London Calling!
Our plan was now to take Rapport up to London and meet up with our sons, Dan and Mike 40 miles into the Thames from Queenborough to Rotherhithe.
This meant an early start to catch the tide out of the River Medway and then into the River Thames - 04:30 am this time (not much sleep for us then).
We had reserved a night on a PLA (Port of London Authority) visitors' buoy 20 miles upriver at Gravesend. We needed to reach this by 11:30 am before the strong tide turned against us. And we had downloaded the extremely informative PLA recreational craft visitors' maps showing the features and hazards of the Lower and Upper reaches of the Thames. This gave instructions on the best route for yachts to take to avoid the many shipping movements along the river.
The wind was a strong WNW, so we were again beating and this time motor-sailing into it to aid our progress. The tide picked up and we made fair speed short-tacking back and forth just outside the main shipping channel. It was a sunlit dawn as we made our way past the many ship docks and the chemical smells of the oil terminal at Canvey Island.
We had reached Gravesend by 9:00 am and located the PLA buoy allocated to us from their e-mailed river map.
We found ourselves next to a busy shipping channel with the wash from huge ships and tugs passing by rocking us and making an alarmingly loud noise down below from where we sat inside our cabin. This was not going to be a peaceful mooring!
This meant an early start to catch the tide out of the River Medway and then into the River Thames - 04:30 am this time (not much sleep for us then).
We had reserved a night on a PLA (Port of London Authority) visitors' buoy 20 miles upriver at Gravesend. We needed to reach this by 11:30 am before the strong tide turned against us. And we had downloaded the extremely informative PLA recreational craft visitors' maps showing the features and hazards of the Lower and Upper reaches of the Thames. This gave instructions on the best route for yachts to take to avoid the many shipping movements along the river.
The wind was a strong WNW, so we were again beating and this time motor-sailing into it to aid our progress. The tide picked up and we made fair speed short-tacking back and forth just outside the main shipping channel. It was a sunlit dawn as we made our way past the many ship docks and the chemical smells of the oil terminal at Canvey Island.
We had reached Gravesend by 9:00 am and located the PLA buoy allocated to us from their e-mailed river map.
We found ourselves next to a busy shipping channel with the wash from huge ships and tugs passing by rocking us and making an alarmingly loud noise down below from where we sat inside our cabin. This was not going to be a peaceful mooring!
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The View From Our Mooring in Gravesend
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| The Huge (laid-up) Deepsea Oil Drilling Ship "Sertao" Moored Across the River from us at Gravesend |
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