Early summer plans

The summer sailing plan for Tammy Norie is taking shape.

Firstly, I’m keeping an online calendar of plans that you can subscribe to if you like. The next few upcoming events will also appear on the side of this blog.

Next week I’ll be skippering a sailing trip in the Baltic with the Cambridge University Yacht Club, so Tammy Norie will have to wait in my parents driveway for a little longer.

Though I live in Cambridge I’m hoping to join the Fareham Sailing and Motorboat Club and moor Tammy Norie in Portsmouth Harbour. This is close to my family, offers sheltered sailing for my nephews and niece, and my uncle is already a member. I visited the club and very much liked the people but they don’t hold membership meetings very often and I’m having to be patient. I’m hoping we will sort out membership and mooring by September.

So in the meantime I’m going to explore East Anglia.

The plan is to launch on 4th July at Woodbridge on the beautiful Deben. We’re going to try a launch directly from the road trailer this time, without a crane. It should be an interesting exercise! We’ll probably try a partial retrieval too, just to get an idea of the problems. (I’ll write about my launching trolley ideas later.) The rest of the weekend will be spent exploring the Deben and possibly taking a trip to a neighbouring river. I’m keen to put Tammy Norie through a few more trials.

I have some friends going to the Latitude festival near Blythburgh on 19th-20th July. A bit of research (thanks, Dylan Winter) revealed that I can sail Tammy Norie to Blythburgh from Southwold by ducking the mast under the old railway bridge. So that’s the plan for that weekend. Southwold itself looks like a great place to visit. If conditions are poor I might go to Aldeburgh instead.

The Junk Rig Sailing and Rally Club are holding a rally at Bradwell on the 26th-27th July so I’ll take a long weekend to explore the area as well as meeting a bunch of other junk sailors. I don’t know if Mingming II will still be in England then, but I’d love to take a look at her.

After that I have friends taking a holiday in Sheringham for the week of 4th August. An excellent excuse to sail right around the coast to Blakeney and Wells. By that time I should have a pretty good idea of Tammy Norie’s sailing capabilities so a longer trip should be very feasible.

After that the plans are more vague, but I’m quite keen to bring Tammy Norie home to Cambridge! From Blakeney it’s a short sail round to King’s Lynn and the mouth of the Great Ouse, which joins the Cam south of Ely. It would be quite something to see her in Cambridge and I might even be able to get her and my house in the same photo with careful angles. If I do sail to Cambridge we’ll probably haul her out nearby and trail her to the Solent rather than trundle all the way back.

This plan is slightly confounded by the separate regulation of inland waterways. To take Tammy Norie to Cambridge I’ll need a boat safety inspection, an Environment Agency licence, and a special licence for the Cam too. These are significantly more expensive because Tammy Norie has quite a big engine for her size at 10hp. It’s almost worth buying a smaller engine just for the savings, and I’m looking in to that.

The alternative plan is to sail from Blakeney to Portsmouth in stages. There’s be plenty to see and do that way as well.

I can’t wait.