2007 July Camp Sailing at Brightlingsea-Staying at Thorrington Scout Training Ground.
Friday evening Sea Scout’s met at their Sudbury Head Quarters on Friday 20th July 2007 for a weekend of sailing. We were also joined by two French Scouts that had been staying in Suffolk for a few days. We left the HQ in Quay Lane and drove over to the Thorrington Scout Training Ground in Essex. We booked in to indoor accommodation in the Alpha Building. A huge building with large kitchen and main hall, toilets and showers down stairs. Up stairs enough rooms for forty people! It was great. That evening after everyone had made themselves at home we set to work on the packed lunches for the following day.
Saturday morning we were all up and about early, we sat down for breakfast before heading off to the sailing club. Once in Brightlingsea those who were Sailing got to work on rigging the boats of which there were four to do. The Safety Boat Crews moved in to position at the Park and Ride.
Before going afloat it’s always best to get the most up to date weather forecast, at the town Harbour Commissioner’s Office, the day’s forecast is posted on the wall.
The forecast was for force 5 gusting 6 at times, too windy for our planned trip to West Mersea. I called Nick on the radio explaining the conditions forecasted and that all dinghies should reef before going afloat. We also agreed that the safety boats would go out and check conditions afloat before the Sea Scouts set sail for the day. We launched three safety boats. The tide was still coming in when we launched it was quite windy and the sea state was a bit lumpy. We gave the go ahead to sail and made sure all dinghy crews had waterproofs and warm hats as it was going to be a bumpy ride to start with.
By late morning all boats were away and after recovering one of our dinghies and a yacht off of the mud we were soon sailing out to sea.
We crashed our way through waves until we were out at sea. We had lunch on board the boats. I opened my packed box just at the same time a wave hit the side of my boat half filling the box with salt water! Trusting everyone else had a more successful lunch break than myself; we turned round and headed for home. We stopped for a short break on mersea stone and re grouped before sailing back in together. But within minutes of sailing off the shingle beech at mersea, Richard calls on the radio asking for assistance. Problems with the centre board jamming up I was with Richard and his crew in a matter of seconds, the centre board was jammed with stones off the beach. The next thing we knew Richard was on his back holding half of his centre board in his hands!!
We towed his boat back to the sailing club; the Sudbury wanderer also picked up stones and was towed back with no damage to the boat.
Later that evening we had a BBQ back the camp site with enough food to feed an Army or a small group of Sea Scouts. We sat round one of our tables and discussed the day’s events and made plans for the following day.
Sunday morning was more relaxed we had breakfast and tidied up all the rooms and kit so that when we returned after sailing we could move out that bit quicker.
Before heading off to the sailing club we showed the sea scouts and our scouting friends from France the camp site so they could get a feel for where they had been staying.
The weather forecast for the Sunday was set to be much nicer. I spoke to the club Commodore and asked him if we could use the Club Topaz boats due to breakages on the Saturday and the good weather for today force 3 to 4 much better. We set sail at the same time as the race started at the club and for the morning covered the race with our safety boats as we were heading the same way out to sea again. We sailed out as far as colne point and inner benchead and after the race finished we found ourselves a nice spot for lunch.
A shingle bar that had not yet been covered by the tide should give us enough time for lunch together, the sun was shining and the sky was blue it was fantastic! And a photo shoot to mark the moment.
We kept moving the anchors along with the boats until the tide covered the bar, we then sailed back to Brightlingsea Creak re- grouped on the South Cardinal before going back in together.
With lots of work to do once back at the Sailing Club and at the Park & Ride everyone worked really hard to get boats ready to tow back to Sudbury . Cold drinks from the Sailing Club helped things long. When we finished at the club we returned to camp loaded up the van we said our good bye’s to the French scouts. We locked up the building before heading back to Sudbury.
Rob Palmer-3rd Sudbury Sea Scouts (Leader)