloons and sprinkles announcing my age to all despite the fact that I did not want it to be bandied about!! I still think it is a mistake. (Thanks a lot though, Kate, it was a lovely surprise.)  But still more was to come as Kate produced an aerosol of blue hair dye and I was publicly sprayed with it.  Rick Wick suddenly ran amok seizing the aerosol and spraying Kate’s hair and the rest of the crews not quick enough to get away!! Nice one Rick!! It seemed that about 50% of the people there had blue hair by the end of the evening.  A great laugh was had by all and the crews disappeared to their boats where celebrations continued resulting in Bill Parsons taking an early bath in Shotley Marina!!!

The next day, the weather forecast was awful with gales promised.  The larger boats braved the seas to have a lively run back to Brightlingsea, these stalwarts were Pinnochio, Le Bot, Breakspear, Beulah IV and Barbary Rose. The smaller boats including Janice and I stayed put nervously in Shotley.  Some boats went up to Ipswich on the Sunday and the fleet slowly dispersed.  Silver Pearl, Simply Red and  Merlin II returning on Tuesday with no wind!!!

All in all, it was a great rally despite the weather and a great bon homie between the members.  I really will try to get the weather right next time.  Honest!!

Roger Burrows

Cruiser Captain