Yesterday was our male minder's birthday, so when he had finished working, we drove over to the Norfolk Broads to see something of the 3 Rivers Race which we had heard about while on holiday.
The 3 rivers race is a real monster of a sail. It is a 50 mile course which requires competitors, who start at Horning, to round 4 marks on the rivers Bure, Ant & Thurne, before returning to Horning. It is nearly as far as we travelled in 5 days, and they have just the Saturday, running in to Sunday, to complete the course, and yes, they do sail overnight. It all sounded frightfully exciting which is why we decided it just had to be seen.
We took our bicycles with us so we could ride round some of the course and see the boats at different points on the course.
Our first stop was St Benet's Abbey. When we were still 2 or 3 miles off we could see lots of sails on the river and when we reached the river bank by the Abbey, we could see a traditional sailing boat approaching, and from the numbered board on her side we gathered it was participating in the race. As we watched the boat making the slow progress that tacking into the wind on a river gives you, we were reminded of our holiday, as we had ourselves sailed to Horning then tacked back past the Abbey with lots of short tacks and laborious progress.
I dicussed with my minder the fact that the boat looked as if it could have come from Martham boatyard, which hired us our boat, Leander, as it was very similar. Can you imagine our surprise and delight, when the boat eventually reached us, then tacked away from us, showing us clearly, the name on her stern, that of Leander.
I jumped up and down as I was so excited. Of all the hundreds of boats sailing on the Broads that day, the very first boat we had seen was our very own Leander. What an amazing and wonderful coincidence. You may wonder why we hadn't recognised her sooner, but there were a couple of reasons for this. One we had never seen Leander sailing, as we were always on board seeing the cockpit view, not the external view, and two, the sails looked different, as she had a brown rectangle of cloth which was there to use as a fill in for racing (it fills in the 45% angle between the mast and the gaff rig. My female minder also thought the curtains in the cabin were different!
As we watched Leander sail off towards Potter Heigham, we had another treat. One of the huge Norfolk Wherry Trust wherries, Albion, came up the river from South Walsham Borad and passed in front of us. It wasn't taking part in the race, but it was still a sight worth seeing.
Our next port of call was the low bridge at Potter Heigham (remember my posts about it) which racing boats had to pass under. We had heard that many did the complex operation of lowering sails, and then the mast, in mid river and right at the last moment. Our minds simply boggled as we knew how difficult this had been for us, and it was something we simply had to see.
Here again we were lucky with our timing. We arrived at Potter Heigham bridge just as a steady flow of boats was approaching. You would have to see it yourself to understand what it was like, and just how skillful some of the boat crews were.
Talk about leaving it to the last minute! I had to put my paws to my eyes and peer through my claws, as I could hardly bear to watch, as it kept looking as if a crash was inevitable.
My heart really was in my mouth, but all the boats we saw, just like this one, got the mast down just in the nick of time and made it through.
I think they were helped by the fact that the winds were light at that point so there was little drifting. Quite a few boats did stop to lower sails and masts and I thought they were very sensible!This wonderful specator sport, and seeing Leander, certainly made it a great day and we were pleased that our minder had enjoyed his birthday so much. We will definitely be making this an annual event.
Next time we'll return to our own adventures on Leander.
Lots of love, Eddie xxx
2 comments:
Can we come next year ask Suffolk Branch? It must have been amazing to see Leander - did you hop on board and lend a paw Eddie?
Oh yes, Suffolk branch, you simply must come next year. I didn't hop on board Leander, Aunty M, as they were doing fine without me, but yes, it was tempting.
Love Eddie xxx
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