Afterwards

The travelling is uneventful, and we all enjoy the longest night’s rest since the start of the trip. Unfortunately mine is broken the next morning by beeps from my phone. The weather forecast has arrived. I send the cancel text and bemoan the loss of a lie in. Now it’s time to take stock.

We reached almost all our objectives. I would have liked to have got right up to Norwich Yacht Station, and even taken the dinghy up to New Mill. I still have an ambition to visit my favourite Norwich coffee shop, Olive’s, by boat.  There is still the long dinghy trip to Aylesham. There are also obscure little corners to visit. For example, I’ve never been up Catfield Dyke, or sailed quite all the way to Coltishall Lock. (My previous trip to Coltishall ended at the common). There’s also a lot still to see on a more leisurely trip. Despite many visit’s over thirty five years, there is always something new.

Could we have done it all?  There is no doubt that we were delayed, firstly by Jon’s late arrival and secondly by the dredger mishap. With an early start we might have been at Yarmouth a day earlier. Without the stop for repairs we may have made Geldeston and started back down the same day as passing through Yarmouth. But all this is speculation. We were often in the right place for the weather. Northerly winds as we headed south, and southerly as we came back north, was more than we could have hoped for. Hardly a drop of rain made for pleasant sailing conditions. Anybody attempting a trip such as this would not be guaranteed success. Also it is important to remember that safety is more important than achievement. Ambitious goals must never be a reason for reckless decisions.

The fund-raising was equally successful. Jon, who had initiated the idea, raised a total of almost £600 for the work of the Romans One Eleven Trust in Uganda. Later in the year Jon visited Uganda to help with the trust’s work. He has written a report on his visit, originally for his college, and published with their consent.  He also wrote a few paragraphs on the sailing trip for the college magazine.  David raised over £400 for the Guillain-Barré Syndrome Support Group. I must confess to giving relatively little attention to fund-raising, but was still able to contribute a respectable £105 to AYME.

Totals

Yacht Mileage

185

Dinghy Mileage

8

Walking Mileage

7

Navigation Limits

11