Baltic Trip - Tollesbury      26th April:

Kiitaja at her Berth in the Saltings with "Coiled Springs", Rex and I, Displaying a Collection of the Courtesy Flags of the Countries we Hoped to Visit

    The bright and sunny day started for me saying my farewells to Katie, my youngest daughter, and my grandson Oliver. He was only 20 months old and I knew he would change dramatically while I was away. After hugs and kisses I undertook the chore of a mammoth shop for provisions to keep us going across the North Sea to Kiel. Then I drove straight from the supermarket to my son Dan's place in Colchester, I was leaving my car with him while I was away so that it would get some use; I found out from my Rockies trip that it is false economy to take the car off the road. Alan's wife, Carol, collected me and drove me down to Tollesbury, exchanging news on our families as we wound our way through narrow twisting lanes. She was still up in the air after her son's wedding earlier in the month.
    We arrived at the saltings just after noon. Rex and his wife, Meryl, came out to meet us, and after umpteen treks, we had shifted all the food and my baggage along the boardwalks to Kiitaja. Carol and Meryl had made cakes for the trip (probably in the knowledge that I wouldn't buy any). Carol also issued instructions that Alan had to keep up exercises to improve the mobility of his hip and knee after a recent operation. I flinched at the idea of trying to get Alan to exercise; to him exercise was synonymous with "Yuk!" The ladies had no intention of hanging around while we stowed the provisions away and readied the boat for cast off at high tide, so Alan and Rex said their fond farewells and we set about getting ready for the off. We busied ourselves with baggage and provisions stowage and getting the craft shipshape, and then feasted on Caesar salad while we waited for the tide to come in.
    Once we had high water and a complete lack of dignitaries and well-wishers to wave us off, we slipped our mooring at 19:45 and headed out into the Blackwater Estuary. It was a pleasant motor out past Mersea Island, but as we rounded the headland to push up the Wallet, the seas became very choppy. It soon became apparent that the combination of unfavourable wind speed and direction, plus the ugly state of the seas, were drawing a rapid halt to our progress. We sought refuge by motoring up past Harwich and Felixstowe to pick up a buoy just off Levington marina during the dark hours of 03:00. Hmmm... , an impressive start.