We left Wells around midday on Wednesday. The harbourmaster's launch led a small flock of yachts out to sea at high tide but even so two of the boats grounded temporarily in the buoyed channel. Once offshore we found light head winds and mostly motored down the North Norfolk coast.
We were planning to go to Lowestoft, the most Easterly point of Britain, but as we were approaching in the dark, the land and all lights disappeared from view and we were suddenly surrounded by thick fog; we could only see a few meters. We fleetingly thought of entering this busy commercial harbour guided only by the chart plotter with no visual cues whatsoever but this didn't seem a good idea. The main danger in fog comes from other ships and it's best to head for shallow water where the big ships can't go. So we carried on closely following the coast encouraged by a forecast that we would get a fair NE breeze, force 4-5.
And as dawn broke so it turned out. We had a fine sail rolling along with Alice steering much of the time. The wind cleared the fog away and we had a sunny day. It seemed a shame to stop when we were going so well and we got to Harwich in a few hours.
Entering home waters made us feel wistful that Bonita's circumnavigation of Britain is nearly complete, although we still intend to go to the Old Gaffers' rally in Cowes. So there are still some miles to go but not many new ports or new coastlines to puzzle over. Every trip on Bonita is an adventure, but the circumnavigation has been an adventure of a different sort.
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