It has been a bit of a month down on the Thames estuary with just a few available days fit for sailing when the tide was in. I grabbed two of those…
Waiting for the tide…
My eldest brother was over from Canada a little while back and he hit a period of excellent weather in the east, enjoying a three day sail and another out on the tide before hightailing back to Canada as Covid-19 variant Omicron began to hit.
Looking aloft…
Over a couple of days before Christmas I was able to get afloat for a couple of sails. It at least ‘showed’ the tree off to other folk afloat. Hauling a tree aloft is a rarity these days on ships and boats.
Looking aft as Whimbrel sails herself…
Christmas Day arrived to another bout of windy mizzly weather – no matter I have only sailed on Christmas day on very few occasions!
Boxing Day morning our phone rang early.
I looked across at the mate as she listened … it was my sister down in Devizes about to leave for our mother’s care home. She wasn’t good…
Advice was get going!
Sadly, my dear mama died a little after eight. She went peacefully, bless her, with my sister holding her hand.
My mother stitching sections of a new mainsail for the May Flower in 1960.
So, the the artistic sailing mum we all knew has passed on to pastures new… She has left us her memories.
I, for one, will always treasure the sketches she came up with to illustrate the first three books to follow ‘May Flower’. It was something she was superb at.
My mother enjoying a sail on Whimbrel…
So, although it is the festive season until twelfth night for many, it is for me and my siblings (and others) a sad time too.
Sail on mum, wander the eternal shorelines and the wooded glades. Sit, ponder and sketch, for ever.
God Bless…
To all, good sailing or whatever boating you participate in. Let us all hope for a better 2022 out on the water.
Whimbrel ‘managed’ 930 nautical miles for 2021, pretty good really, considering…
I first met Max when he pitched up at my yacht club to begin working on the regular Saturday routine. He had been at it a little while without my knowledge while I was away summer sailing aboard Whimbrel.
I immediately found Max to be one of those honest down to earth guys that often seem all too rare.
Max had appeared at the club with a robust little yacht called Kate which he had sailed across the Atlantic with a ‘duff’ engine. Within months he was negotiating a purchase deal for Wendy May, a deep keeled gaffer then owned by Dick Durham.
Due to family needs (aged parent) Max had to move. So, I felt sad when he slipped his mooring and sailed Wendy May off to a distant Welsh creek.
Christobel bought this book for me as a birthday present. It was read aboard Whimbrel during the recent glorious ‘gas-less’ summer generally when up mud creeks – far removed from the blue waters of the Caribbean where most of the story is told.
Front cover…
I remember this ship at Battlesbridge from many years ago. What it was doing there was alien to my thinking. And, as Max tells, he needed a very good spring tide to make the passage up to the top of the tidal River Crouch. Her name: Gloria.
Max delights in telling us about the trials and tribulations in getting his ship in order. His previous boat was a little yacht kept at the Thurrock Yacht Club.
Max made it to the Caribbean via the Iberian peninsular, Los Palmas and the Cape Verde Islands. There he worked to earn enough to make repairs and ‘live’ … Max then sailed the yacht back home, alone…
Then after stops to visit family ‘down west’ he made it back to Battlesbridge taking a crew aboard to help with this bit!
There are a scattering of black & white images and an end map with some details of the routes taken.
I have sailed the high seas aboard ships, but other than a south coast passage have never gone deep sea aboard a ‘little ship’ so I found this story of great interest. It was compelling…
Max is passionate about his sailing and clearly knows his stuff.
I knew Dick in a childhood sort of way one does when the person appears in one’s life to crew (and work) aboard your Thames spritsail barge home.
Dick disappeared from my life and he next turned up as a ‘yotty’ working for Yachting Monthly. Dick later graduated to News Editor and had his own column, which he still has several years after his retirement.
Dick’s sweet gaff cutter Betty II is moored adjacent to Whimbrel at the same yacht club. We’ve ‘slaved’ together many hours on club work parties so I think I have got to know this author, sailor, raconteur and bloody good bloke fairly well…
I received a copy of Dick’s latest work, Turnip Road, for my birthday in June 2021. I read it during a long summer spent afloat on Whimbrel.
