Today's The Day, We Are Off !

Friday 3rd June 2005

Wiluna - our mooring in Horning, Norfolk Broads

After months of planning, today is the day, we are off!

Our boat, a Searay 370 Sundancer with twin Mercruiser 220hp engines has been serviced and equipped with everything we could possibly need (and more) for our trip. My husband who already holds his ‘Yacht Master Offshore’ certificate now has his ‘International certificate of competence’, which has a Cevni endorsement for use on the Inland Waterways of Europe. This is a legal requirement for anyone wishing to use the inland waterways with privately owned boats. We have bought loads of charts and books and have plenty of words of advice from well-wishers ringing in our ears.

Leaving our berth in Horning on the Norfolk Broads for the first leg of our journey, we pass under the Vauxhall Bridge & Haven Bridge in Great Yarmouth at lunchtime to make for Shotley Marina in Harwich.

Although we live locally, after years of cruising the Norfolk Broads it does seem strange to think we are leaving and have no idea of when, or if, we will return with the boat. Years of chilly wet summers have prompted us to take the plunge into moving the boat to somewhere warmer, so that precious time off work can be spent enjoying the boat in the sunshine.

Leaving the port at Great Yarmouth the sea conditions are good, it is a lovely sunny day, a bit breezy (3-4) but clear and bright. As we pass Orfordness the wind and sea picks up a little but it is still comfortable and we make good progress reaching Shotley Marina around 6.00pm. We have decided to stay a couple of nights in the port so that last minute jobs can be finished before our crossing to Nieuwpoort in Belgium.

Just off Orfordness