Lowestoft to Woodbridge


	We spent another week in Oulton Broad and were able to get these panels from a very helpful local company,


	Now we only need to run the generator for power hungry jobs like vacuuming and the washing machine. The panels are fixed at the moment, but I shall be fitting hinges to them so they can better face the sun. ( no we are not in Lancashire now!)


	To get from the Broads to the sea, you have to transit Lake Lothing, which holds some very grim sights, as well as some interesting wrecks. The area is seriously infested with Herring Gulls, day and night you get no peace from their squawking. Two steam herring drifters:

We actually got the weather just right for our next leg of the trip. Christine went into great detail for her passage planning with tidal streams and weather watching so we got the correct departure time from Lowestoft to make the most of the flooding tide down the Suffolk Coast.

We left in the early morning in company with half a dozen Windfarm service catamarans who roared off South, burning tons of diesel to go to service their hundreds of energy saving windmills. We knew the turbines were saving energy because they weren't turning!

The barge crew were hard at work keeping a look out at both ends of the boat.



							they actually did see a few dolphins, and we felt sure we had seen a whale, until we got up close and realized it was a string of lobster pot buoys being dragged under the surface by the current. After that, we paid closer attention, because the last thing we wanted was a rope wrapped round the prop.

						Two of the crew were friends of Alan Round and they keep their own boat near Ipswich. This meant they knew the Eastern rivers intimately and were able to expertly pilot us through the shoal water at the River Deben entrance and through the hundreds of moorings in the sheltered parts of the river .


	We came to our mooring on the top of the tide at Robertson's Boatyard, just above the tide mill at Woodbridge. As you can see from their website, it fitted all our criteria, and this was the view from our kitchen window:


	Our Stay in Woodbridge


	Woodbridge to the Thames