The boat is really a Fairey Falcon hull completed to my own design with a cabin of sorts and rigged with gear from my old half decker which has fallen to pieces. My aim has been to produce a craft to follow and explore the traditional trade routes of the Thames estuary and to enable me to learn and practise the seafaring skills traditional to this fascinating corner of the world.

High water was 1819 hrs on Friday and the forecast was moderate N winds tending to lighten. Skies would be grey and it would be cold. In view of this, I decided to go south towards the Thames and hope that a change of wind might help me home.

I left the moorings off the Blackwater Sailing Club at Heybridge at 1755 and set off over the last of the flood cutting behind Osea and running out past Thirslet Spit at 1855. It blew up hard off Bradwell and I had to make a couple of tacks to get round into the Ray Sand Channel. Once here, it was a dead run and my how she tore along through the water. The quicker I went, the more water I should find at the southern shallow end but if I went aground at that sort of speed the mast must come down. I kept the sounding pole going and when it shallowed to 3 feet I rounded up and dropped the main. A steadier sail under jib only took me into the deep water of the river at 2130 and I put up the main again. I moored up under the north bank at 2315.

Saturday started bright with a lighter but still northerly wind. I got under way at 0345 and ran through the channels to Havengore Bridge at 0530. There was no one about to raise the bridge (in fact the tide was still moving out towards the bar) so I ducked the mast and was away again in 15 minutes crossing the bar at 0605 warmed by now by the morning sun. The trip across the Thames was a dream come true, cool champagne air, bright sun, blue skies, bluer seas and the little craft bouncing along in grand style. The ebb had set in by the time I passed inside the Sheerness forts and the wind was dying under the scorching sun so I moored up near the Grain pier and had a couple of hours sleep. In view of the calm, I decided to get out on the ebb, although this meant either running up the Swin against the flood or waiting until the tide covered the Maplins. Fortunately a breeze appeared from the S.E. (this is a regular pattern of weather here) and by L.W. I was off Shoebury Buoy and going like a train down the Swin. It was a glorious afternoon’s sailing and certainly one to test and find any weaknesses in the construction of the boat. Fortunately none appeared. As the tide rose I sounded across the flats well inside the Whitaker Beacon and ran up the Crouch past Burnham at 1900 and as far as Cliff Reach for a good night’s sleep.

Sunday was overcast and the wind had gone westerly. I left at 0600 and beat up the river with the last of the flood tide to Fambridge. It came on to rain and this proved a good chance to try out the routine of putting on oilskins while short tacking. The rain died on the top of the tide and after anchoring for a cup of tea and sailed with the ebb at 0815. The sky stayed dull but the wind increased and I made good progress. Burnham 0935, Crouch Buoy 1035 and spinnaker up just for the hell of it. Took it in off the Ridge at 1125 and reefed the main off the South Buxey at 1140. It was blowing hard and I reached through the Spitway under main only, putting up the jib for the beat home which took me past the Priory Spit Buoy at 1325. After this it blew harder still and I was back to reefed main only. I was over the Colne Bar by 1530 and it was a long slow beat across to the shelter of Sales Point but at least I was dry and comfortable and she made it in 2½ hrs. I got the jib up in the lee of the power station and swept up the river in bold tacks making real progress now. By 1900 I got to Steeplestone and as the wind was much lighter now, shook the reef out of the mainsail as there was not much flood tided left. Through the narrows between Osea and Stansgate at 1930 and then one long tack took me onto my moorings just at the top of the tide at 2030, damned tired but gloriously happy and fully satisfied with my little ship. For the record, 50 hours off the mooring, 32 under way and about 120 miles made good. Winds varied from N, S.E. and S.W. and from F.5 to dead calm, from rain to scorching sun.