On the 17th October Marc and I went down to Tollesbury in the morning for a rising tide and after collecting the mast from the boatshed began taking everything down to Silver Spray and loading it aboard. If you know Tollesbury mudflats you will know this is not a straightforward task and before long the incoming tide made things a rush. I had also managed to slip in to the water up to my waist so things were not going well so far. - There were more problems to come of course as since we had last visited the starboard sternline had snapped the cleat off so Silver Spray was now lying more or less side on to the bank and was being firmly held there by the wind. We were aiming to get out to the main channel using a borrowed outboard to meet John and Lavella but despite valiant efforts the wind and the outboard not working made us completely unmanoeverable.
John arrived out of nowhere and managed to reverse his boat into to us and get a line on and with just a few hindrances we were off. At least as far as the main channel where we stopped to take stock. Everything seemed ok, we weren't sinking, so at about 1330 we set off under tow around Mersea Island Marc and I took it in turns to steer and pump the bilge that was filling up slowly from a leak at the bow at about waterline height. I was very wet and cold by now, it was overcast with a bitter wind and I had a wet bottom half but I was feeling pretty good really. We got to the Pyefleet at about 1530, picked up a buoy. We managed to fix the outboard so that it would work in the morning without the killcord and spent the night on board Lavella, pumping out Silver Spray during the evening. In the morning she had taken on quite a bit more water bit the bilge pump could take care of it and we didn't have far to go now. .
At 0900 John headed back to Heybridge and we set off under our own power up the Colne. It felt great but I was far from relaxed. The outboard held out well thankfully, but the tiller seemed to be very out of line with the rudder. But we did fine and arrived a bit ahead of the rising tide so we mostly drifted into the creek. We went aground and then came off with the tide, then we moseied up a little further and went aground again. 
