For some reason the trip downriver from St Kats is always less stressful than the trip up. This may be familiarity, or it may be that you try to leave as early as possible . We went out on the 0800 lock and were actually out in the river just after 8am, with no high-speed ribs or trip boats, just a small selection of Uber water buses. The written log only records the key passing places and gradually increasing wind from the west. By 1530 we were approaching the all-tide mooring at Queenborough and our lines were taken by Ian Wilson, a top CA member who has done lots of work on CAptain's Mate and trying to prevent lobster pot entanglements. 43 miles run.
Saturday was forecast to have winds of SW6-7. With a robust crew we might have headed off and enjoyed a fast and possibly bumpy passage, but we decided to take an extra day in Queenborough instead. Alex and David reported that walks to the east were disappointing, so I headed north to Sheerness instead, I can report that despite a few interesting spots, walks to the north are also disappointing. Apparently every VW group car imported to the UK arrives at Sheerness docks and then sits in a mahoosive car park. The footpath runs through the middle of it and is quite interesting for the first few thousand cars, then the excitement palls. Blue Town to the west of Sheerness is also mildly interesting with a few attractive naval buildings and a very large number of pubs to serve the dockyard, now almost all closed. Sheerness itself has a pleasant (and very windy) Thames-side beach but not much else worth visiting. I walked back through council estates and ended up trekking back through the vast car park again.
We visited the Queenborough micro-pub which gets great reviews and sounds attractive, but was hosting a country & western event, and we felt extremely out of place. We admired a young lady who was constructed mostly out of plastic and (judging by her conversation) Ozempic, and a mother and small daughter wearing matching sparkly pink boots which they had bought in Nashville.
On Sunday we headed out of the berth around 0740. Until we crossed the Spitway there was very little wind, so we motored with the tide with us and made reasonable speed. Around 1330 David was making lunch. I took a look at the sky over the Wallet (pictured above) and suggested he might wait for a while in case the wind bashed us around. We took in all sail and the wind went fron 2kt to 25kt and back again, followed by spectacular rain. Then we had lunch. Coming into Harwich we were looking for the elsusive Harwich Shelf buoy when I realised that the Evergreen ship behind it was no longer green but grey. It was another rain squall coming our way, but we bravely pressed on and by 1645 were back in our berth at SYH, wet but safe.
Distance run: 45 miles. Total on the London trip: 176.
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| The pretty tidal creek in Queenborough |
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| A very large car park full of VW Group cars |
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| Small enclave of attractive naval buildings in Sheerness |
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| View from the beach. The wind was SW and the beach is steep and provides lots of shelter, which is why it looks so calm |
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| After the squall |
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