Front cover…
The book tells the tale of a young man who after working on the last working spritsail barge, the Cambria, had a wanderlust that needed to be satiated.
Dick travels across Europe, meeting people travelling in the same direction. He hitched, took buses and actually walked a little of it too…
Some of his fellow travellers became confederates in the same cause: friends on the trail, until one or the other peeled off in their own direction.
What was his direction. Well, along the ‘hippie trail’ in the main at first, but from there it wasn’t clear. He just kept on going.
The scents, smells and filth of the conditions found on the journey convey much colour. One wonders if many of the places have changed? Well, of course they will have, but what I mean is for the betterment of the people?
Dick finally made it to Sidney! The city isn’t one normally associated with such travelling but modern backpackers hike around Oz stopping at the countries cities. Dick had a sister living there, so why not…
I found the book enthralling. His power of description is something else and could possibly be termed ‘purple’ (a phrase chucked my way by someone who clearly hadn’t properly read one of my books!) but all of Dick’s books are so written.
It was a spanking good read.
Only one gripe: a few pictures would have been great and perhaps a route map…
Thank you Dick for filling in much in the way of gaps. I would like an ask! When are you going to progress that brilliant duo, Dippy and her DI?
Apparently, the reporting of near miss incidents has fallen by a staggering near 50% over the last few years. The Port of London Authority are clearly concerned for they know that safety has NOT improved to that extent.
It is the reporting that has dropped. The PLA want river users to be proactive in reporting incidents for ultimately damage, injury or loss of life can be minimised.
There was a notice earlier in the autumn which caught my attention, but the later one first, I think…
‘CHRISTMAS DRINK & DRUGS AWARENESS CAMPAIGN As we approach the Christmas Season, the Port of London Authority (PLA) and the Metropolitan Police’s Marine Policing Unit will once again be supporting the Metropolitan Police Service annual ‘Christmas Drink – Drive’ campaign. This high-profile campaign highlights the dangers of driving whilst under the influence of drink or drugs – this message applies equally to the river as well as the roads, as the safety of vessels, passengers and crews is of paramount importance…’
The drive or emphasis seems to be on the ‘upper’ river sections but we all know that down in the estuary it is of paramount importance too!
I have a rule on Whimbrel, unwritten and unsaid, but alcohol is not served whilst underway. If a lunch stop is on the agenda, a pint is the maximum I will enjoy. My crews too.
A small snifter in a coffee on a cold day being the only deviation!
My mate preparing a hot drink on a winter sail…
The other notice that hit me between the eyes was something which I have had recourse to use. This is PLA Notice 17 of 2020 – Near Miss Reporting.
It was after being ‘bombed’ by a RIB. We were in the shallows outside Smallgains Creek. I was on the cabin top preparing to set the mainsail. Christobel was on the helm.
The boat went ‘ballistic’ … Christobel was thrown off the tiller and across the cockpit, jarring herself. The boat slewed dangerously.
How I didn’t go overboard, to this day I do not know. I wish I had in many respects: it would have got more done about it…
Sadly, I still have waking periods at night when it pops into my head…
I will say no more!
Crossing the Thames on the day we were bombed. We are approaching the deep water channel No.6(N) buoy – if shipping is such we either wait, sail off or put engine on to clear across in good time.
So, I had a good look at the link. There is an incident reporting form on the small craft ‘navigators club’ site on the PLA web site.
The section is called: Boating on the Thames and it covers all areas from the estuary up to the tidal limit at Teddington. Get yourself listed if a Thames sailor and enjoy!
I have cut a little section from the PLA document…
‘NAVIGATIONAL NEAR MISS & INCIDENTS NEW WAY OF REPORTING A new way of reporting Navigational Near Misses and Incidents has been developed and is now publicly available to all River Users through our website or the PLA Tidal Thames app on your smartphone. To report a Near Miss or Incident via our website, go to pla.co.uk and click on Near Miss & Incident Reporting on the home page.’
It goes on…
‘Therefore, if you are involved or are a witness to a near miss or incident, please report this as soon as possible by submitting a report via our website or the PLA Tidal Thames App which can be downloaded…’
We were sailing over to Queenborough that day – we made it – and enjoyed a great weekend at the Traditional Boat Festival (2019).
