Wednesday - Ramsholt to Walton Backwaters - Hamford anchorage

More mud - I anchored too close to the bank and went aground

I got up early and was off the mooring by 8-00 - went with the ebb to the mouth of the Deben and out of the river by 9-00. I motored so that I could have the keel up as I went out at low water. No problems - and I put the sails up as soon as I was out at sea.

It is a lot easier to do things at sea as there is a lot of room. So with the sails up I was at the bouy that marks the entrance to the Backwaters by 10-00 - a nice gentle reach into Hamford Water. By 11-20 I was anchored.

ButI made a number of errors here. One was to anchor too close to the shallow mud. The picture does not show it well enough to show that there was quite a lot of waves breaking on the mud. I also let out too muh rope and had a problem with the boat not turning up to the tide when the tide turned. I suspect the rope caught onto the keel - so a lot of messing on pulling up the keel and trying to work out what to do. It was OK eventually.

I was more scared here than usual. And it was too cold to sit out in the late afternoon.