I try full sails & then one reef, to see which drives my Norfolk Gypsy along the quickest.

In a gusty wind I make lots of silly mistakes, have lines flapping everywhere, & then coming back to the marina make a mess of a docking manoeuvre. All good fun. 0:00 Intro & setting off 0:41 Lots of mistakes & lines everywhere 6:27 Hove-to & good sailing 13:28 New docking technique goes very wrong

In my 20' Norfolk Gypsy I go out in a pretty brisk wind, with wind against tide making for a lot of choppy waves. The last time I tried this, I chickened out. How will it go this time around?

Here is all my accumulated experience of watching & making sailing videos on YouTube, in 3 minutes. I hope it's helpful.

I head up Salcott Creek on the north side of the River Blackwater, going past West Mersea. And I briefly go aground again.

Came across some striking colours of the sky and water, sailing on the River Blackwater - going past Stone & Ramsey Island. (Yes, it really looked like this - I didn't add any fancy filters).

I decided to see how I would cope with a fairly gusty wind (in my 20' Norfolk Gypsy), and some choppy waves sent me scuttling straight back to the marina.

I sail out to the Gunfleet wind farm in my 20' Norfolk Gypsy, and have an unexpected encounter with "the world's last seagoing paddle steamer" (built in 1946).

Two years ago I bought a 20' Norfolk Gypsy (24' including the bowsprit). As I'd only sailed dinghies before, it felt pretty big to me. Here are the main things I've had to get used to, moving up from a dinghy to a bigger boat. 00:00 Intro 01:50 Everything is bigger and heavier 06:10 Mooring or marina? 10:21 Docking & mooring 15:33 Transporting, launching & retrieving 18:20 Navigation & planning 20:10 Equipment, maintenance & safety

On the Essex coast, I sail around the Dengie Peninsula in my 20' Norfolk Gypsy, I sail out from Bradwell, head down alongside the Dengie Flats, over the Raysand, and up the Rivers Crouch and Roach to Paglesham Pool. Then I return with the tide early the next morning. Whilst anchored for the night I also find a passage in a Joseph Conrad novel which describes one of the nearby creeks - an inlet which allows a boat to seemingly 'disappear' out of the River Thames.

I've had some helpful suggestions of various ways to reef under sail, aside from going hove-to. They are: 1. Using the mainsail to keep the boat head-to-wind, 2. Letting all the sails go, and 3. Close-hauled under jib with mainsail slack. So I give these three methods a go. And I also try out an adjustment to the hove-to position.

I have a 20' Norfolk Gypsy, with a gunter rig and slab reefing. I had two problems with reefing, especially in stronger winds: 1. I couldn't reach the reefing cleats on the boom when the mainsail was slackened off, and 2. I found it very difficult to pull the leech reefing line tight. Here I do some simple adjustments to the fittings on the boom. Obviously the real test will be trying to reef at sea in very windy conditions, but I think the solutions I applied here should do the trick.

I practice reefing whilst hove-to, in (for me) some quite gusty conditions. In my 20' Norfolk Gypsy.

I make my first proper trip up the coast (28nm) - from the River Bradwell to the Walton Backwaters, and then back again early the next morning. I wasn't sure how long it would take, how I'd manage sailing alone for so many hours, or how tricky it would be to get into the narrow Walton channel at low water. Here's what happened.

Putting advice about gaff reefing into practice, whilst hove-to. Then I come across some interesting waves (interesting for someone like me in a 20' boat), followed by a fast sail home. Thank you to the commenters on my previous video for the helpful advice on reefing.

A sunny afternoon on the River Blackwater. I check out a mudflat in preparation for a possible trip to a tiny creek, try out my new tiller pilot (which comes to an unhappy end), and practise reefing under sail - which proves to be tricky with the reefing lines on my boat.

From a 12-year old learning on the Broads to sailing a Norfolk Gypsy on the Essex coast.

A short winter sail on the River Blackwater. Nothing eventful, but nice to be on the water. Didn't have much to say, so experimented with some music backing. Music: Chris Fitkin: Sextet, from the album "Piano Circus" (1992), Argo Records.

Sailing in the River Blackwater, I managed to get my 20' Norfolk Gypsy stuck aground on the bank of a creek at the worst possible time: the peak of high tide. As the tide went out, my boat was left stranded four feet above the river bed. And I wasn't sure if I would be able to get her off again. This is how it turned out and the lessons I learned.

Here's a look round my Norfolk Gypsy, a 20' gunter-rigged sailing boat. (In the video I say "gaff-rigged", but actually it's a gunter rig). She's a shoal-draft boat (0.5m draft with centreboard up) - so able to explore shallow rivers and creeks, but also substantial enough for passages along the coast. I run through all the main elements on deck, in the cockpit and in the cabin.