May 3, 2014
Ipswich Haven Marina
Ipswich Suffolk England
Cheers,
So this is my final email from England! The time has passed much too quickly. I’m eager to be home finally in VA, but would have stayed longer if that had been possible. There’s just so much to see that’s new yet so much seems so familiar having grown up in New England.
I still have some Ipswich stories to share, but for now here’s Randal’s info about our immediate plans.
Ru
We will depart Ipswich tomorrow, Sunday, for Vlissingen, Netherlands. It is a 104 NM, 17.5 hour trip and we will depart just before high tide in Ipswich around 2:00 PM. We will enter the canal system at Vlissingen and remain in the river/canal system until we reach the Black Sea, hopefully in late August.
It is 3,900 Kilometers from the North Sea to the Black Sea. Below is a link to some maps of that voyage. Rivers use Kilometers instead of Nautical Miles which is what we are accustomed to. The 3,900 Km is equivalent to 2,106 NM.
After entering the canal system, we will find a marina with a crane and lower the mast onto cradles we have yet to build though we have the lumber onboard to do so. We also have to stow the paravane poles on deck as we need to get our air draft down below 6.8 meters. After removing the mast and poles, our air draft will be 4.6 meters so will be fine going under bridges.
We should be able to find wifi all along the way. Rick and Mary, who arrived on Thursday, will be with us all summer all the way back to Turkey. Rick installed a super duper wifi antenna on the flybridge railing that can accommodate all our computers. Rick and Mary did this trip in 2011 and said wifi was readily available along the way. We anticipate this being a very fun trip without the threat of high waves, only flooding and running aground in shallow water.
Click here to see where we are going…
Sincerely,
Randal Johnson
www.mydoramac.com
"It is not the strongest of species that survives, or the most intelligent,
but the ones most responsive to change" – Charles Darwin