SOUTH DOCK MARINA - ROTHERHITHE

And so to South Dock Marina by mid-morning on the top of the tide. The entrance is easily identified by Greenland Pier.




I called the Lockeeper on Channel 37 and she opened the gates straight away enabling me to glide straight in to the comforting quiet of the lock and then the marina.










A comfortable berth for a day or two after an arduous journey.

The marina has a busy boatyard. You can just see the lift out crane in this pic.








They lifted out a badly damaged rib for repair in the yard.

There are quite a few exciting rib ride businesses which were flourishing over the bank holiday weekend. Looks a bit dangerously dodgy to me. Must be getting old!

One branch of the family came up to see me. Lovely. We had a little birthday party on board and wandered around the marina complex. All kinds of boats from the fabulously glamourous 'Blue Trout' to the usual madhouses. Many birds nests - mallard, coot, moorhen, pochard and grebe. They seem very content in this arificial human world.



  Another branch of the family came the following day. Couldn't come Sunday as Allie was working. (You can see the marina is bang opposite the docklands development Canada Wharf.)

We wandered around and had a birthday lunch in The Mayflower, a riverside pub overlooking the Prospect of Whitby on the opposite bank. The Mayflower had provisioned and sailed from the very hard where this pub was sited.










The industrial archeology of Rotherhithe is fascinating so I decided to stay an extra day and have a look around. I followed the Thames Pathway which follows the riverside like a towpath.

The dock trade was mainly in timber from both East and West, predominantly from Canada and Greenland by the time this map was drawn.












There's a lot of old history left to see. There were more than one of these. What is it?

A left over crane.

This is the entrance to the city farm.

The footpath was plagued with joggers!

Where I had a cup of tea.

Further round I could see across the river to St Paul's Shadwell Church where Allie is Curate.












And then back to Lady Cate through lovely park and woodland created from the filled in Russia Dock, lying down the centre of the peninsula.

ONWARDS TO LONDON

The best of company down Middle Deep.











Two beautiful full size Thames barges under full sail.

My plan was to anchor in Stangate Creek, off the Medway, overnight and catch the tide up to South Dock Marina. However, with Lady Cate being slower than I thought and needing to punch the tide for part of the journey I realised we could not make the lock gates in time, so I decided to keep going up river. This would mean cruising up in the dark for some of the time. More trepidation!

Given the busy traffic which was driving me South I decided to enter the estuary by the small boats southern route and cross over to the North side further upstream.






So I passed by the sunken ammunition ship SS Richard Montgomery.












Just think of all that unexploded ammo under there!

 We headed up river into the sunset, which I forgot to photo, buoy hopping up to Gravesend in the dark, where we moored up for a few hours kip.










Off again at 0500 riding the tide up the town.

An infinity of docks from river mouth to town centre. Rather dreary, like the trains entering cities through bleak industrial landscapes.

The Thames Barrier, with its green guiding lights.

The Docklands development skyline, now well matured and dramatic, with one of the Emirates cable car pillars, twisted white, in the foreground.

I travelled in the cable cars just a month before, already thinking then how it would be when we cruised up river.

Gently sculptural pillar showing up the crude block form of the cheaper constructions.

Well I had to take my own pic of it.

Further upstream, opposite Greenwich, some early morning company. Brave folk in very small boats in a busy waterway. But this morning, Saturday, was nice and quiet.








More soon!