It was starting to look like today was our last day of good weather for the week. Therefore, as soon as the fees had been sorted with the Bridlington Harbourmaster we were on our way shortly before 10am.

The forecast was for west or southwest winds possibly reaching force six later in the evening but generally force four. This sounded just about perfect, as it would allow us to cruise down the coast towards Spurn Head and across the Shipping lanes just before sunset. Then we could change tack and get into Grimsby just on time. Well that was the theory anyway.

Timing for this stretch was probably more important than for any other passage on this trip. The Fish Dock at Grimsby, containing the marina, is open strictly two hours either side of high water and if you miss this gap your options are limited. There are no harbours near by to make for and our contingency plan would be to go back out to sea.

Not wishing to spend any more time at sea than necessary, our plan was to pace the passage for an arrival in Grimsby just after the docks opened at 18:10. This would therefore give us four hours to fallback on.

The first thirty miles of the passage was a straightforward trip down the coast. At first there was limited wind as we slowly made our way in a light westerly breeze. The wind slowly built so that by midday we were regularly making seven knots through the water. As it was important to get the tide with us in the Humber we were pushing against tide for the first five hours of the trip. All the same we were happy with a steady five knots over the ground.

This passage is the first sign of the different geology on the southeastern coast. Until now we had sailed past mile after mile of rocky cliffs with relatively deep water right up to the shore. Here was a flat coast of sand with average depths of water a few miles out being only ten metres. It was like A Level Geography all over again!

The passage was highly uneventful with only the odd small fishing boat and a million and one crap-pots to avoid (most well marked, some not). It was good that we were doing this part of the coast by day, as you would have a good chance of catching a buoy at night.

Unfortunately the visibility reduced to about two miles just as we approached the Humber shipping lanes. After checking the traffic with VTS Humber we quickly crossed the lanes to get onto the south side of the channel. It was perfect timing as it was now 4pm, starting to get dark and we had two hours to travel twelve miles up river to Grimsby. The tide by now was in our favour, quietly allowing us to make eight knots. The route that is recommended for small vessels entering the Humber is just south of the channels used by larger shipping.

The only problem as we found was that as it was high water springs some of the small ships like to take short cuts. Our defence against this was simply to move into slightly shallower water – they would hit the beach before they hit us! We were please that we had got across the lanes when we had, as the traffic was increasing as we approached Grimsby.

Our route was a simple “dot-to-dot” exercise of following the red buoys up the channel. As we approach the last buoy before Grimsby we were a little ahead of schedule. We turned around and treaded water against the tide for ten minutes while taking down the sails and getting the engine ready. At 18:20 we past through into the Fish Dock and found our way to the marina visitor’s pontoon. After three days of sailing it was time for a rest, with the weather changing there was little choice. It is interesting to note that shortly after arriving I met the crew of a fifty-foot motor yacht moored in front of us. We had seen them earlier in the day a mile or so further offshore. They were somewhat surprised to see us close up and to see we were so small. From the speed we were making down the coast they had assumed we were at least thirty-five foot!