First time up the coast - single-handed, in a 20' boat (Norfolk Gypsy). 

Good man for having a printed chart and not relying solely on the device. "Always look for the wooden masts." Yup, this is they way 😉👍

What a lovely jaunt in a delightful little boat. We sail the Solent in a small Crabber but the East Coast is beguiling in its raw wildness.

Thanks for sharing, really enjoyed going on that trip with you.

A great passage and beautiful conditions, thanks for taking us along.

Congratulations Toby, a nice competent voyage, well planned and safely completed, and such voyages will lead to what I suspect your aims really are, longer offshore passages.

If I lived in this part of the uk, I think this is just the sort of sailingI would enjoy.... Those breaking waves to your stern was probable caused by wind against tide, causing an increased steepness in the waves, allowing the waves to break.... Anyhow - this is great content, thanks for posting.... and thumbs up from me !!

That first time solo is always daunting. Well done!

Great work, capturing the joy of East Coast ditch crawling, and the simple pleasures of a small boat and the bleak Essex marshes.

watching again very enjoyable

Very nice. Thank you for sharing with us 👍

Thanks Toby. The immensity of the sea indeed. You’ve got the life jacket: it doesn’t take much to hook on with a safety line, and you’ll wish you had when you fall overboard and watch the boat sail away without you. I’ve singlehanded across the Atlantic in a 24- foot boat and I never unhooked: even to sleep. You’ll feel a lot more confident if you do.

i like these videos ,plus your honest remarks

Keep going enjoy adventures i am looking forward to coming up there next year

Very nice video, thank you.

Hi Toby, well done, it's good to push ourselves now and again, nice video thanks

Congratulations, that was wonderful to watch and a wonderful accomplishment for you. 🇨🇦

Your videos and content are quite cptivating. Your attention to detail is very commendable and interesting. The most incredible thing about the sea is the different perceived conditions that someone would normally have from the shore. Finding yourself in 0.8 M of water so far from shore is I am sure quite unbelievable to most people ordinarily. I have visited St Davids for many years and after being in the water in many different craft, there must be the utmost respect for the water and tides. Having just got a Wayfarer I am quite a way from your rig, but interesting just the same. And a realisation that I guess you need planning.

Brings back memories of the Walton Backwaters....👍

Holland on Sea, my families town..🥰 I'm currently living in Sweden, I have bought a P28, she is everything to me! In less than a month now I will leave for Portugal, passing, with a Salute to my family. Viking and Saxon brotherhood...

Brilliant.

Well done, Toby! When you get your autotiller installed, it will change your life!

Nicely planned and executed. I keep my boat on that pontoon at Titchmarsh. Nothing I like better than heading out to catch sunrise as I clear Stone Point.

That was a great trip. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Thank you for sharing! It is an inspiration...

Well done Toby! A really well planned trip, and one that I hope to do this year in my First 260 Spirit berthed in Bradwell. Your video is super-helpful in this regard.

Thanks for that Toby. Just what I needed having spent the day looking at the view from my office in Falmouth across Carrick Roads. My boat is going in the waster at the weekend and so excited. No doubt I will be responsible for the weather turning foul.

What an inspiring sail. Thank you!

Great vid, thanks for posting. Based at Titchmarsh in my first season so great to see what's round the corner! Look forward to the next installment.

Excellent video of an excellent sail! Thank you. 👍🏾😀

Great story Toby, enjoyed it.

That was nice. Enjoyed that!

A lovely little yacht, helmed by an intrepid solo sailor. I was a self-taught sailor when I was in my thirties with similar small vessels, starting with a 16ft trailer sailer and gradually moving up in length. My sailing days ended 50 or so years later with a 34ft cruising catamaran. Looking back, the boats I liked the best were my 24ft bilge keelers which I now feel are the optimum size for single handed coastal and estuary cruising in settled weather. Now at age 80 your adventures are helping me, and I'm sure others, re-live those peaceful and enjoyable days on the sea.

Nice little video, thanks for sharing!👍🏻

Delightful video, I really enjoyed it. Excellent demonstration of passage planning. Keep the videos coming!

I'm so glad I come across your channel. I'm currently deciding whether to go from lake to sea and watching this channel has given me the confidence to go and do it. Fair winds my friend and maybe meet up for a long haul at some point.

