End of the cruise

Thames barge match off Southend

We woke on Saturday morning in Stangate creek on the river Medway to very little wind. On leaving we found a bit

more breeze from the East and encountered the Thames sailing barge match in progress off Southend. We crossed the river to watch the barges turning round a mark. This was Julie's first experience of sailing in the Thames estuary and as always there is much of interest to see.

Off Southend there are the remains of a Phoenix pontoon that was under tow destined for Mulberry harbour when the towline broke and it ended up stranded on the Essex shore. The masts of the sunken ammunition ship Richard Montgomery are easily visible on the sands close to the Medway entrance channel. No-one knows quite how much ammunition remains aboard or what state it is in. We passed quite close as we returned from watching the barges, over the Kentish flats on a rising tide and into the Swale just before high water. 

Bonita's 2015 Channel cruise covered nearly 600 miles in 14 days. There was only one day when we didn't sail - due to fog when we were in Le Havre. We had a few difficult moments, but achieved the main purpose of cruising in an old boat which is, as always, to get back home without loss or significant damage. 

Mulberry Phoenix caissons

The high point undoubtedly was the few hours spent at anchor in Mulberry B harbour off Arromanches contemplating the events that took place there 71 years ago, a trip I have wanted to make for a long time.  We would liked to have spent longer there and we wondered several times if it would have been worth waiting for better weather. However the anchorage is so exposed that I would only go ashore or spend the night there in completely settled conditions and so we might have waited a long time. 

The last photo from Bonita's cockpit shows some of the remaining Phoenix caissons at Mulberry B. These are all of the later type - they have concrete decking to prevent the caissons filling with water and the walls collapsing outwards during storm conditions. This modification was recommended by Allan Beckett who noticed how some of the original caissons disintegrated during the storm that struck Mulberry harbour on 19 June 1944.

Swale & Medway

Although our cruise is coming to an end we awoke this morning to a bright sky and a pleasant Southerly wind and decided it was too good to miss. We took the tide out of the Swale and crossed the Kentish flats at low tide (minimum depth 1m under keel) to look at the Red Sand 2nd World War fort. We then hauled in the sheets and headed for the river Medway.

Grain Edge Fort

In the the first picture is the Grain Edge fort at the entrance to the Medway. It no longer has any military use and has recently been on the market renamed 'No1 The Thames'. Whoever buys it will certainly need to spend a great deal on decoration and home improvements. The asking price it seems is £500,000, for which you could get a pleasant flat in Chiswick. The fort would undoubtedly have more space than a flat in Chiswick and maybe less trouble from neighbours but might lose out on social life and accessibility to the shops. We felt that selling it would be real test of the salesman's skill.

The new linkspan by Beckett Rankine

We sailed up the Medway as far as Upnor. The Medway seems to be getting progressively de-industrialised.
The oil refinery is long gone; the power stations have been shut down, the container cranes were silent and the berths empty. An exception to this is the increasing activity at Sheerness.

We were pleased to see the excellent Beckett Rankine designed vehicle linkspan (second photo) - recently installed at the Ro-Ro terminal and in use as we sailed by.

After  getting as far as Upnor we decided to look for a quieter bit of the river. So we turned downstream and eventually anchored in Stangate creek for the night. There were quite a few boats there this evening  but even so the powerful feeling of peaceful remoteness and solitude was present as always in this delightful anchorage.

Secure borders

After passing Dungeness we slowed down a bit as the wind became light; we passed Dover in the

Protecting the coast (1)

dark at around 10pm. Fortunately there was good visibility as there is a constant stream of ferries entering and leaving the harbour. There are often several in sight at once and they get up to about 20 knots within minutes of leaving the harbour. There is also a lot of mysterious activity clearly designed to discourage illegal immigrants crossing the Channel in small boats. We saw several border patrol vessels such as the one in the picture. They don't give an AIS signal but their silhouette is distinctive even in the dark.  At night we saw a helicopter hovering over the beach looking around with its searchlight. You never see if they have found anything but their presence is very obvious. The border patrol didn't appear to pay any attention to our 127 year old gaffer slowly running along the coast under full sail. Maybe they could see we were law abiding citizens, or maybe they just thought that even refugees wouldn't be that desperate.

