Another photo-diary from MrsChellers.

So a nice sunny day, an appointment near home at 5pm, what to do from 11:30 until 4:00pm? I know! Go sailing! A quick trip up the River Colne seemed just the ticket.

We set off at 12:00 thinking we had enough water to leave. We had ALMOST enough water to leave and James (helming for a change whilst I attempted - and failed - to look decorative on the front of the boat) ploughed a furrow in the mud with our port hull. But we made it!

Leaving Brightlingsea on a beautiful day

James at the helm dodging all the little dinghies

The Colne

Bateman's Tower

Uh oh, where's the driver?

Aha! He's having a quick read of a book that ought to be familiar to y'all

We put just the genoa up and managed a very respectable speed (up to 6.5 knots over the ground, our boat speed log doesn't seem able to cope with settling into the mud twice a day - it hasn't worked since we arrived at Brightlingsea).

Passing Fingringhoe nature reserve and the red flags of the firing range

A beautiful river

Alresford Creek

Nice little pad!

Wivenhoe approaches

A pair of twitchers seemed to be checking me out (although they of course might be wondering why someone on a boat was photographing them!)

Approaching Wivenhoe tidal barrier

An early entrant for the Pirates' Weekend?

Wivenhoe church and shorefront. Lovely!

Interesting stern to the boat on the right hand side of this pic

The locals at t'pub got to watch us floating past.

Rowhedge. A place from which James used to sail as a young lad with his uncles on their Westerley Pageant that had a mud berth there, now turned into new housing (the berth, not the boat!)

Didn't realise Neil kept his boat up at Rowhedge!

On the way back past Wivenhoe

View of another church from the Colne

View up the mast from my position out of the wind lying down one side of the cockpit

The Skipper looking very relaxed

Relaxation went out of the window, sadly, when we returned to our berth. Wind and tide were both very strong in the wrong direction for our pontoon mooring. It all went horribly wrong (with me at the wheel) and we ended up pinned broadside against the end of a concrete finger pontoon with a sharp edge. James and a passer-by got a fender jammed in there and were able to turn Chellers with a couple of ropes, having moved another boat out of the way first, but we now have some scratches along Chellers' hull and it would have been next-to-impossible without the passer-by helping. Rather knocked the stuffing out of me although it wasn't a helmswoman skill problem, it was a wind turning Chellers broadside and floating her downstream problem. Not good though. Might have to investigate bowthrusters!

Hope y'all enjoyed my little picture diary. Sorry we didn't spot any other forumites out there. And we still haven't found out where Flipper is - keep peering up towards the other moorings and never see a yellow-hulled boat. There's a weird mastless catamaran up there though!