On Sunday morning the weather was deemed suitable for our channel crossing and we made an early start, pulling out of Seaport Marina at 0645 local time. We planned to make a steady passage at 10 knots and had timed our arrival at Great Yarmouth to coincide with low water. This would allow us to pass straight under the low Haven and Vauxhall bridges and continue up the River Bure towards our home base at Horning. There was some slight swell from the starboard quarter lingering from the fresh breezes of the previous days but all in all it was a fine day and we had no problems on the 100 mile passage.

We arrived in Great Yarmouth to find the Maritime Festival just winding up on the quay and were in time to see some of the prestigious visitors who had arrived for the weekend. Low spring tides meant we had plenty of headroom under the Haven bridge, although the 3 knot ebb made manouvering a little challenging. We were surprised by the extent of mudbanks exposed at the entrance to the Bure and had more than a metre clearance under the Vauxhall bridge (around 4.2m in all). Of course this meant the water level was lower than usual and although we were still an hour before low water, there was only a metre depth upstream of the bridge. Although we still had sufficient depth according to our echo sounder, we heard the ominous grating sound of propellor meeting concrete as we edged up the channel - proving that the Broads Authority's headline-grabbing Dutch dredging technique had not been entirely successful.

By the time we had cruised up river to Acle the light was fading and we decided to stop for the night upstream of the bridge. The following morning the next door cruiser had called a diver to remove a tangle of rope and weed from around their propellor, so we also secured his help to ascertain that there was damage to our port prop. Although not critical at the low speeds needed to get us home, this would need to be resolved before we used the boat again for a sea passage.

Cruising Statistics

Distance (tidal): 141 nm

Total to date: 1119 nm

Avg Speed: 10 kn

Duration: 14 hrs

Diesel: ltrs

Mooring: Free

Electricity: N/A

Water: Free

Charts

1801.8

AC2322

AC1504

AC1543

AC1536

Bridges

1 closed (4.5 m)

3 fixed (min 4.2 m)