I’m in a bit of a pickle.
I want, for personal satisfaction more than anything, to sail my boat the distance from Essex Marina to St Katherine’s under my own command. Captain Nathan conquers the East Coast! Unfortunately, as might b apparent from the introduction at the bottom of this blog, I’m not the most experienced sailor in the world, or East Coast, or the office I’m sat in right now.
Which brings me to my pickle. Do I just do it, knowing I don’t have the experience required, or shall I bite the bullet and get an experienced skipper along with me? If I do it myself I’ll get to savour that addictive feeling of accomplishment, but at the risk of suffering that woeful feeling of embarrassment as my little Corribee sits quietly on a sandbank in the Thames.
Oh, I forgot to mention although drop a hint above, that I’ve settled on a place to launch Kudu from. She’s being towed down to Essex Marina by a friendly towing type chap from Preston, Nick Lancaster, then from there we’re heading up the river, around the sand and back west until we get to Tower Bridge.
The little Corribee will sit in the yard at Essex Marina for a couple of days while I antifoul her and sort last minute things out, then into the water for another two days, then on the Saturday the maiden voyage will commence.. or not. Her 8HP outboard looks like it has had a very easy and well looked after life, but I have a distrust for outboards ever since one gave up on me in the river Douglas, about a minute after the bore hit the bow of my inflatable. I had no choice but to go where the water sent me, which was backwards. Luckily the Douglas is a lovely quiet river, but the Thames is quite the oposite. I suppose I at least have sails on this occasion though.
Best of luck with the move! The Thames is really quite quiet – once you are in. The parade of ships in and out of the entrance can be a bit busy – but at least you are going in not trying to cross to the Medway… that can require patience.
Watch dem sandbanks, boy… and mind for rough water in the Swin if it’s wind-over-tide.
Just a thought but it must be easy to use oars with a Coribee, My last boat was a Itchen ferry 22 foot and about 3 tons and I managed to manouver her with a long oar over the stern, we had a rowlock on the transome.