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!

Settling in to the marina

Here is Lady Cate settled in her berth at The Granary Yacht Harbour with Blackthorn, the half-size Thames Barge, in the background.

The views across the river are delightful. The low hills where they found the Sutton Hoo treasure are in the distance.

These photos were taken on a rather dull day with my tablet. I've got a lot to learn about photography and picture editing!

Here is the marina, looking North, upstream on the River Deben, as far as can be navigated. We get access +/- 3 hours of high tide.

You can just see the dredger with which Simon is creating the marina space on the far right. He adds a bit each winter.

The wildlife is very varied. I have twice seen a seal in these waters. Today a cormorant surfaced right beside me as I stood on the pontoon in the foreground. We quite surprised each other. I have seen common gulls, greater back-backed gulls, terns, curlew, lapwing, snipe, oyster-catchers and little egrets to date.

Blackthorn, a close neighbour, is a very pretty half-size Thames Barge. Quite a few have been built for She was saved a completely refitted by her owner, as many boats around have been.

They say here that the boats own the people! Some boats have been in the area for generations, passing from one owner to another. Twinkler, a 20ish foot boat built for the Norfolk Broads, is up out of the water being refitted. She was built in 1926 and is looking great. Picture to follow as soon as she fully dressed.