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By Lesley Alden
The only way to get a jaded old sailor's tastebuds tingling is to give her new experiences. This summer I got them in abundance. Firstly there was short-handed sailing - having sailed previously with at least four on board I found three a pleasant novelty. This was mainly because Guy, third crew member during the first week up to the Crouch, and Daphne, on board for my second and third weeks, were brilliant sailors, very hard workers and good company. Secondly there was sailing in company with old friends, Ian and Jean. Last time we did a trip to the east coast they were with us on board Fizzgig, this time they were on their own boat. We weren't racing, of course . . . but Sea Holly kept winning.
Leaving Chichester, and seeing rather more of Brighton and Eastbourne than we would have chosen, we hugged the south east coast, noticing how the coastline changes round Sussex and Kent. We passed the soft countryside around Hastings and Rye and brooding, bleak Dungeness before reaching the chalk cliffs of Dover - the greenish colour showing their stability, in marked contrast with the constantly eroding, starkly white cliffs of Eastbourne. Going into Dover was no problem and it is a very pretty, small town. One of my ambitions was to go up the old practice navigation chart - so that's another under my belt. From Ramsgate we crossed the Thames Estuary to the River Crouch in Essex. Crossing the sand banks by weaving - contour hopping - over sands including Sunk and Gunfleet and swatchways such as Foulger's Gat and the Wallet Spitway, trying to locate buoys which are a good mile apart in squally weather, was an interesting pilotage and navigational exercise for us all. It was fascinating to see water stretching almost to the horizon in every direction but to be tip-toeing across fluctuating depths, often extremely shallow!
On the Crouch we got the Crouch chop - wind on the nose over the tide one day: wind on the nose over the tide going the opposite way the following day - confirming my scientific finding that the first rule of sailing is that the wind is always on the nose. We had a wonderful time on the east coast and were very sorry to have lost White Horse II to the chop, which was excessive for a smaller boat - we missed Brian and Lindsey. One of the high spots was waking up on a buoy on the Blackwater and finding in excess of 300 sand martins all over the boat, clinging to the guard rails, stays or anything small enough for their tiny claws. That was a treat - and well worth the vigorous cleaning necessary after they had gone! We went up the Deben to Waldringfield- Jane Norris' old stamping ground, and the Orwell, where we had a lovely meal in the Butt and Oyster at Pin Mill with Ian and Jean and Russ and Enid, who had joined them for a week on the east coast. We also went into the Walton Backwaters to Titchmarsh, where we had a wine picnic with the entire company on the night before Russ and Enid had to go home - in the sunset overlooking the marshes, birdwatching and listening to curlews and lapwings - magic!
My last ambitions were to go up the Medway to Chatham and up the Thames to St Katherine's Dock Marina, just below Tower Bridge. Both were well worth doing. The Medway has a long naval history, including invasion by the Dutch in 1667 when they sunk 16 Royal Navy ships moored at Chatham after successfully passing a trap of chains stretched across the river under the surface. Chatham itself now sports a posh marina in the old docks and it was sad to see the dockyards being transformed into flats, shops and an over tidy museum. It was interesting to see how pretty the countryside is by both rivers on the Kent side and fun going up the Thames under the M25 at the Dartford crossing, through the Flood Barrier and past Canary Wharf. Passing Greenwich and approaching some of the most beautiful parts of London - Tower Bridge, the Tower, the Gherkin and St Paul's - from this unusual angle was also a high treat. Fizzgig has had more treats since I have been back at home - John with John and Janny Taylor having been through the Swale and along the long coast route across north Kent, including the Four Fathoms Channel and the Overland Passage! I am green with envy at missing more new experiences - still, maybe another year. A brilliant trip.