Crossing the Bar

A smouldering, smoking, sizzling sunset snakes across The Pyefleet as Stargazer anchors for the night.

We slipped out of the Orwell on the noon tide. Threading our way between the wooded banks. Skipping from one puff of breeze to the next, sails eased and bellied.

Off the Harwich foreshore 18 knots of passage making breeze fills in, to speed us on our way.

Clear of the Naze's lee, Stargazer heels to a 22 knot south westerly. I tuck two reefs in the main. We short tack, close inshore, down The Wallet. Cheating the north bound tide. Eating our way steadily south past Frinton and Clacton. Their jutting piers, landmarks of our progress.

The chance of a short cut beckons. I run some quick tidal calculations (we are near the bottom of a falling tide), double check my latest chart (the Navionics app on my phone, with its weekly over the air updates), take a deep breath and commit. Stargazer surfs and surges north of The Eagle cardinal, over Priory Spit. The depth guage counts inexorably down. My heart rises steadily toward my mouth. The countdown stops at 2.4 metres and reverses. We're over.

One last tack clears the southern tip of the Colne Bar. Now we ease sheets, relax in the evening sun and fly into the River Colne. Broad reaching with the young flood under us.

 An ethereally delicate full moon rises in the north east sky. I stow Stargazer's sails in the stillness of the creek .