Lady of the Lea

Life is pleasant and quiet on Standard Quay. We are moored just ahead of Repertor and Henry and behind Raybel where Matt every day patching hull and tarring. He is going to sell his flat in order to pay for the ungoing maintenance. What are we complaining about?

The other day however, Lady of the Lea tried to moor next to Repertor. We were blissfully unaware of the impending impact, sipping a cup of tea with Ray, a Gardner engines expert, trying to extract from him how much he would charge to overhaul our engine, when "Bang!" we were nearly knocked off our seats. Rushing out on deck we found the bow of Lady of the Lea had rammed our port rear quarter! Miraculously, no great damage other than scraped paint. We secretely felt quite smug as we had successfully turned round Wilhelmina only a few minutes earlier.

Faversham

After the race's excitement and celebrations, we discovered the hold was very very squelchy. A leak??

We decided that without a dynamo, we needed to get to some kind of elctric power, sooner rather than later, should our bilge pumps need to start...

So we ambled slowly up Faversham Creek and found a mooring spot behind Sailing Barges Henry and Repertor and not far away from Cumbria who is being restored. The perfect spot for John!

The leak wasn't atrocious but it needed investigating, we still had to wait for our dynamo to be repaired and after so much excitement for over 2 weeks, we both needed to breathe. Diccon said goodbye as he had to go back to Belgium for the birthday of his baby boy, we bought a train ticket back to Cowes for Ian and ... peace at last!

We made it!

What a memorable day yesterday was as well as being John's birthday! It started with a grey drizzle. At 8 o'clock John rowed across to Harty Ferry to pick up Stefan and Julie. At 9.35, there was a 10 min gun for our race and we hadn't got the anchor up, the rigging was in disarray, no charts out, no strategy for the crew. At the 5 min gun, to add insult to injury we went aground on a falling tide and expected to remain there for the rest of the race. Nicole heaved a sigh of relief that we wouldn't break anything and have a quiet day, sipping coffee watching the barges race through binoculars. At this stage, Stefan, who had been quietly in the background, decided that now was the time to take control. He took the tiller from Ian and used the tide to move us off the mudbank. By this time, our main competitor Vechtlust was already far ahead. Stefan clearly and firmly organised the crew into a working team, poled out the staysail and took full advantage of the following wind. We started to race along, doing more than 7 knots and closing the gap between us and Vechtlust although Daybreak was coming close behind us. We cut the corner at Pollard Spit and continued with the wind behind us until we reached Whitstable Street Buoy, left it to port, tacked but went aground. Stefan managed to gybe ourselves out of it, Then our jib fell in the water, slowing us down considerably until we managed to hoist it out. We watched Vechtlust sail on in the distance. By this time, the Thames Sailing Barges were on their way back and the real fun began. The wind was coming straight from Receptive, the finishing buoy, and as the channel narrows until there we were all tacking fast. Great big barges and small smacks were whizzing by, port, starboard, ahead, everywhere, but Stefan was in total control and old Wilhelmina was singing along. She picked up her skirts and ran. After what seemed ages, the finishing buoy came closer and we made it through, dizzy with excitement and exhaustion.

What a day!

Ready to race!

Here we are, race starting in 20 minutes... Stefan and Julie have come to re-inforce our crew. Should be interesting. Wind force 4-5 rather windy for my liking... must gooooooooooooooo!

The Swale

Diccon from Belgium arrived Tuesday just before lunch time and we left Sandwich amidst many cheers. Sandwich good town people had come en masse to wave good bye to the "Viking ship with wings". The tide was flooding in so it wass relatively easy to motor down the river Stour. Saw at least a dozen seals basking in the sunshine and we were off, past Ramsgate and put the sails up. We were going so well, we even ate my boatmade pizza whilst sailing. However, our blissfully unaware delight was cut short when we suddenly ran aground on a sandbank off Margate... Ian and I waited until midnight for the water to come up so we coulod drop the anchor, had a short night sleep and set off early next morning whilst we still had water. We motored slowly against tide and wind past Whitstable and our spirits perked up when we saw Tony's Humber Barge "Daybreak" in the distance. She was sailing. this sight was enough to get the men hoist the sails and the rest of the afternoon was spent sailing at great speed (6+ knots!) back and forth along the Kentish Flats Wind Farm. John was ecstatic!
We are now safely anchored in the Swale and I am savouring a few hours peace and space whilst John, Ian and Diccon are sailing on Daybreak. Bliss!

The elephant

No trace of the elephant landed here on the Quay in 1255 (gift from the French to Henry III) who was walked to the King's zoo at the Tower of London. Just as well as it seems it was quite an aggressive beast: a bull in a field adjacent to the roadside took umbrage at the big elephant and attacked it. In one move the poor bull was thrown by the great beast and killed outright...

But we have seen a coconut husk caught in the debris floating alongside us. It very likely travelled all the way from some exotic location.

After 3 days hard work the leeboard is now repaired and put back and today Sunday has been a very welcome rest, strolling through the mediaeval streets, visiting secret gardens and enjoying... a cream tea!

The solar pannels are a great success, keeping the leisure batteries topped up enough for the fridge to work and laptop to get recharged. Solar shower has also been wonderfully effective, warm and plentiful, and by hoisting the staysail, a bathroom was created, screening us from curious gazes from the quay.

Sandwich

After a 32 hours passage we eventually anchored off Deal, just after Dover. I am afraid I didn't appreciate fully the beauty of the south coast nor the magic of sailing by moonlight as I was sea sick most of the way! After a relatively quiet night the wind got up over tide and the boat started rolling again. I was sick again, so John and Ian in their kindness changed the original plan which was to go to Brightlingsea and decided to head for the nearest port: Sandwich. After lifting the anchor, we motored across the tidal stream with the windward leeboard still down despite John asking Ian to lift it. It broke! We motored to Sandwich, negotiating the entry into the river Stour, which is quite tricky and followed the narrow channel winding through the marshes, seeing some seals on the way. By the town quay, with the tide in full flood it was very difficult to keep control of the boat. Had it not been for Colin, the friendly helpful harbourmaster, we surely would have found ourselves swept onto the low bridge futher upstream!
All was well though and we have been spending a very happy time here, John and Ian working hard on repairing the leeboard and Nicole recovering gently from her seasickness.
Also had our first solar shower today!

We're off!

Left last night at last, in the dark and drizzle, anchored off in the river off Island Harbour and woke up with the loveliest sunshine and perfect breeze. Ian and John have been lacing the mainsail on the gaff whilst I have been scrubbing the mat - somehow spilt some (double) cream on it last night and found a sticky mess this morning. Never mind! It is nearly clean now and the sun dried it all.
I can hear the mainsail being hoisted, better go and get the lunch ready and supper if I can, before we start or I shall be stuck in the galley and be sea sick. Ian wants to go as far as we can. Dover??