Up the Creek Summer 2025

Commodore’s Ramblings

For those of you that are managing to fulfill your plans for a full  season,  what ever your thing, well done! I’d hoped for more than some  reasonably regular top of the tide excursions down the creek but not yet, although there’s a good bit of season left so I’m hoping for a late flourish, maybe as far as the Thames.

Most of you will be aware of Natural England’s plans to have the England Coast Path pass through the club site. Some of you may have followed events closely others less so.

Objections and concerns have been raised on behalf of the club and by our Landlord. There appeared to be a quite a delay as various bodies considered their response, but in  light of recent letters I’ve seen, I’m of the view that the path is most likely going to follow the route initialy favoured by Natural England; that is from our pedestrian gate on the sea wall, along the sea wall behind the club hut,  along to the vehicle gate. It will then cross the club driveway on the inside of the gate and through the now well developed hedgerow onto our Landlord’s farm. There will be no access to the path via our vehicle gate from the outside.

At the moment we have not been given any proposed completion date but I would be surprised if there were a similar long delay.

The club’s aim will be to ensure that users of the path remain on the path. Initially this will involve some light wire and post fencing, signage and planting. The current pedestrian gate may be moved to  become an entrance to the BBQ area. This work will become part of the work parties.

We will no longer be using the current work party bonfire site adjacent to the sea wall. If you have  been bringing items from home to burn please do not bring any more.

On behalf of the committee and the club, I would like to express my thanks to Dave Metcalfe, who took on the role of dealing with all matters concerning  the path during his tenure as Commodore and has  continued to do so during my tenure.  It has been a difficult  and frustrating process.

Graham.

Twitching news from Ken: Nature visits Lethera. Solo trip to Pyefleet creek a couple years ago. Marsh harrier mobbed by seagulls pays a visit (respite rest)

Bumblebee to the Orwell, from Roger: On the 14^th June the decision was made to offer the owner of Bumblebee our services to move his boat from LHYC to Orwell YC in Ostrich Creek, all efforts before had gone Belley up, without further ad doo that is what happened, Derek gave us permission to go go go! 

Having given the boat a once  over and made some repairs it was decided to ask for assistance, this was graciously supplied by Ken Milburn and Melvyn Worrel, with Steve Simmonds as crew. The Nanni run sweet as a nut, Chris had looked up the workings of a junk rig, it mattered not, everything was rotten, we had to rely on Nanny, once again!

Within 5 mins of slipping the mooring we broke down, Nannys water works had packed in, I was beginning to think this may not be such a good idea, not to worry we had 2 safety boats, what else could possibly go wrong? a tow to Bomb Bay by Lethera, some improvised repairs and a very nice convivial evening passed.

The following morning we left early, taking full advantage of the Ebb. Fo free.

All Three boats had an easy run up through the Swin and over the Wallet, we turned into the Wallet Channel and headed for the Medusa Channel, the wind increased slightly, Nanny was behaving, but the steerage on Bumblebug was awful, we were yawing and rolling like a sick pig, so we decided it was time for lunch, Frinton Pier, or what’s left of it was dead abeam to Port.

I made some ham salad rolls and a cuppa, only I did not have my glasses on and grabbed the Smash instead of the powdered milk, yuk, stodgy Tea, we laughed and tried again, Vomit Bay was approaching, it was all slightly bumpy and disturbed water, but once opposite the container Port it flattened out, and a very easy meander down the the River Orwell, in what was a lovely Sunny day, arriving at 1545 hrs, and a waiting thankful owner.

A case of beer changed hands, we gave a brief run down of the problems we had encountered and it was time to go. Kings at Pin Mill our first stop. Dinner hope fully. I chucked my gear on Lethera, Chris chucked his on Karaway, and we took the Ebb, for free!

We picked up a mooring and rafted up, a visit ashore out of the question, our table was cancelled, but our disappointment was short lived because Ken worked his magic and cooked a lovely Pasta. A shower could not come quick enough for me. 

On the way down towards Harwich, a quick phone call got us on Happeny Pier, on the inside too. £20 for the night inc shower, not bad at all.

The River Orwell is very picturesque, its rolling hills are interspersed with ancient woodland, old Churches and large stately homes, all shrouded in mystery and tales of smuggling. It was many Years ago ,called the River Gipping, and in 1957 the Yangtse Incident starring Richard Todd was filmed on the River.

The Naval Training school at Shotley is also wort a visit, a very interesting Museum is in site at Shotley Marina.

On a leisurely walk we found the lighthouse museum open, the miss leading lights, as they are known, the entry fee is £2 and well worth it, fortunately we were invited to visit the tower, and the 2 lads who are renovating it gave us a guided tour, Light house Lill had the second floor room, and would often entertain the local dockers, if she started whoring early some of the locals could see what was going on through the Town side window, lots going on, so if you want to find out more pay a visit. 

We went for lunch in the Alma, discovered Witherspoons, and even had time for the chippie. The following morning,  a third and last visit to the shower block,  we shoved off after breakfast. 

