We entered the River Deben under the guidance of Rob who sails both a modern barge and a catamaran dinghy on the river. He explained where the main channel was and where to expect the powerful side currents to kick in.

We needed HW to get into our new berth 8 miles up the river, so we had to cross the shallow entrance about 1 hour before HW, when the current was running in quite fast. We had to make sure to manoeuvre in good time to avoid touching any of the moored boats in the river. We also had to slow down our progress so that we didn’t arrive with the current still running hard. We did this by turning into the current for short periods and stemming the tide.

As we went up the river the current slowed down, becoming more manageable, and we glided between the white plastic yachts, pointing out to the helm, boats and buoys to avoid and channel markers to go around.