With
gales threatening from an Atlantic depression, our soon-to-become annual
trip to the Thames for the London Boat Show was hanging in the balance.
But with several commitments riding on it, when our weather window came
we grabbed it firmly with both hands, pulling out all the stops to get
the boat down to Yarmouth just two days after waving goodbye to our nine
Christmas house guests. After a slightly frantic morning of packing and
loading, as well as a last minute mercy dash to Charity & Taylor in
Lowestoft to pick up some new charts, we spent Wednesday afternoon cruising
down river - an increasingly damp, dark and chilly experience. We timed
our arrival to pass straight under the Bure bridges at low water, dropping
the mast and windscreens as we approached, and found a convenient spot
for an overnight mooring alongside a commercial vessel on the Town Hall
Quay. This avoided the need for a lot of tricky rope work to cope with
the tidal rise and fall and allowed us to make a swift getaway before
seven the next morning for the long passage down the coast to the Thames
Estuary.
Although
the shipping forecast was for winds of force 5-7, our more detailed Grib
weather showed only up to force 5 in the areas we would be cruising, with
the stronger winds around the Wash and further offshore. Conditions were
a little bumpier than we might have liked, but were still perfectly safe,
and as usual Lady Martina was in her element in the lively conditions,
hampered only by the failure of the new autopilot which we had installed
as part of our winter improvements. Steering manually for 120 miles seemed
a daunting prospect at first but once we got into the swing of it, made
for an interesting challenge and at least kept us occupied. Needless to
say this was not one of the cruises where we found time to watch a DVD!
We
were pleased to have completed our Thames chart updates, finding several
block changes in the Barrow Deep and surrounding channels, but there was
nothing to alter our course for and we followed our previous track into
the estuary, doing our best to comply with the speed, navigational and
radio requirements of the newly christened London VTS. Our final hurdle
was an anti-terrorism check from the river police, one of those times
when you're glad you weren't born somewhere unpronounceable in Russia
or Wales.
After a bumpy night on the pier, visited occasionally by the fast Clipper
ferries and a trip boat full of revelling partygoers, we made an early
move to the nearby fuel barge for a formula 1 style fuel stop before dashing
down to Limehouse for a quick lock entry before the last of the tide ebbed
away.
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Cruising
Statistics
Distance:
143 nm
Total to
date: 1713 nm
Avg Speed:
12 knots
Duration:
12:00 hours
Diesel:
700 litres
Wind: SW
3-4
Electricity:
£4.20/100kW
Bridges
Vauxhall
road (3.3m)
Vauxhall
footbridge (3.2m)
Haven bridge
(3.4m)
Limehouse
marina (6m)
Charts
AC1536
AC1543
AC2052
SC5607
SC5606
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