Deben Lugger rally

 This year's Deben Lugger rally was held on the weekend 31 July to 2nd August.  As with last year, I decided to extend my involvement by sailing round on the 30 July and then back on 3rd August.

Here's some video of what was a wonderful event:

And then some more pictures.

I left Pin Mill at 0400 on Thursday 30th July.

Then, on Friday 31st, the fleet gathered and we went for a pleasant sail up towards Woodbridge.

On Saturday 1st August, we cruised down towards Ramsholt in light winds.

And then on Sunday, there was the obligatory race, which is always a bit of fun.  Prior to this, the fleet gathered at Waldringfield for some rigging checks, not that it made any difference to the race outcome.  Alex still won by several leagues…

And then it was time for me to sail back.  I left Waldringfield at 0600 and motored down to Felixstowe Ferry, before hoisting sails and tackling the Deben bar.  Winds were F4 NE, so there was predictable overfalls at the entrance, which can be seen in the video above.

Then, I had a lively run down the coast, jybing into the relative safety of Harwich Harbour, and on to Halfpenny Pier for breakfast.

Then back to the mooring.

This was the track from 31 July, when I forgot my usual Garmin chart plotter - 8nm.

Tracks for the rest of the trip:
White: July 30th, 17.5nm
Yellow: August 1st, 10.4nm
Red: August 2nd 6.8nm
Green: August 3rd, 19.1nm.
Total trip length, 61.6nm

Outboard switch

 The last time I used the petrol outboard - a short-shaft Mercury 6hp - was in 2024.  The last time it was fired up would have been at the start of the 2025 season when it went in for servicing.  Since then, I've been happily using the Eprop.  But the time has come to switch over since, in the middle of August,  I'm running a week-long cruise in and around the east coast for which I could usefully depend on the security of a longer range.  And I don’t want to be messing around with chargers and sponging off pubs for electricity.  So, I've decided to switch over now, mainly to make sure the petrol one still works.  

Today was just a short stint, running it for about half an hour.  Next week, I'm cruising round to the Deben and back for the Deben Lugger rally, which will afford further testing opportunities.  Once through with all of that, I'll probably switch back to electric power, since it is generally so much more convenient.

3.4nm