As I said, we safely negotiated all the bridges from Norfolk and having found a long straight stretch on the North Landing River and the wind having picked up to a 15 knot northerly we put up the genoa and main and were making 6 knots. All was well until I decided to make lunch. Fatal mistake. Up ahead the AIS identified a barge. The skipper knowing the channel was narrow, furled the genoa and started the motor. The 300ft corp of Engineers barge was stationary across the 50 ft wide channel and they indicated we should pass to the stern. This was a bit of a worry as he was pretty close to the green marker but we assumed he knew where to direct us. Wrong. We ran aground and the skipper of the barge yelled across that he was also stuck aground. Now we are less than 10 ft from the back of an enormous steel barge with the wind behind us and a full main. Gary managed to drop the main downwind and we wriggled and bumped our way forward with the genoa unfurled trying very hard to avoid the large object to our right. Having a great engine, a protected propellor and brass keel strip is wonderful. Again we thanked Billy Atkin for his brilliant design as we broke free of the mud.
The guy on the barge said stick close to the green markers from here, so we cautiously continued with at times with less than 1.8 ft beneath our keel for the next 3 markers until the depths improved. The marker to watch out for was G91 for anyone out there.
It always happens when we put the kettle on for a brew and all hell breaks lose. Maybe we should change to coffee. The only damage was to the genoa which ripped on the UV strip. Robyn, if you are reading this, we have some work for you !!!!!
We are in quiet solitude tonight surrounded by wild marshes and totally calm with the northerly blowing outside in the main channel.
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