Wednesday 27 June 2012

Jean says: Lowestoft - good place to stop if you have to. We're at Britain's most Easterly point. We've gone from Geordie to Yorkshire to Cockney in two large steps. There's something very familiar about being here, and a strong feeling that we're nearing the end.
After surviving the Whitby to Lowestoft passage, we feel we've done all the really big stuff (by our standards), and are completely relaxed about crossing the Thames estuary (hopefully not mistakenly), which at the beginning of this journey seemed like it might be an ordeal. After that, the South coast is familiar home ground territory, and we sailed along most of it when we brought Bella Rosa back from Holland. A lot of water has passed under the keel since then.
We're in a rather strange marina which is the sister marina to Lowestoft Haven, several miles away. This is an annex really, and used to be the Hamilton Dock before it was converted. You need to phone the main marina to get any help from a member of staff, and they come over by launch. They had to make a special trip to bring me tokens for the washing machine. When I couldn't get the washing machine to work, they had to come back again on the launch to bring me a replacement token. When I suggested that it would be easier for them if the machines ran on pound coins, they said they couldn't risk it because it's rather remote here, and people would break in to rob the machines. It's probably best not to dwell on that too much.
Lowestoft town is yet another struggling fishing port. The old high street is dying and has been replaced by a more modern street of shops, but it doesn't look much better, despite the bunting. The annex marina that we're in is quite industrial. There's no-one else here, and we're surrounded by corrugated iron rooves, warehouses, cranes, a wind turbine and large metal storage tanks. We were after variety and this is different yet again. Today has been really warm and we've both been in short sleeves for the first time since being in the West of Scotland. We left Lymington on a sunny day though, and would really like to arrive back on a sunny day. I just thought I'd get that message out to the universe in good time! We haven't got a specific day in mind for arriving back yet, but if all goes well, it should be around the middle of the week after next.

Bit short of decent photos of Lowestoft, so here is a postcard...




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