Tag: Buckenham Sailing Club

2009 cruise – Day 5.

Ouch – Lots of Ouch. Port, its lovely, but ouch. My head!!

After the skipper had gathered himself – ‘Corsair’s crew enjoyed a sumptuous breakfast and we decided there was nothing for it, but to go sailing. Certain parties were reluctant – and the Skipper had to motivate the malingerers!

Once everyone had risen – we tacked back downriver, past Brundall gardens. Both s/n83 ‘Pollywog’ and parent-craft Zandamon were moored at church fen.

S/N83 – PollyWog

‘HB’ had left early from Surlingham (6am) – with ‘Seabird’ and ‘Dragonfly’ choosing Rockland St. Mary for the overnight stop.

‘Corsair’ and ‘Nulsec’ were heading back to Cantley, and for a change we tacked! In fact, there had been far too much tacking already this week, and we’d all gotten fed up!!

Robert was unceremoniously dumped ashore at Brundall railway station – Uni and a shower proved too much temptation (he’s weak willed).

Pushing on, I muttered the immortal “lunch at Buckenham”, and handed control to Chief Engineer Jalil.

THREE TACKS. THREE. having handed over the tiller, after 3 tacks – we ploughed an almighty furrow in the mud and stopped.

Engineer he may be… sailor he ain’t.

All the tricks were deployed – pushing on the quant, swearing, lowering the sails, swearing some more, then hanging crew (Jalil) out on the boom, swearing more…

During this lull, ‘Nulsec’ kindly ran aground nearby – to keep us company!!

Jointly aground. HARD.

We’d run aground on the outside of a bend – where the river was cut out to a 90 degree corner, for turning coasters. 40 years later, no coasters but quite a lot of mud.

We then broke the outboard.

2 hours, 2 HOURS after we ran aground – ‘Corsair’ made her way to Buckenham Sailing Club, where we ate chips. The skipper multi-tasked and planned Jalil’s death…

The fleet decreased again, with ‘Nulsec’ leaving us, ‘Corsair’ due to head through Yarmouth tomorrow – ‘HB’ would meet us later. So we tacked downriver to Cantley, joined by the GWYC fleet. There was a lot of close quarter tacking, and we scared some bystanders!

Much of our day was hungover – and on the mud. Beer… glorious beer!

The skipper needed this.

Goodnight.

Aground… for some time!

2009 Cruise – Day 4

Urgh. Well.

Typically there’s always one. in this case it was Chief Engineer Jalil… He’d fallen in love with a barmaid at Cantley. This lead to an evening of heavy drinking – the junk box played on (and on), and things became blurred…

It was a VERY late return (or early) for those who were staying on ‘T.O.G’. The skipper showed some restraint… (!)

The Only Girl – s/N137.

Two cabins, four berths and ample space for drunkard, love-sick crew members!!

Now, the next day its worth noting that some were alert and fit for duty… Some… well. Less so.

Once again our plan was changed to suit the scale of our hang-overs… We’d head upriver to Surlingham, which gave us plenty of time to bring ourselves into the world slowly… with caffeine. Lots of caffeine.

It was light airs, so we raised the sails on both ‘Corsair’ and ‘Nulsec’ and beat up the Yare. It was even sunny! Yes, this was the life! H.B motored upriver, sweeping past.

Javelin No. 1 – sporting a fraudulent mainsail!

We sailed past Nulsec’s birthplace, at Buckenham Ferry. Here – the 1st 550 (yes, really!) Javelin’s were built. Nulsec is unusual – not least because she is S/N 1, but that she is probably the only wooden decked Javelin still in existence – by S/N 5, the boats were all fibreglass.

More information r/e the Javelin class, which celebrated it’s 50th anniversary in 2018, is available here; https://www.javelinuk.org/

‘Corsair’ moored at Brundall for victualling, and petrol. Strangely there was demand for energy drinks and paracetamol!!

Determined to rescue his reputation our Engineer leapt into action, as we walked upto the shops. His Uncle’s boat ‘Strongbow’ (aptly named) had some mechanical issues (it had a BMC1500 diesel)… ‘nuf said!

Returning from the shops, we looked longingly at the railway station, thinking about civilisation, showers, hot water!! Eventually – we all walked back to the boats!

get back to the boat!!

Jalil had managed to bring life to ancient iron – the subtle clattering and blue haze surrounding ‘Strongbow’ gave it away as we approached! ‘Strongbow’ also served as an excellent camera vessel for ‘Corsair’ as she tacked through Brundall.

Sadly – ‘S/B’ had to retire – oil pressure was scarily low. On ‘Corsair’ then amused ourselves by tacking onwards, aiming at lots of expensive boats, with a probing bowsprit!!!

‘Nulsec’ attempted the shortcut through Surlingham Broad, and ‘Corsair’ took the long way around via Brooms. We didn’t catch them – BUT we did enjoy ourselves, arriving at Surlingham last.

At Surlingham – it was the skipper’s turn. A thoroughly pleasant (for some) – and deeply amusing (for most) evening was spent attempting (and failing) to capture the attention of a barmaid…. (!)

Accepting failure, Chief Engineer Jalil & the skipper took a nightcap (or 4) aboard ‘Seabird’ – and set about getting wrecked commiserating eachother!

Goodnight!