Sailing on the North Norfolk Coast: a contemplation
There is a rhythm and poetry in the way Henry Chamberlian of Coastal Exploration talks about sailing the less explored creeks and inlets of North Norfolk.
Henry and his team sail year-round. No two trips are the same. The sea shifts silt and sand, tide by tide. Making for an amorphous vista. The trips allow for a meditative experience. Once the larger coastal gateways are left behind and you slip over a sand bar or into a staithe, you’re transported, unlikely to see anyone else for the remainder of the journey, trickling quietly down narrow creeks.
Coastal Exploration’s range of experiences is a myriad affair from foraging to concerts to cargo delivery, to wild swimming in creeks, to cockling in the silt using traditional methods, to following in the footsteps of former smuggling roots sailed by luggers during the 17th and 18th century.
A pursuit rooted in craft
Boats used in industry, once the forefront of traditional fishing practises that have largely disappeared from our county and country, form the backbone of the fleet.
The rotting hulls of crabbers, whelk and mussel flats have been restored to their former glory by makers in East Anglia. With a majority of the works undertaken between Wells and Fosdyke. This promotes a sense of circularity, with some of the boats that form the fleet originating at boatyards in King’s Lynn and Sheringham nearly a hundred years ago.
Typically, the boats are oak framed and larch planked. The wood is sourced based on strong links with foresters from across the country where wood is picked out by eye for its unique shape. The masts are sourced from near March in Cambridgeshire, where telegraph poles made from pine turn out to also make the perfect woody-spire.
The sails are meticulously hand stitched in Tollesbury by Steve Hall, the owner of North Sea Sails. The sail loft itself dates back 100 years and the business back to the 60s.
A birder’s paradise
Saltmarsh, curlew, long bill, spoonbill, marsh harriers, king fishers, oyster catchers and all manners of terns fleck the marsh with sound and colour depending on the season and conditions. Occasionally you might even catch sight of a sea eagle or osprey.
But from talking to Henry, it became clear not everything needs a name. Sometimes naming can take away from the immanence of what’s unfolding around you, out on the water.
Simple pleasures
Food often plays a part on any trip; bacon sourced from local butchers or fried halloumi cooked on a hotplate on the mussel flat. Coffee sourced from South America that’s sailed to the UK by New Dawn Traders. Wine is sourced from North Norfolk too, celebrating a mix of the county's local wineries and those further afield thanks to North Norfolk Cellars.
Sometimes spotting the remnants of foraging, or being part of it, is part of the voyage samphire, sea purslane, sea aster, whelks perhaps even spear fishing for dabs, a forgotten practice rightly or wrongly so, using willow spears and wading in shallow pools.
Coastal Exploration has more planned, with a trip to the furthest reaches of Scotland for prized barrels of Whiskey, brought back to Norfolk under the power of sail, in the works.
The perfect voyage
For Henry, going out on a spring tide early in the morning into the salt marsh on the mussel flat boat with a swim and maybe some bacon, eggs and coffee is the ideal trip.
The perfect swim
According to Henry, if you time it right, you can catch the creeks as they are emptying or filling. This makes for a fast and exhilarating swim; drifting or swimming with the tide, at eye level with the bank, taking it all in as you’re washed rhythmically along.
What to watch out for?
The weather is a tempest and sandbars move a lot. Getting across the continuously shifting sand is an art, and a great deal of care and concentration can be required. Being attuned to what is happening around you is crucial, that means carefully considering what the elements, the sea, and the sounds are telling you.
A future at sea?
There is serendipity to the experience at sea, and the way in which Coastal Exploration has come to be; from how it acquired its boats to the very people that form part of the community sailing and supporting the business. Perhaps too much of a plan for the future would dampen the magic. With that said, a passion for sustainable shipping and exploration remains central. Showing the power of sail and the beauty of the lesser tapped inlets of our great county remains the focus.
Nevertheless, some concerns linger, traditional knowledge about boat building, navigation and other coastal exploits is dwindling nationwide. This story extends beyond Norfolk and seafaring alone, with traditional knowledge being lost across all manner of exploits. Henry and team are a small part of the counter force to the crush of immediacy and automation, but more needs to be done in this space to preserve the slower pleasures and crafts that ground us.