Sunset on eve of festival Saturday…
If afloat over the Festive period, get out there and enjoy yourself, but leave the imbibing to afterwards…
During the summer we sailed into West Mersea a few times. One was over a weekend when there was a bit of a fair taking place on the carpark in front of the West Mersea Yacht Club – regatta end day, I think.
Apart from Christobel asking how she could become a fairy … the stall that caught my eye was emblazoned with the ‘word’ ENORI’ and being inquisitive, I walked over.
‘How do I get to be a fairy…’ I thought I heard!
It turned out that the letters stand for, Essex Native Oyster Restoration Initiative. It is a collaboration between all stakeholders and others who are working towards the restoration of the traditional native oyster beds.
Part of ENORI pamphlet – with courtesy.
The native oyster does not thrive in the drying shallows but it lives in the shallower tidal waters fringing sand/mud banks and creeks.
The project has begun with a trial ‘patch’ of culch laid in part of a block which recently appeared in ‘our’ chart corrections. It is roughly in the pencilled area seen on the chart section above. It is surprisingly big, however, the section in use is relatively small as of August this year.
Area which has been designated for the trials.One of the precautionary marker buoys…
The native oyster has been around a jolly long time and ‘all’ shell finds in Roman (greater consumers), centuries before and after up to the disasters of the last century are of this family.
The much more widely consumed oyster now is the ‘Pacific’ which was imported to restock after the devastations following big freezes – 1963 especially which proved pivotal.
Historical brief.
The first layings of culch – the fragmented oyster particles that the spat clings to – have been made. This bank will be fed spat and young oysters and farmed in the traditional manner.
Environmental considerations and benefits…
The chap I chatted to was not only very knowledgeable but was also extremely passionate with the project. It was a great chat.
So, if you haven’t picked up on your chart corrections and marked up the ‘oyster box’ then it might be wise to do so!
And, if a lover of oysters, perhaps in the years to come, the good old native will slip down with a pint or two…
The last packing shed on Packing Marsh Island…
The old packing shed lives on, on Packing Marsh Island, however, the island itself is in a precarious state. Its survival appears to be at the behest of ‘regular’ discharges of shingles on its shores. I could clearly see huge degradation from my previous visit to the area two seasons ago.
I feel the native oyster has a better chance of survival…
During August, we’d popped up into St Osyth for a night after booking a berth with the yard at the head of the creek – home port of the spritsail barge EDME. Upon leaving we had a night in Brightlingsea to use the shower facilities and get a ‘shed load’ of laundry done!
There are a couple of smacks up at St Osyth, but it was at Brightlingsea I am ‘sailing’ to… The mate stood by during the laundry exercise more than I did, happy with her book! I was ‘sent off’ to have a poke round the waterfront…
Brightlingsea Heritage Dock.
At the heritage dock I met a couple of chaps who were just about to leave the site after a spell aboard the 1885 built smack Victory. One of the chaps had purchased her, he said, grinning. She has a ‘Thames’ number, LO111, but was built by Howard of Maldon.
I was told that it was thought she was used as a trading vessel in earlier days working for a miller on the River Blackwater up at Maldon. I wondered if this was Greens?
The old thing had lain for years up at Wivenhoe in a mud hole along the front. I remember seeing her looking rather dilapidated. Her gear eventually ‘fell down’ due to a rotten mast.
The Victory – middle.
She was moved down to Brigtlingsea after being given to the smack society with the intention of making her available to a ‘fitted person’ who could undertake her rebuild. The new owner had had thoughts of motoring her round down the Swin, but the decision was made not to. Rather wise, I thought!
Her new owner said she was due to be lifted out and transported to a workshop in Erith – they being Erith YC members. The Victory is to be completely rebuilt under cover…
Couldn’t see the name of this old girl but she is very ‘ripe’…
Another vessel in a seriously bad way was still floating. Her hull looked ripe with rot and her decks certainly were. I didn’t find out her name.
Leaving the heritage dock, I briefly looked over to the spritsail barge Dawn which was under cover having deck maintenance – re-caulking – having chosen to continue her Covid-19 sojourn…
I wandered into Morgans Yard to look at vessels in the lay up area. A few old friends were found including the bare empty and rather forlorn hull of the Colchester smack Shamrock.
