In one of those inexplicable turns of the weather, unlike last year when I was unable to get to Naiad due to unfavourable weather conditions, this year I have already been to Naiad thrice !

Okay, so one of those was to launch her, but even so.

I think I managed to get onto Naiad 6 times last year and this year so far has been an entirely different story. Launched on 11th April, visit to compete the rigging on Easter Monday (21st April) and another visit this weekend.

This last visit was either to be a trip to Tollesbury and a night on board or just a night on board. Which of the two depended mainly on the weather. But I've never been to Tollesbury so I don't know what it is like and I felt that it would be a good idea to pay a visit by land first as 'case the joint' as the saying goes. That mean leaving quite early in the morning so that I was at the water's edge at low water but that made for a very easy drive down. Virtually no traffic despite being a Friday morning. 

I had used the InterWeb to find photos and maps and reviews of Tollesbury and from those I had identified a few places that I might be able to beach Naiad since there was little or no chance of easily getting Naiad into the marina and out again.

This is the second spot, the first can be seen about 100m away where the blue-hulled boat is on the mud and you can see that it is quite steep there. This spot is a possibility although getting ashore might be difficult as the metal pole in the bank to which the rope is tied has come loose and any pull from the seaward side would pull it out completely.

Just to the right of that spot is another candidate. I looks like someone has been out there judging by the footprints in the mud.

Here's another view and you can see that the mud is fairly flat and the rope, although covered in weed, is intact and well secured. So this was going to be the spot where I would try to beach, assuming that I could get round here of course.

This is part of the hard at Tollesbury and the post in the mud painted green at the top marks one end of the concrete sill that prevents the water from completely flowing out of the marina.

Here's a closer look at the sill and it's not something that I would like to hit. I did find a photo on the InterWeb of a small boat stranded on the sill. Presumably they had hit the sill on a falling tide and got stuck.

This is the view up the creek towards the River Blackwater. My beach candidate is just the other side of the first boat you can just see to the right of the centre of the photo.

As it happened I was not able to get around to Tollesbury, there was too little wind and too much tide. By the time the onshore breeze had filled in it was nearly High Water and if I had set of then I would have been facing an ebb tide out of the creek to Tollesbury, so I stayed on board and had a restful day and a good night's sleep instead.

The photo above shows the tide rushing past Naiad on her mooring that day and here is a short video of the same thing.