Taken from a face book post… Been away for 9 days now …175 miles sailed .. first dose of showers, experienced over night and now clearing away, but blustery. Sitting under woods at Pin Mill. Clutching a mug of coffee, under my boom tent, I watched intrepid bargemen make timed dashes for the line for…

Ah yes … we left Pin Mill in an absolute calm. There was the faintest of something or other stirring the bobs on several spritsail barges sleeping on the hard, but nothing like we needed to make it to the Deben bar a little after low water. Pin Mill reflecting… Our mooring was close to another classic,…

Leaving my good mate at home I broke free of the Lower Thames and made passage down the Swin with my brother crewing … it was a partial darkness sail, well, light is relative and the dawn wasn’t far off for we could see the first signs lighting the tops of the low cloud that hung…

Upon visiting both of these places recently I found some changes: For the Queenborough All Tide Landing, the charge for craft up to 27 feet is now £10, larger craft remain at £12. The trot boat is thrown in… The boat does finish running relatively early though and it is prudent to use own tender…

Smallgains Creek at the eastern end of Canvey Island has recently gained a new addition to the small fleet of craft fishing commercially from here. The boat, a clinker wood ‘Hastings’ type, is something of an oddity in the area. She’s a functional, neat and smart looking thing with a pole mast that is possibly designed…

A little job: Out recently I looked aloft and spotted a wee problem developing to a batten pocket on Whimbrel’s mainsail. I’d gazed upwards to check the sail’s set –  a little after putting a reef in the main on the day we sailed across the Thames to watch some of the Medway Barge Match. I…

Well, it had to be done … the night before I’d been at the Oval cricket ground watching Essex dismantle Surrey, though reading the report in The Times, I was clearly at a different match, however… In the Medway barge match and the others that take place during the season, reporting tends to of a more…

I’ve mentioned the Finesse Rally at Chatham Marina over the recent Bank Holiday weekend, but that was just the first part of our mini cruise covering six days. The mate was in raptures: in the past ‘school reports’ have hung like the sword of Damocles over her head taking up the largest portion of a…

Wow, did we ever have a fantastic rally again with weather that was, for a Bank Holiday weekend, reasonable. The weather controls so much of our lives and we had a good share of the sunshine around. Mariette joins Whimbrel in Stangate Creek… We had three boats collecting in Stangate Creek – Whimbrel, Mariette, both F24s, and…

The all tide landing is up and running again … this will be good news for many people. On my last visit we resorted to using the concrete hard … a return to life as it used to be. Exciting…! See earlier post of 6th May 2014. Well done to all concerned. See: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Queenborough-Harbour-Trust/113577585430643 The…

One of the joys of sailing is the chance of meeting living history out on the water. Last Friday I had the absolute pleasure of meeting the little Cygnet, a farm barge originally built in 1881 by Curel of Strood. She’s a 16 nrt vessel of around 41 feet. I love her… Des, her skipper, was…

The Sea-change trust made it into the Braintree Times a few days ago, see: http://www.braintreeandwithamtimes.co.uk/news/north_essex_news/11152153.Mayland_charity_plans_to_build_first_new_Thames_sailing_barge_in_84_years/ This is exciting because at last the ‘daily’ press are beginning to get intereated, perhaps, next it will be The Times… Also on the trust web site is a sprinkling of other exciting news, one especially is the moving on…

For once the early May bank holiday weekend came with the finest weather for many years. We had the boat ready for Friday, but went instead on the Saturday afternoon, when the conditions were idyllic, with a wish for a little more breeze: diesel had to be consumed on our trip across the Thames, however,…

Last year in the early part of January (2013) I was approached by the Island Yacht Club commodore, Valerie Dean, with a request for a PhD student from Kingston University, Surrey, regarding the availability of a platform for a film. The student, Mitch Panayis, had two projects on the go – one to be completed…

Ah yes… Even in deepest ‘land locked’ Paris boats are a feature of city life as they are in London. There are odd collections of live-aboards right in the middle of the city, most have an aura of ‘in use’ and I doubt if the city ‘fathers’ would want it to be any different. I…

My home is surrounded by much woodland to the north, east and west. To the south we have the expanse of Hadleigh and Benfleet downs with Hadleigh marsh (arable and grazing) below. Within the woodland are numerous patches of the old bluebell. The woods are largely owned and maintained by the Essex Wildlife Trust and…

One of the never ceasing amazements that we, as sailors, have the honour to feast upon is our diverse wildlife. In winter as I sail off the eastern end of Canvey Island a seal will often as not pop up to say, ‘Hello … ‘ and follow lazily in Whimbrel’s wake, until, I believe, I’ve…

There is a whole myriad of ways of enjoying boating and with it comes a responsibility of some sort or other. Seen out recently was a sweet little clinker motor boat based at my own yacht club at the eastern end of Canvey Island. She is a John Leather design and as comely as she…

A good friend of mine called me up to asked if I’d read the Telegraph … that was a couple of days ago. Anyway, it was to tell me that Jack Holmes’ obituary had appeared. Sorry to say, I hadn’t known that he had died. He and I were both Leigh – on – Sea…

The Finesse Class which my Whimbrel belongs has enjoyed fifty odd years of sailing. My book, The Jottings of a Thames Estuary Ditch-crawler tells the tale of Finesse Yachts and builder Alan Platt, in chapter 2. I’ve enjoyed my little sloop for 31 years now and aim to continue along that path for many more…