We bring a report from Marion of the second May Bank Holiday, 2026 event held on the East Coast.
I love rivers, was born overlooking the Thames (on the sixth floor of a council block), have lived near the Crane, the Lune, the Thames again (three times, it’s a long river) and the Itchen. I have enjoyed sailing to the navigable limits of rivers in the Solent, Poole, the West country, Normandy, Brittany and now Suffolk. The Thames is mighty but the Orwell, visited many times over the years, is becoming my favourite.
With a new to me, small boat I will no longer race the tide against long passages but, now anchored in Ipswich, plan to enjoy my near surroundings. The River Orwell; a two hour odyssey, industrial until under the Bridge and past the sewage works, Freston with poor ‘Midnight’, probably once loved but now mouldering on her mooring, Woolverstone and Cat House, on to Pin Mill, widening to Levington, round the corner into Harwich Harbour and out to sea. Industrial grit and grime, a folly of churches, colourful fields, vibrant harbours, compost diggings, coasting vessels in the channel, various pleasure craft, barges, sleek yachts, gaffers then ferries and dredgers, light ships and the biggest cargo ships in the world.
When one has finally made good the bend into the docks, negotiated the spit and passed the breakwater, and if one then turns south, a hidden world lies ahead: the Walton Backwaters.
Early on a bright and sunny morning, ‘Louisa’ shrimper made her way, mostly under sail, out of the river, along the front at Dovercourt, through Pennyhole Bay before carefully negotiating the twisting channel to Stone Point. Essex smack ‘Transcur’ was ahead and we moored alongside her. The day passed in chat, sailing the little boat, walking on Stone Point to see what had changed, admiring amazing shells, watching sea birds and collecting plastic waste.
We were joined from Walton by ‘Penelope’ and ‘Bel-Ami’ when the tide was high and by ‘Sine Nomine’ once it almost wasn’t. All crew shared a meal on ‘Transcur’, joined by the skipper of ‘East Breeze’.
Saturday saw some boat fettling, more small boat sailing; in the Dardanelles and/or most of the way to Landguard Point and back, the arrival of ‘Sparrow’, ‘Jezebel’, ‘William’ and ‘Capriccio’ and an early evening barbecue on Stone Point after which one gaffer was marooned for the night – in a tent.
I’ve never been one for racing especially if it involved thrashing around an interminable course in roaring tides and getting very cold and wet only to arrive back where you started from but Pennyhole Bay on Sunday morning was appealing in its calm pleasantness and the availability of willing crew. We were behind from the start, successfully rounded two buoys but gave up as the third retreated further and further away whatever we did. The other boats ‘Transcur’, ‘Capriccio’ and ‘Jezebel’, as different as three boats could be apart from all being gaff rigged, finished within 12 minutes of each other on corrected time. Bermudan ‘Sparrow’ was the start boat before joyfully sailing the course.
We all sailed up the Twizzle channel, picked up buoys before retiring to civilisation and a delicious meal in the hospitable Walton and Frinton Yacht Club. ‘Reverie’ arrived in time for her crew to join us. Tides dictated a relaxed departure the next morning. I had a delightful sail, a brief stop in Harwich and a meander back up the tide to Ipswich and Orwell YC.
With thanks to Yvonne Mitchell, Pete & Clare Thomas for organising the weekend.
Words: Marion Shirley
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