Out again on Sunday. With the tide in our favour we crept along Meadow Dyke on the lightest of breezes and found ourselves on a deserted Horsey Mere. Things were a bit better out on open water and we were just congratulating ourselves on nursing Gypsy Roma through some circuits of the sunken island when a broads cruiser emerged from the mouth of the dyke onto the mere.
These boats, shaped by the shallow waters and narrow rivers of the Broads, carry a huge area of sail for their hull size. These are the white sails you see everywhere in the flat landscape apparently moving through marshland grazing and green fields. As they pulled alongside we had a fine demonstration of her superiority in these conditions.
She overhauled us as if we were standing still. The wind had picked up a little but it can’t have been blowing any more than Force 2/3. Even so, with her narrow freeboard her deck dipped into the water as she pulled away.
I wanted to stand up and cheer.
What a wonderful ‘autumn extra’ for you!
Richard
A Grand sight indeed – reminds me of those two magnificent sailing boats that passed me in the North Sea – full sail and they just glided past me with a rather superior air-and rightly so. I did actually cheer for that one!
P&J