We eventually went into Ramsgate at about 3am: tricky in the dark due to a very strong spring tide running across the harbour entrance but worked out OK with Dave at the helm and the engine on full power.

On Thursday morning we had to be fortified with a large Ramsgate all-day breakfast at 11am then sadly John had to return home by train. With Dave and Julie we left harbour around 1pm and in light southerly winds sailed along the North Kent coast to the Swale.

Protecting the coast (2)

We have seen many miles of fine white chalk cliffs on this trip and the  French have some that are just as fine as the famous white cliffs of Dover. The cliffs are white of course because the rock is unstable and the surface is being constantly refreshed as the rock is eroded and falls into the sea. White cliffs are slowly but continually receding as their the lower levels are undercut by wave action. Where this process has for some reason  stopped the cliffs soon become off- white and eventually will cover over completely with vegetation. The second picture was taken near the North Foreland. There must be many owners of cliff top properties with a fine view but an uncertain future due to erosion beneath them hoping that the local council can be persuaded to fund some coastal protection works.

Past famous wrecks...

HMS Resolution by Willem van de Velde

The wind settled overnight and we left Brighton marina at slack water (around 8am) without further embarrassment or loss of paint. We had a long run in light SW winds past Beachy head and on towards Dungeness. On the East side of Beachy head, in Pevensey Bay there are numerous wrecks marked on the chart. One of these is thought to be HMS Resolution, the famous subject of a painting by Willem van de Velde the younger of her making to windward in a gale, with everything in perfect order. 

The Resolution was a victim of the great gale of 1703, one of the worst storms to strike the UK in recorded history and an event that caused widespread devastation ashore and afloat along the south coast. Many ships were wrecked on the Goodwin Sands.

The Resolution was anchored at Spithead protected by the Isle of Wight when the storm struck. Her anchor cables parted, as did those of the spare anchors that the crew dropped.They tried to set sail to gain control of the ship, but she was driven onto the Owers reef where she pounded and started leaking. Eventually she was driven past Beachy head and sank in Pevensey Bay. There is evidence for all this in the testimony of the crew members that survived.  

The wrecks in this area include victims of various battles with the French and Dutch. However in the last few years underwater wreckage and cannon have been found which seem likely to have come from the Resolution.  Even if it is her, the difficulties of making any worthwhile exploration on this exposed coastline would be immense.

At present we are running in much quieter weather passing the Advanced Gas Cooled reactor at Dungeness B nuclear power station.

Heading East

Dave and Julie Patuck with a French ferry

Today we got up early to catch the tide and a Northerly wind which turned out to be much lighter than predicted. Heading East from Cowes past Portsmouth it was noticeable that a) most of the big ship traffic we saw consisted of ferries, and b) that most of these ferries are French.   Is this a sign of a once proud seafaring trading nation in decline, or a symbol of economic strength that other nations want to share?  As so often with these sort of questions you can make the answer fit either way.

We had light winds as far as the Looe channel off Selsey Bill, but after that a south-westerly breeze of slowly increasing strength set in.  We must have made a fine sight passing Brighton pier for any punters who happened to be looking out to sea. The video below shows us making good progress off Shoreham.

Our return to Brighton marina was complicated by the problems of manoeuvring in a strong crosswind but eventually we settled into a suitable berth with some assistance from the marina staff and as much elegance as was possible in the circumstances. An advantage of wooden boats is that minor damage can easily be made good with stopping and paint and its soon easy to forget that it ever happened.

We have returned to Brighton so soon after our last visit for a crew change: D has to return to home and to work, and we welcomed Julie Patuck who has not previously been aboard Bonita but has plenty of experience in smaller boats. If the strong winds persist then getting out of the harbour tomorrow may be her first experience of a different sort of sailing.