On Tuesday morning, September 8, we awoke to rain and cloudy skies which lasted until dinner time. I woke up, ready to go, at 7 a.m., but no one else was out of bed, so I returned to the warmth of the covers and Peter's back and continued sleep until 10 a.m. We had an early lunch and then went to visit two old ships on Heritage Quay which Rob had discovered on his morning ramblings.
The first was the bright-green painted steel vessel Lydia Eva YH89, the last surviving steam drifter of the herring fishing fleet in East Anglia, built in 1930. She was larger than most other drifters of the time, fast and carrying half as many nets as other craft. Her size (29 meters or 95 feet in length) allowed a trawl winch to fitted forward of the wheelhouse so that she could be changed from a drifter to a trawler in less than 48 hours. She operated as a profitable fishing vessel until 1942, when she was requisitioned for military use during WWII. Until 1960, she remained attached to the Air Ministry, renamed the Watchmoor. after which she was scheduled twice for scrapping. Finally, in 1972, she was acquired by the Maritime Trust for preservation and then was purchased for a pound by the Lydia Eva and Mincarlo Trust, which has, through government financial support a much fund-raising, has restored her.
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| The Lydia Eva |
We were greeted by a friendly and knowledgeable volunteer, a local whose mother had been a net mender for the trawlers in Lowestoft. He spent well over half an hour with us showing us around and provided us with the ship's history and details about various items above and below deck. We visited the deck, the crew's sleeping quarters, the galley, the skipper's cabin, the fish hold, and the anchor chamber as well as the engine and boiler room. Peter and Rob particularly enjoyed the explanation of the steam triple expansion engine and the Scotch boiler, designed so that hot flue gases pass through tubes within a tank of water. The one on Lydia Eva has 190 tubes, providing a working pressure of 200 psi.
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| Rob, a volunteer and Peter in the engine room |
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| The foredeck |
All of us were fascinated by the human history connected with the operation of the Lydia Eva as a fishing vessel. Each autumn, she began her drifting operations off the coast of Scotland. Scotswomen of all ages followed the ship via land and were involved in cleaning and packing the catch. On average, they could gut 50 herrings per minute. A film made in the 1930s showed them at work doing their various tasks and also provided footage of the ship and her crew working at sea.
After the volunteer showed us around, we continued to explore on our own to learn about the history of the ship and the nets, buoys, tools and other apparatus for the catch and the work on deck in getting the fish into the hold. There were cran baskets of various dimensions on display; a cran was an official government volume equal of 37.5 imperial gallons. Because a full cran basket was too heavy to lift when full, so fractional versions--half, quarter and eighth crans--were also used. These beautiful, strong baskets were made locally with osier, hazel and cane.
We next visited the Mincarlo on the other side of the finger pier, a trawler built in 1961 with a single-screw motor made in the town. She is the last surviving sidewinder fishing trawler of the 50 to 60 strong Lowestoft fishing fleet. Her catches consisted of cod, haddock, plaice, skate and sole. She operated as a trawler. until 1975. In 1977 she was converted to a stand-by vessel for the offshore gas and oil industry.
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| The deck of the Mincarlo |
It was possible to visit all the cabins below deck as well as the engine room. The forecastle is now a museum, with many photographs as well as fishing gear, including trawling nets, the 40 ft. long ground ropes that held the net on the seabed, and the heavy otter boards which held the net open as it scraped the bottom. Not unsurprisingly, the signs lamented the damage to the nets which this caused, sometimes requiring two days to repair, but there was no mention of the environmental damage. The best part of the museum was a film made in the 1960s by Esso which went into great detail about the intense and long training men received to become qualified to work on the trawlers, become mates and, for some, captains.
After our edifying visits to these two historic ships, we returned to our own ship to collect the massive amount of laundry we had as well as towels and toiletry kits before going to the large and well-appointed yacht clubhouse with the usual display of racing cups and trophies. We exchanged pounds for tokens to use in the large capacity washer and dryer, which allowed me to do all the laundry in two loads. The washing machine was efficient and took only 45 minutes to operate. The dryer, however, only ran for 30 minutes on a token, which the staff seemed to think would be sufficient. Needless to say, the clothes were not nearly dry, so I purchased two more dryer tokens, one for each load. Even an hour was not enough, so I went back to the staff to gently complain. The manager provided me with two extra tokens for free, and most of the clothes dried completely except for a pair of jeans and some of Peter's and Rob's sport shirts with collars.
I continued to go back and forth from the laundry room for four hours, including during dinner at the clubhouse, which was quite good. Surprisingly, even though the rain had finally stopped, we were the only customers that evening.
Even though we were in a harbor, the swell crept into the docks and Mantra gently rolled continuously all day and night. The movement rocked us to sleep.
This morning, Rob and Peter woke up earlier than me and set off at 7:30 a.m. to take advantage of favorable currents. Only six hours later, sailing almost the whole time and cruising at a speed of over 10 knots, close-hauled (translation: uncomfortable heeling), we dropped anchor at 1:30 p.m. on the River Orwell just past the Port of Felixstowe, where enormous container ships were being loaded, including the Ever Given, the 400-meter ship that gained attention for blocking the Suez Canal for six day in March 2021.
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| Peter at the helm on the way to the River Orwell |
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| The notorious Ever Given off the bow |
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| Two ships being loaded with cargo |
After lunch, Peter and Rob launched the dinghy and went to Suffolk Yacht Harbour so that Rob could look at a sailboat he is considering buying. He has been perpetually looking at yachts for many years while his wife Susan has been steadfast in her lack of enthusiasm for becoming the proud owner of a boat.
While they have been gone, I have taken stock of provisions, planned dinner, successfully cleaned a fender that was covered with aluminum oxide from rubbing on the bumpers on the dock in Helgoland, and hung the still damp clean clothes. The wind is under 10 knots and the sun shines about five minutes of every hour, so whether they will dry is unknown. I have learned not to be optimistic.
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