We opted for a pre-Christmas cruise to Limehouse this year, hoping to have the boat settled prior to the holiday period. A date of 18th December was chosen in the Autumn as a target date for our arrival and, oddly enough, after weeks of rain and gales, our chosen weekend looked like being the start of a winter anti-cyclone. The more we looked at the weather forecasts, the better they got, and by the morning of our departure we were even looking at potential fog patches due to the low wind conditions. We used the Sunday to make the preparatory cruise from Brundall, where we had been having winter work carried out, to the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club at Lowestoft. This would be a good place to make our early morning departure as there are no locks or bridges to negotiate between the yacht club and the sea. A short coastal cruise between Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft went well, and provided a useful warm up for boat and crew.

Monday morning dawned cold and frosty and, as is customary, we had to scrape the ice off the windscreen before we could get underway. The decks were like a skating rink, making the rope work a little trickier than usual, but we soon defrosted once underway. Although, with the sea temperature warmer than that in our cockpit at first, we did wonder if we would be better off swimming! We had planned to make the whole trip to London in one leg, rather than stopping at Queenborough, and were resigned to completing the journey as it went dark. However, a good following tide and a firm hand on the throttles meant we made good progress and were inside the Thames estuary by midday. It was then a simple matter of following our well worn track up river, dodging the stray crates and keeping a look out for unexpected winter divers. There is no speed limit in the lower Thames, but the requirement is to "mind your wash", which seems to be interpreted as "go as fast as you like until you get told off".

We had planned to spend the night on either on the jetty outside St Katherines, or on the fuel barge just downstream, but our quick progress meant we arrived before the Limehouse lock closed. The friendly staff were happy to welcome us into the harbour, promising to let us out in the morning to fill up with fuel.

Cruising Statistics

Distance (tidal): 143nm

Total to date: 1262nm

Avg Speed: 11 kn

Duration: 13 hrs

Diesel: 734 ltrs

Wind: V 2-3

Mooring: £11/night

Electricity: £4.20/100kWh

Water: Inc

Charts

AC1536

AC1543

AC2052

AC1183

AC1185

SC5606

Bridges

Reedham Rail (swing)

Gt Yarmouth Haven (lift)

Limehouse Marina (swing)