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Sadly we were running out of time so we eased our way out of the marina at Pin Mill at first light and by the time we had got out of the river Orwell a moderate NE wind had developed. The persistant easterly winds day after day seem to be as much an unusual feature of this summer as the hot weather. We spent the day running with all sail up accross the Thames estuary and into the Medway, eventually picking up a buoy at Upnor in tbe last of the light. While we were off the Maplin sands we were fortunate to see the sailing barge EDME tacking up in the opposite direction, presumably to her home port of Brightlingsea. The sight of a championship barge making good speed to windward and thumping into the waves was very impressive. She soon disappeared into the distance.

On Friday morning John had to leave us to help out at a friends wedding so we deposited him on the marina waiting pontoon at Chatham at 7am and within half an hour he was on the train to London. Allan and I then tacked out of the Medway, with a bit of engine assistance against the persistent NE wind and spring flood tide. By the evening we were back on our mooring on theSwale. During this hot summer there seems to be much more growth of seaweed and sea grass than usual, and there seems to be more of this on the Swale than some of the other rivers we visited, though I gather there is a lot in the Solent as well. We had only left our mooring for a short week but during that time it had collected a huge mass of waterlogged weed. We were quite unable to lift the buoy aboard due to the weight of weed until it had been cleared off with the boathook. We hope to get in a few more days sailing in cooler weather later in the year, and with luck resolve the IT issues to add a few pictures.