Looking back over the years, I am amazed how long it took me to make journeys in my early sailing days, and how much quicker I do them today. On my first voyage in 1949 it took me ten days to sail from Maldon, visit Battlesbridge at the head of the Crouch and then make my way across the Thames, round the Swale and into the Medway marshes. This Whitsun we did nearly the same trip and got back to Maldon in 72 hours. Just to crown those muddled misguided days, I sailed to the creeks near Halstow on the top of the afternoon tide and laid the boat against the cant of the saltings in as pleasant a harbour as one can imagine. It was Wednesday. The tide came back for me again next MONDAY morning!

Thus I learnt the hard way that in the Thames Estuary, morning tides increase, afternoon tides take off each day! In fact with the wind and barometric variations, it pays to make certain that the boat never settles down until the tide has been dropping for half and hour AND don't depend on your watch for the time of high water. Put a stick in the bank or watch some other clear mark. I had a strange experience in Blakeney. Once when I sailed in on a morning tide and planned to sail again 24 hours later; the boat lay on the sand near high water mark and I was horrified next morning to find that the night tide had not reached her. An old fisherman told me not to worry as daylight tides were always higher than night ones. He was right, but I have never heard this said anywhere else.

The next big step to improved performance was to realize that tides wait for no man and that one cannot work favourable tides AND sail from nine in the morning to six in the evening each day. If the tide serves one has to sail day and night. In fact sailing in the dark is fun and not so terrifying as people expect. If you have a warm dry cabin it is better to sail on into the evening through the sunset and moor before dawn breaks as these are the coldest hours. On the other hand for the real dinghy man who has to camp ashore or put up a tent over the boom it is perhaps better to brave the cool morning air and have a chance to dry out in the late afternoon before bedding down.

Lastly study the tides over and over again. Build up a knowledge of how much help you can get with fair and head winds for each tide. Plan your trips according to the tides as a basis of the weekend with plenty of alternatives to allow for the variations in the winds. Pin a chart on the wall during the winter evenings and sail and re-sail trips all over the place from the warm armchair, it’s half the fun of the game. One of these days I shall drop on to a weekend with both high waters in daylight and winds westerly backing southerly to south east over the weekend, never rising above force four and never dropping below force two. It is possible to sail out of Maldon on the ebb, through the Spitway and down to Margate with the flood to arrive at H.W. then take the last of the ebb and flood round Sheppey through Havengore on Saturday afternoon's H.W. and up to Harwich with the ebb and a little of the flood early Sunday morning; then a little ebb and Sunday afternoon flood to Maldon. It can be done. One day I hope to do it.