Wells next the Sea

Our trip to Wells next the Sea in June was our first chance to take Naughty-Cal to sea and find out just how she handled the stuff she was designed for. After a few days holed up in Boston due to bad weather we took to the high seas under glorious blue skies. We were not disappointed with her performance either, as usual she was foot perfect and well mannered, just what we needed to build up our sea going confidence.





Wells next the Sea is a small harbour town with a resident fishing fleet and numerous sailing boats of various types. It was a little odd to see a group of five sports cruisers among the traditional boats and we certainly kept the crowds entertained with our antics aboard.As you can see from this photo the channel dries out at low water so entry to the harbour has to be timed correctly. .

The fishing fleet at Wells next the Sea reside in the inner harbour next to the newly built fish processing plant. The boats work around the tides and leave or enter the harbour whenever the tide allows them to trade. It is nice to see a thriving trade from these small fishing fleets around the country.










The navigation channel into Wells next the Sea is narrow, shallow and winding. It is however well marked with port and starboard markers. The entrance channel takes you over the dreaded Wells bar which is a shallow sand bar at the entrance to the channel. The shallow water pushes the water upwards creating big waves which at times have to be taken beam on which makes for interesting times aboard!!





The town of Wells next the Sea is very pretty and very old world. The whole town is set around the harbour and beach. The quay head during the day is full of holiday makers catching buckets full of crabs. The place is very well kept and the local community are very proud of their town and rightly so.

Next year we intend to make a return visit along with several members of the Sealine Forum. It should be interesting to see if Wells is ready for another invasion of Sealines.......