We got ready for a 9am departure - not long after low water. Clearly the wind and swell had increased overnight, so I was a little bit concerned about the depth of water. Having 10cm between the keel and the bottom is absolutely fine when it's calm, but if there's 20cm of swell, we'd start pounding the keel repeatedly on the bottom. As it was there was 2.5m of water and near 1m swell - a bit too close really - but with shouted advice of "left a bit", "right a bit", "that'll do" from the Scarborough HM we got out without touching.
As soon as we were away from the harbour we got the sails up and killed the engine. We actually managed to sail all the way into the harbour which was excellent. We go the engine going when there was about 10 minutes to go so it would be warm and ready to use inside Whitby Harbour.
During the sail my anxiety levels increased continually. I think I was worried that we'd mess it up in front of the friends and family who were waiting on Whitby pier to wave us in. Heaven forbid we'd have to actually call a rescue, in front of everyone, and cost the RNLI more than we've raised so far! What an embarrassing nightmare that would be! Fortunately, everything went very smoothly.
By the time we got to "The Bell Buoy" - Whitby's famous North Cardinal, keeping mariners off 'The Whitby Rock', the wind was up to about 20 knots and the swell was probably around 3m high. We were surfing along, with the odd wave breaking right behind us. At least one must have gone into "Dink" because it was approaching half full and was dragging quite heavily. Apart from the dragging tender, we had perfect conditions. An excellent homecoming sail!
I've got hold of a lot of photos taken by our welcoming party and put the best of them together with our own shots and videos...
Video of Rose in the increasing swell on the way to Whitby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6D19R_8Suo
Another video of Rose and a bit of me, Whitby in sight!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qfqhy0pHMT0
The day after our own entry into Whitby Harbour, the entrance didn't look so friendly!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cb4Bvex_Dw
Now some pictures (many thanks to Rod Hodgson, Glyn Stead and Sheila Pennick for taking the ones obviously not from 'in' Isabella)...
Red border around the UK indicates a strong wind warning - this, just before we depart
Scarborough Castle disappearing rapidly behind us
Spotted in the distance with a zoom lens
Rounding the Bell Buoy
Shot by Sheila Pennick from 'Steady On' - a boat that came out to greet us
First sight of the greeting party on the pier, and 'Steady On' approaching
Have you seen this load of nutters on the pier daddy?
The rather chilly fans!
The rest of these photos are self explanatory...
