DAY TWENTY-FOUR - BRIGHTLINGSEA TO ST KATHERINE'S DOCK, LONDON

We thoroughly enjoyed our re-union with Lucy and Dick Browning last night, staying on their beautiful farm near Colchester.  Dick kindly drove down to Brightlingsea to pick us up, and on getting out of the car at his home the reality of being either at sea or on the coast for nearly a month hit me - the smell of warm earth and vegetation was so strong, it made me realise my nostrils have had nothing but salt air!  It was a delicious scent and suddenly you are so attuned to things which would have gone completely unnoticed a month ago.  It wasn't the demanding and insistent caw of seagulls that woke me this morning, but the more gentle cooing of pidgeons, and as I lay listening my thoughts were drawn more and more towards home, so very near now.

Brightlingsea Marina when we departed at low tide

Paddy and Sarah James joined Si today for the final few legs to Southampton, and we were lucky enough to inherit Si's crewmember Guy on "ConTTentment" for the day before he disembarked in London.   The two boats did their Torvill and Dean impersonation across an ice smooth sea as we left the Blackwater Estuary behind us and headed towards London.

Brightlingsea

"ConTTentment" gliding on ice with Guy Berncastle at the helm

I had noticed in the days previously how strangely lifeless the North Sea feels in comparison to the other coasts we have seen on this trip, with comparatively little bird-life and boat activity offshore.  No longer the plunging gannets, darting terns and those cumbersome comedians of the sea the Guillemots, which had kept us company on so many long days previously.  This lack of life has added to the strange eery atmosphere created by the dead-still seas and the ghostly palour of the land, always just out of focus behind the mist.
Today was no exception.  Another day of very little wind made for ideal conditions, and we made excellent progress - out of context figures surrounded by a Turner landscape.

"Teal" comes through the Thames Barrier

Familiar sights from a different perspective - Tower Bridge

It was a fascinating experience to arrive in London from the sea, experiencing the change from light industrial to heavily recreational in the space of a couple of hours!  At Gravesend, we picked up friends Camilla and Shamus Henderson, who happened to be in London this weekend, and were joining us for the trip up the Thames.  Thanks to the kindness of Mike Ramsey of the Gravesend Rowing Club, we were able to scoop them up off the rowing club pontoon with a lowish tide, but with the minimum of fuss.

London at play on a sunny afternoon

With the unseasonally warm weather, the Thames was a torrent of activity, with ferries, motor boats of all sizes, RIBs,  paddle steamers, sailboats and kayaks a mere hint at what this arterial river had meant in centuries previous.   I was struck at the beauty from the river perspective of otherwise familiar landmarks, and realised that much of what we were seeing was designed to be seen from what was one of the main routes into London, the Thames.  What I had thought were fairly unremarkable bridges, in fact sported beautiful sculptures not at all visible from the the land above, but designed purely to impress the incoming visitor on the water.  Not such a happy sight awaited those travelling to the Tower!

Not the way to enter the Tower if you planned on coming out again!

"Postcard" views of London, whichever way you looked

"ConTTentment" outside the Houses of Parliament

For the first time on our Round Britain trip we were afforded the luxury of being real "tourists", not having to worry about sea conditions, navigation or schedules, but just able to enjoy what we were seeing and experiencing simply for the sake of it.

At  Battersea "ConTTentment" picked up our next crew member, Gerald Dodson, who is joining us until Brighton, and who had sweetly arrived with a bottle of chilled champagne to celebrate our arrival in London!  After a toast very decidedly to "the journey so far" as not to tempt fate, we headed back downriver to our mooring for the night at St Katherine's Dock.  Suddenly the likes of Stonehaven and Dunbar harbours seemed a different world as we joined the queue into the lock.  London was putting away its toys for the night, which created a scene very different from the fishing boats and utility vessels we had been rubbing shoulders with recently.
We have an early start tomorrow, with the lock re-opening at 7.00am, and a long passage ahead to the Cinque port of Rye.

Distance travelled: 75.2 nautical miles
Time travelling:  4 hours 33 minutes
Average speed:  16.5 knots

Total trip: 1,926 nautical miles