Hello Toby, beautiful boat you have and your movies are also great! IT’s especially nice that you not scared to bring your insecurities up, very refreshing. One tip from my perspective, i always host the jib first and then the main sail. The ship will be more stable then and also less risk of a unintentional gybe especially when you’re sailing solo. Greetings from Holland

Well done mate, very peaceful, a nice video 👍

Well done on the sail and the filming. Bravo!

Thanks for the video Toby, I am about to venture out first time single handing in my Cornish Crabber. Based on the Swale in Kent Titchmarsh is on my list for this year.

Lovely yacht and perfect for your sailing grounds! It gets less nerve wracking each time you sail. Before you know it you will be off across Biscay like me! :-)

Excellent Toby. It’s a great achievement first time out on your own. A sail to Queenborough could be another interesting trip overnight. You could moor on the pontoon and go ashore or take a buoy and radio the trot boat. Alternatively, anchor in Stangate creek a short distance upriver on the Medway where birdwatching at sundown is great too. I notice you have a VHF attached to your life jacket. I also use a PLB attached which is a good safety addition for the single handed sailor. Good video too, look forward to more ⛵️⛵️

Brilliant Toby. I now have a 1974 Drascombe Longboat Cruiser which will be berthed at Tollesbury Marina. I shall be embarking on a journey very similar to yours, i.e. getting to know the Blackwater then venturing further afield as my skills and confidence grow so please keep the videos coming!

Can't fault you on your sailing BUT The colour of your tea left something to be desired, lol

Nice little gaff rigger. 20ft with what sounds like a diesel? So nice!

Good effort, especially without your tiller pilot. My first long distance single handed trip was from the Blackwater marina to the Medway in a Jaguar 25 also without tiller pilot. It was a good sail, wind westerly on the starboard tack all the way. I remember sailing through the middle of the Burnham racing fleet as I crossed the Whitaker channel. The worst issue I had was severe neck ache by constantly looking over my right shoulder. I tried bungee elastic etc. on the tiller but couldn't get the boat to stay on coarse for more than a couple of minutes! I bought a tiller pilot immediately after that trip, and consider it essential kit for single handed sailing. I'm looking forward to your next adventure. BTW I've swallowed the anchor now. 😢

What a delightful adventure! Pity you didn't have time to explore Secret Water (from Ransome's story) more.

One of the advantages of a shallow draft boat is that you don't need to go further offshore. With a wind like you had during the outward part of your trip you benefited from being close in as there was little fetch in the sea whereas farther out there would have been more seas and that would have slowed you down a lot more. The seas that you did experience were probably from wind over tide. Don't discount the effects of shoals and deeper water showing on the surface even at 16m depth. I've experienced surface effects from 100m down. MInd you, that was the edge of an abyssal deep of 3000m coming up to 100m in the Straits of Messina. Strange place. You had a great outward trip, the motoring home was not so good 😀 Personally I would have rigged sheet-to-tiller steering for a journey of that length. Without an engine I probably wouldn't have risked going down to the marina and would have headed for the end of Hamford Water but then I'm not a fan of marinas either. You were probably fine cutting the corner especially when under engine. Just pull up the plate if you touch and if you did go aground you were on a rising tide with little or no sea to worry about. What was low water for the day? Anything over half a metre and you would clear the shallows easily. More advantages of a shallow draft. All in all I'd say that was a pretty excellent first trip up the coast. This is what I'm working towards: svnaiad.uk/voyages/voyages-2023/?post_id=588&title=20230128---forward-planning-for-2025

great video , i have just got a westerly 22 ft sailing boat, can i ask what do they charge at that marina for the night as would like to go there myself

Hi Toby, nice video. Im just a bit behind you with a Leisure 20 moored on the Orwell and looking to do your trip in reverse, this summer. Intended to try my first trip to Walton Backwaters the other day but postponed it due to confitions. Was your video filmed this year ? These persistent and strong easterlys have been a real pain in the neck for novice sailors on the East Coast (like me)!

Can I ask what navigation app you use on your iPad?…. Just spotted it on the credits! (Imray)

very good camera quality what did you use? also that boat to your right probably knew the wind strongest further out to sea , nice boat of yours did you buy it in that good condition?

BTW, how do you do the chart animations? Your videos are becoming increasingly slick!

You are much better heading out to port, the other side is complex.