We motored until crossing the Spitway, and by now a steady breeze had settled in which enabled us to get a good 20 miles under sail, all the way down the Swin Way, no ships so no    problem crossing the Yant let Channel and we lazily poodled into Stangate creek and got strait onto the moorings. 

Lethera.

Karaway.

Bumblebee.

Boat gone.

Sailing through a bereavement
I think when our good commodore muted the idea of resurrecting the club rag, as a means of sugar coating the committee’s news, he imagined something far more lighthearted than this. But as I read Grahams message, and turned over in my mind the few scribblings I’ve made related to sailing from Lower Halstow, in the years since our last editor hung up his scissors, I realised that perhaps I have something more serious to offer.

My dear wife of 17 years, who described herself as a land based animal, and refused to sail anywhere but the Norfolk Broad’s, and who was in pretty good health for Christmas 2022, and into January 2023 was diagnosed of an aggressive sticky kind of Colon Cancer, that can’t really be operated on, in April that year. The offering of the medical service was a stoma, which she accepted enthusiastically, (as a friend, who is still well, had reported a good relationship with hers), kidney drains, which she was less happy with, (as they would mean she’d need regular supervision, nursing), and she was, at first, promised up to 18 months, but the good consultant never actually saw her.

Shortly after her stoma operation, early in June, she was determined to get back to her parents in East Germany, I hadn’t offered to help, as this was the last thing I wanted.  I had quite enjoyed ferrying her around in zip cars, driving a different brand of electric motor each time we sallied fourth to the hospital, (as we’d quickly learned, she had no patience for minicab drivers, and since she hadn’t yet lost her strength, I feared one might be injured).

She asked me the day before she was due to travel. She’d booked herself 1st class on Eurostar, and picked a train strike day.

Of course I gave in.  We had to pick up the zip car before 6am, as they would all be driven into town, and not be returned until the end of the day, I still had to go a lot further to find one.

It took well over two and a half hours to do the thirty minute drive to St Pancras, but the panic started when we realised that a zip car can be abandoned in any London borough, except Camden.  Fortunately we worked out the border with Islington was only 1/4 mile up Pentonville Road. I dropped Ute at the station and quickly disposed of the wretched machine and hot footed to the Eurostar Terminal. Ute was nowhere to be seen.  I was efficiently advised by a lady at a sort of podium that now passes for a ticket office, that there were no tickets left that day,  but as an afterthought she added, “unless you want to go to Brussels”. Which of course I did. “Well there’s one ticket left in 1st Class for the 9am train but it goes in twelve minutes”.  The previously nonchalant woman was now coming in to her own, apart from probably being her only sale of the day, we had awakened in her a sense of pride and challenge, she summoned various flunkies on the radio, and I got on the phone to Ute, who had settled herself in the bar, as her ticket was for the 11am train, she was rather cross to be so hurried, but the well oiled elitist machine that is Eurostar accepted us as its darlings of the hour, and they jostled us through all the checks, pushing the poor regular folk out of the way to get us through with barely a minute to spare.

Apparently there would not have been space, even in 1st class, for me on the 11am train.

A good breakfast was served, which I wasn’t going to refuse, but I felt terrible leaving Ute, to sit at the far end of the carriage, and she still had to smell everyone else’s.  She hadn’t eaten properly for months, and this must have been torture.  She wasn’t well enough to stand in the terminal, and she was afraid to say so, lest they said she wasn’t fit to travel.

We met her parents in the border town of Aachen in Germany,  near Belgium,  where she had booked a hotel for the three of them.

Ute and her mum stayed in one of the rooms, and her dad bought me an ice cream before I went for the night bus back to Victoria Coach Station. Quite a contrast to 1st class on the train. I was propositioned when I asked directions to the bus stop in an unfamiliar part of town, the fellow felt the need to tell me that he likes “having sex with ze mens, and ze ladies”.  I nearly started a fight in Calais when border force demanded to know at 3am the purpose of my journey. No one had told me I only needed one word, “leisure”. When the woman summoned her supervisor who got quite imperious with me, I gave her pretty much the whole story.

And then I was back in South London, and settling into a bizarre routine of work, and 5 day trips, once every two or three weeks, of which 2 full days would be spent travelling.

And nothing could have been further from my mind than the boat club.

But out of the blue, I got a call from the skipper of Lady of Leisure. Would I crew for him in a race?  Of course I couldn’t, I had rather a lot on, but then I realised I didn’t, so I went.

And after the race, there was Lou jibbering about a dinghy. “Dinghy dinghy dinghy!!“, “what“, “she’s yours”.

I’d been waiting for years for Lou to stop polishing Millie and let me sail her, but now really wasn’t the time.  I’d recently bought another bigger sailing dinghy and this was getting ridiculous. But Lou wasn’t taking no for an answer, and nothing urgent needed to be done on my part, so I gave in.

Through the years before this awful story, and since, I’ve been involved in online groups where I try to meet like minded people and they lead to fallings out, and heart ache and frustration. But not so with this club.

