It is a little after mid-February and in our neighbours garden a flowering cherry is coated in budding green leaves. All around, daffodils are breaking open in glorious yellow sun bursts, whilst the snowdrops continue to delight. Down my creek the level of activity among the many laid up craft has risen markedly: the weather after two bouts of snow has been glorious. Bottoms are being painted, sides are being buffed up … spring is coming, surely.
My mate has been ‘under the weather’ with a virus, so our walking has been curtailed. This has ‘allowed’ me to crack on with a job or two aboard Whimbrel. I removed a window last week and re-sealed it inside and out. Whilst off, the woodwork has been sanded and varnished – six coats now, so ready to refit the window!
Cabin sides under piece of plastic sheeting whilst varnishing…
Leaving my good wife asleep on Tuesday morning, I beetled to the creek and got a last coat on area which will be under the window frame and the surrounds … just every now and then the varnish breaks down around the cabin window frames, necessitating removal, rubbing down and varnishing. I like to get up to six coats before replacing window. I’ve had this Heath-Robinson temporary cover for years – about time I made a better one!
The tide was on its way in, so I then got ready for a sail! The tide soon lifted the boat as I stood minding a mug of coffee – all ready ‘we’ were away. I set the mainsail and spun the boat in the creek, running out. Brent geese were dabbling along the mud edges in large numbers, virtually oblivious of my presence.
Passing dabbling Brent on way out…
It was a glorious morning. Sublime with a warming sun, although the breeze a 3 to 4 WSW was keen enough to make me keep my gloves on!
Cl;earing the creek, I set the jib while the boat headed up Hadleigh Ray with the bit between her teeth. Long and short tacking ensued as we began to eat up the distance.
A flock of waders lifting off from Bird Island.
Ah, the birds…
Approaching the gnarled stumps of the Salvation Army Wharf, I saw a row of guillemots with craned necks clearing fish into the digestive tracts. As I closed they all lifted bar one. This waited until I was close by, loosing off a shower of pooh which splattered into the creek like bullets. Away, beyond, the deep greenness of the sea wall sides spoke of fresh grass growth – the warmth of the past week or so has activated so much.
Under carriage up…
I settled to a steady ‘to and fro’ whilst sipping another coffee. Upon the sea wall I saw a host of walkers and dogs. Passing the log seat which someone placed conveniently for walkers to sit at about half distance between Leigh and Benfleet, I saw two people, a couple perhaps: they were a man and a woman, resting, whilst a dog capered.
A flight of curlews were seen. Some avocet too, with their calls coming across the water from the edge of a patch of mud, close under the saltings, feeding before the tide covered it completely. Earlier, passing the Two Tree Island bird hides, I’d felt a pair of binoculars or telephoto lens following me. I’d picked up my camera and focused in … yes, I was being watched, but surely it was Whimbrel … apparently they have been around this winter!
On a long fetch…
On a long fetch towards Benfleet YC with Dauntless beyond.
Closing The Benfleet’s pontoon to talk to a friend…
Running back down Benfleet Creek towards Hadleigh Ray the following day…
But back to ‘the story’ – before I even got back into what is commonly known as Hadleigh Ray – the bottom end of Benfleet Creek – I could wafts of waders weaving in sinuous waves. I really believe they can tell when the tide is approaching its turn … and the soon uncovering of their rich feeding grounds. It is exceedingly hard to get good pictures of the spectacle put on display for us mere humans with a ‘ordinary’ camera and I suspect a rapid action type would be more suited to my desires!
A poor shot of a weaving flock…
On the way up the creek the sky had seemed to contain an abnormal number of vapour trails high up, beyond the eye’s usual boundary and with the position of the sun over the island of Canvey, it looked spectacular.
Vapour trails crisscrossed the sky above…
One of the things that has become so much more noticeable over the past few years is the sheer magnitude of rubbish seen either in the water or along tide lines. For a period following the ‘clean up’ campaigns of the later decades of the last century rubbish diminished hugely. What’s changed Peoples ways? New generations that know nothing of what it was like 40-50 years ago?
There needs to be a sea-change attitudes again or otherwise we’ll be back to square one. One would think after programmes such as ‘Blu Planet’ people would endeavour to reduce (plastic) pollution to zero … I sailed past numerous ‘dead’ baloons and other items that looked like discarded plastic sacks, never mind the hundreds of plastic bottles. It made me somewhat sad, angry even…
And that boat, moored in Hadleigh Ray continues to fly black plastic bags from a string. Shame on the owner.
A bundle of deceased balloons along the Two Tree Island saltings…
Anyway, I had a fabulous late winter’s sail … and after re-fitting the window I had removed the next day, I repeated the exercise!
The window … the ‘gaffer’ tape pulled some of the varnish coating off of the cabin top beading…
I’ve been pottering round the boat breaking open areas of varnish that has got moisture beneath too … not a huge amount – beading on the whole. Some though I’d only stripped off last year and a long strip runs down the port side of cabin sides – see below window. Hey Ho!
Spring is just round the corner…