Hartlepool to Blyth

I had a day off today, as Paul took the role as skipper. I was happy to crew for a day. We left Hartlepool at 09:45, the northerly tidal currents seem to happen about 1.5hours after HW, so our starting times are a lot more sociable. On passage, we came across what looked like a half sunken boat, and changed course to investigate - it turned out to be a very large log in the water. There was a lot of rubbish floating on our course, and the engine note chaged as we went close to some. We throttled the engine back and then forward to clear and stuff, and noticed the exhaust seemed to the dripping spots of oil - worrying. Further investigation showed this to be drips of petrol from the outboard fuel in the gas locker ( gas now all removed from the boat ). We spent a while cleaning this up, and ventilating the boat very well before proceeding.

We saw a big seal very close to Serenity.



Arriving at Blyth was nice, good facilities, but we were too late for food, and the town was a long walk. So I had a pleasant shower and made dinner of slightly burnt omlettes.