At the time I thought her days were numbered, however, the very next day he old thing was loaded onto a lorry and taken to the St Osyths boat Yard for a complete rebuild.
The Shamrock. She had sat in Morgan’s Yard for around a decade at least…Looking up at her raked transom.
The vessel was largely held together with strong webbing straps in an effort to maintain shape, and, I believe, just to hold her constituent parts together.
All in all, these are happy tales…
Another such tale has taken the Maldon bawley MN2, Dorana, to Eyemouth, Berwickshire, for a rebuild at a yard in the old fishing village in the Scottish Borders.
I am endeavouring to find out a little more, but no response from the local heritage centre has been forthcoming currently…
Dorana is 34′ and actually quite young: being constructed by Drake’s of Tollesbury in 1939. She has an upright transom, bawley-like, rather than the traditional highly raked Colchester type.
The Joseph T as seen in 2013. Reported broken up 2020.
The vessel is similar to the Joseph T, another Maldon vessel which lay ashore at Maylandsea for many years. She was broken up last year…
The Maria, CK21, and CK348, My Alice having some fun in the Colne.
Smacks and Bawley’s are always a delight to see, as are all traditional craft and owners should be applauded for their loving care and tenacity in keeping their little ships in such fine order.
Smacks are always a delight to see under sail – Maria CK21 running before the wind on the East Swale. Old timers of long ago would be amazed!
I’ll certainly be looking out for the Shamrock and the Victory over the next couple of seasons…
More on the Dorana: She is indeed in Eyemouth. I contacted the town’s museum who put me onto the local boat yard. I had a response from the Marine Manager of the yard, Graham Perrins.
Graham tells me that the smack was purchased by a ‘local business man and is working on the boat at his own leisure…’
New flowers in early January when we were deeply in the second full scale Covid-19 lockdown were apt for what I was getting up to when not walking and varnishing dinghy bits and other stuff…
Lenten roses in winter…
Current projects:
I do have more up my sleeve but when this will come to fruition, I cannot at the moment say.
I’ve been for some while working on a series of articles being published by Yachting Monthly Magazine and these can be found at intervals…
Update:
The articles mentioned have been trundling out. Currently one more is due to be published at some point in the magazine’s future programme.
I have also been involved with a series of short articles dealing with the ‘Ten best…’ places, anchorages, walks, city visits, etc…
On the ‘future book’ front, I spent the lockdown during the first three months of 2021 rewriting some work and putting into words a ‘breezy buzz’ that was travelling around my mind.
As the days progressed, between walking, the mate wielded her ‘red’ pen as she felt it should be, in the main it was often quite lightly. At times she dropped work back into my lap in tears…. Saying, ‘you made me cry…’
I am now in the process of finding a publisher!
The process is often long and drawn out. It is very much like when looking for a publisher for ‘May Flower’ for I am exploring new fields…
Autumn is properly with us now in my little corner of England and sailing out on a tide has resumed.
Brent taking off…
First the Brent arrived and then the terns disappeared. Flocks of overwintering waders have arrived too. The Brent geese were a little early, I thought, signalling perhaps harsher conditions on their home territory. Home: I use loosely for they spend more time in their overwintering grounds.
Waders along the Canvey Island marsh edges.
September was a fine month for us and most of October, although a little windy for parts of last two weeks – gaps allowed time afloat, so I’ve no real complaints!
Out on a cloudy day.
A gentle potter up along the Leigh-on-Sea shore and into Leigh Creek looking at the range of traditional craft ‘hiding’ away was enjoyed.
Looking back at traditional craft off the cockle sheds through the sail slot.
On one of the sails I passed two friends – both Finesse owners. One has a Seaking too. The chap’s Finesse is a ’21’ which he has put a new cabin on and renewed the decks.
Meeting two friends.
One of the joys of autumn is the quiet upon the water and sight of the wintering bird life. I love too the colour changes taking place within the saltings as the last of the summer green fades. Along the Hadleigh downs, the autumn shades can often be slow to show, then, on a sail the hillside glows as a late afternoon sun bathes the panorama.