It’s not perfect, who would want it to be. There are folk who have very different ideas to mine, and many who might see my boats as a waste of firewood. But we get on, and time after time, as I arrive, intent to do some trifling job, but without the right tools, someone helps me out, and apart from the help, there is the interaction. Smile or no smile, a face tells a whole load more than a keyboard smilie.

I’m up to four boats now, with one of those to dispose of pronto. Does anyone want a mirror dinghy for a project?

Oh…..

I meant to say….

Thank you all, just for being you.

Stephen

(Mirror Man)

(No relation to Topper Man)

P.S.

How is Topper Man?

P.P.S.

Ute died in August 2023, about four months after her diagnosis, and about two months after she left me. Her parents looked after her far better than I could have done, and I hate them for it. But I still love them, because there is still a little of Ute in them, or just because she wanted me to.

P.P.P.S.

Ute’s sister produced a surprise baby in September 2024, and she keeps it very near the marina at Wedel, on the Elbe, just before Hamburg. Anyone crossing that way please don’t go without me.

More hot bird news. This is apparently a Ruddy Turnstone which took shelter from some aggressive seagulls on Karraway recently.. They usually live further north and are fairly rare down here. A pretty little chap (or chapess..).

Caption competition: what’s going on here onboard Karraway…?

Boat Jumble?: I am sure that I am not the only one with piles of boating junk/treasure in the shed/garage/spare bedroom. The idea of a ‘club table’ at the next Hop Farm Boat Jumble (which doesn’t seem to be till the spring) was proposed. Would anyone like to move this idea forward?

HM Coastguard Skippers Engagement Project

You may remember a message that was sent out at the end of June about a Skipper Engagement event held at Dover Coastguard Station. I had heard positive comments about the pilot event held a week or two earlier, so I put my name down for it.

As it turned out, I was the only one from the club to attend. I arrived early for the 6pm start on a bright sunny July Friday evening. We were met by Annabel, one of the Maritime Operations Officers. One of the young ladies we hear on channel 16. 

After signing in we were taken to the conference room overlooking a blue English Channel with France unbelievably clear, looking far closer than the 21 or 22 miles away.

The introduction was led by Mel Johnson. Very early on it was explained there was one subject that would not be mentioned throughout the evening, and that was small boats crossing the channel.

The first section was about the Coastguard Capabilities and Resource’s. We then moved on to incident management. It soon became evident that the driver for these events was a tragic incident outside Dover Harbour in April 2024 where a single handed yachtsman, just a few days into his circumnavigation of Britain, lost his life. Both Mel and Annabel had been involved in the incident and had given evidence at the inquest. I was more aware of the incident than most of the others there, as I was aware of discussions in the Westerly Owners Association about getting the Westerly Konsort involved back to its home port on Hayling Island. 

There were a number of very significant learning points from the incident that even the most experienced amongst us could learn from. One of the most significant being that the casualty’s lifejacket failed to inflate. The CO2 cylinder was loose. 

Having previously found mine loose, it is something I now check regularly, do you?

I will not go into more detail now as there will hopefully be more info published soon.

The evening progressed with a visit to the operations room. It was initially cancelled due to ongoing incidents in the channel and then it was back on with strict warnings about the confidential nature of anything that we may see or hear.

The final part was about first aid, communication and electronic location beacons. It was great to see dummy beacons that could be triggered without setting off emergency alerts.

It was an information packed evening that was wound up about 10pm.

I would highly recommend anyone to attend any future events. There are plans to hold more at Dover and if there is enough interest they may take the event to clubs.

At the time, I asked if any report of the incident was available as there is much that could be learned by all of us that go out in small boats. As it was not involving a commercial vessel and only one casualty there is no MAIB report. The only report would be the inquest summary. A copy has since been obtained, but is very brief.

Since the event I have been in touch with Mel about publishing some of the details that were spoken about on the event. There were concerns about privacy issues and further upset to the casualties family. He did feel that if the deceased’s family gave permission he may be able to produce something. I am also involved with social media for the Westerly Owners Association. As the WOA were involved in the recovery of the boat, they have been in touch with the family and permission has now been given to publish the details to help prevent further incidents. 

As soon as more detail is published I will get it on the website.

Dave M.

Racing: The turnout for races continues to be low, but we have had a few good ones so far. Results as follows: Top of the Tide 27th April: 1st Foreness, 2nd Karraway, 3rd Jeddo (that was the best one…). Red Sands Race 1st June: 1st: Aspirations, 2nd Nimrod, 3rd Foreness. Top of the Tide 29th June: 1st: Broadsword, 2nd: Kallaway, 3rd: Foreness. ToT 13th July: 1st Azurian, 2nd Foreness, 3rd Karraway. Pursuit Race 20th July: 1st Jeddo, 2nd Azurian.

Calendar: the scheduled Round the Island Race was postponed and will be re-arranged. The Autumn Work Party will be over the 11,12th October. Don’t forget to apply for your preferred winter lift-out dates in due course (sorry to mention the ‘w’ word).

Please send any contributions ( photos, stories, passage reports, jokes, advice, better competition photo…) for future editions of Up the Creek to utc@lhyc.org.uk or michael.frankish@btinernet.com