Land of Hope and Glory!

We visited Guernsey and Sark in the Channel Islands before we departed for mainland England and the Deben River, our final destination for the summer.  Ten miles up the Deben, Tidemill Marina nestles into the heart of Woodbridge, a small charming town in Suffolk. This will be a safe home for Adventuress during the winter. We sailed 10 to 12 hours each day, and managed to find some lovely spots to anchor.  These pictures of the breath-taking scenery are why England in summer is so attractive even if it does not quite enjoy the Caribbean's weather!

Nancy looks good in the countryside of Sark.

Sunrise over our anchorage on Sark's eastern side.

We sailed past Alderney, Channel Islands, taking care to be downtide: the Alderney Race generates a heavy current, up to 5 knots even in summertime.

 

Twelve hours later we approached the Dorset coast. We had been heading for Swanage but the winds were not good for that course. We hardened our direction more northwards and with the winds set westerly we headed for Warbarrow, a bay that has a small inlet that offers protection only from the North and the West. Here we are approaching Mupe Bay on the western end of Warbarrow. The hills are called Purbeck, and just 5 miles West is the famous beauty spot, Lulworth Cove.

 

Mupe Bay: we had this enchanting fairy-tale place all to ourselves!



The dawn at Mupe Bay.

 

 



Leaving Mupe Bay and heading East towards the Isle of Wight.

 

 



The Dorset cliffs with ....

 

.....fields and pastures, and there goes a Dutchman flying westerly!

 

Now you know why the call it the Isle of Wight!

 

The chalk cliffs swoop along the shore where the sea has cut the land away over eons of time.

Beachy Head light, just to the west of Eastbourne: the lighthouse is 110 feet high.



 

You can walk along the coastline of Britain virtually all the way around, but the best way to enjoy it is from a sailboat! 

Anchoring a mile off the shore behind Dungeness: in the distance on the port bow is the nuclear power plant.

 

The Royal Harbour at Ramsgate: this was an artificial harbour built to hold the Royal Navy ships handily at the mouth of the Thames, in case Napoleon or his buddies tried something! Now it is a marina and still very convenient for us to stop and time the tides and winds to cross the Thames estuary and sail to Suffolk.

 

 

Our restful countryside anchorage a couple of miles inside the Deben river; quite a contrast to our previous spots in the Caribbean, Bermuda, Azores, Spain, The Scillies, and England's South coast.

 

Must be another Nancy sailing a quite pretty ketch in Suffolk's waters?

 

 

 

 

Anchored in the Deben, the water was flat enough for us to stand up on the bow and finally inflict a sunset selfie on you all!

 

Now we are land-based for a bit, so the posts here will be fewer: but stop back once in a while, there may be some news to read here!

 

Best, Nancy and John