Reaching down the Benfleet Creek channel in glorious late October weather.
Sailing up past Bird Island for the first time since the spring I spotted a huge clump of cord grass growing. The island just covers at 5.0 metres (Southend). I wrote to the Port of London Authority in the spring of 2014 and drew their attention to this growing island. A tide gauge reading from VTS as I sailed by showed that the island just covered at 4.7 metres then.
Bird Island in Hadleigh Ray north of Marks Marsh Island and south of the Two Tree Island hides.
I was told it didn’t exist!
Well, plenty of boats run into it!
Looks like an island of mud to me. Next year the saltings growth will increase, that’s for sure.
A survey report of 2001 showed the height in this area to be 4.5 metres above chart datum…
The silting progression is stark.
Creeping homeward as the breeze falls…The tide is falling, the boat is quietly at rest and the breeze has died. All is still…
We had planned a two day heist across to the Medway together. The weather though looked a bit threatening for two nights but one was looking good. In the event the mate chose to let me go alone…
For a change, I enjoyed a glorious sail over the Thames, crossing the tide, and made it into the entrance of the Medway without recourse to the engine. I fetched across the harbour in a series of tacks before laying along the south side of Saltpan on a close reach. Marvellous!
In Saltpan Reach, River Medway.
After pottering upriver to Stangate Spit, I sailed back and made my entry into the West Swale, favouring Queenborough for my overnight stop. The Admiral’s Arm always provides a nice pint too…
Before going ashore I cooked off my supper – a Bolognese sauce – ready to reheat later.
The sunset was sublime. Queenborough – well the Medway basin as well – is a grand place to capture the sight.
Whimbrel from the dinghy as I rowed back from the pub!
After my scrummy supper and a call back to base, I sat watching a couple of hot air balloons crossing the early night sky. The moon was in full bloom, a silvery-yellow and through binoculars the surface craters were clearly visible.
The silvery moon…
With an early start in the morning a little before sunrise, I did not hang about and was soon wrapped up in my bunk, toasty, missing the mate…
The alarm shook me rigid as it warbled out of reach. Swinging my legs out, it was silenced. Pulling some clothes on I looked outside – barely a breath!
As soon as the kettle sang, first water in my tea mug then a porridge pot. These are quite good for early starts and the mate has made sure a few have been stowed aboard this last season.
The tide had been making around an hour and a half by the time I dropped off the mooring. With the genoa the boat fetched across the tide towards the Queenborough Harbour Trust’s pontoon while I hoisted the main.
Dawn approaching … as seen after hoisting sail.
The sky soon turned a salmon pink as the minutes ticked by. The wind built a little and I moved from a knot to a couple.
A glorious salmon sky, tinged purple…
For a while I had the genoa poled out, but by mid Sheerness Harbour the wind became more south-easterly and I dispensed with the contraption. By then the boat was rustling along over the flood.
Running out of the West Swale…Garrison Point and Medway VTS in silhouette.
It was an easy sail across with the wind on the starboard quarter. A gybe near Southend Pier put Whimbrel on a run into the Ray. (Later, The City of, in honour of the murdered Southend West MP Sir David Amess who was tragically killed that lunch time. His constituency lay under the boom, across the water…)
The Leigh (Ray) Buoy.
Sailing up the Ray I did not spot any terns. I had the previous week. All gone. Autumn as far as I was concerned was bedded in.
The sands were covered as I sailed up the stretch abreast of Chalkwell Beach but a few seals were spotted in the shallows chasing fish as they were ‘swept’ over the top by the flooding tide. People that don’t know are aghast when told about the numbers that bask. The mate sometimes sends pictures to her coffee friends!
A turn captured in flight after a brief landing on a buoy in the Ray Channel.
Yes, it has been a lovely autumn so far and in this little corner of the Thames estuary that I call ‘home’, I feel incredibly thankful for the bountiful beauty that those out on the water are able to witness. It is awesome in so many respects.
Off Canvey Island’s eastern marsh point on a glorious afternoon just the other day…
And too, I am lucky to have such an understanding mate. One who isn’t unhappy at being left alone on the odd occasion…
