Thursday 13th August Ref: 2020/1
After some brief sea trials, our first proper sea trip of a season much-disrupted by the coronavirus 19 lockdown. Proceeding well on a fine and murky day heading out from Lowestoft Harbour through the Stanford channel and pass the East Barnard cardinal marker before cruising the remaining five nautical miles or so to the Southwold harbour piers. Then calling for entry instructions after which we moored at the pontoon adjacent to the harbourmaster's office
In predominantly south-easterly breezes, the Force 4 strength with the following tide of 1 to 2 kn kept the sea state to smooth or slight and, with moderate to good visibility and warm temperatures the cruise went very well. As this was the first test of our hulls effectiveness, following the new antifouling application, I opened up the engines and monitored the speed through the water every 100 rpm up to a maximum of 2600 rpm where the speed was about 19 kn. By cruising relatively slowly at 13 to 1500 kn we kept our speed to around 9 kn through the water, 10 kn over the ground, where we were consuming something like 20 L an hour of diesel fuel. The harbourmaster had left after taking our final call so we were left to choose her own location on the pontoon and complete our moorings alone
29-25 degC; RH 55→59%; 1014mb steady ; smooth/slight seas with 12-17 knot breeze, mainly SEly; good/mod visibility
