Cruiser Event – Cruise to St Katharine Dock, London 22 Sep 2022
Cruiser Event: 16th - 21st September 2022
Cruise participants:
Clara – Dehler 37 – Robert & Thomas Coyle, Marc Rawinsky.
Coco – Jeanneau 33i – David & Jack Page, Paul Van Damme
KaNeeTa – Winga 87 – Phil & Marion Aspinal
Laodice II – Westerly Merlin – Graham Bradford & Sandra Crowhurst
Tamarisk – 29’ Classic Wooden Sloop – James Napier & Corinna Gardner
Trinco – Contessa 26 – Peter & Caroline Hooper
Verlette – Verle 790 – Steve & Katherine Barham
Joining us for the meal at Wapping:
Tom & Amy Keeper
Ken & Mira Smith
Friday 16th September
At around 09:00 ‘Laodice’, ‘Verlette’ and ‘Tamarisk’ left Burnham. The early morning sunshine, ebb tide and light northerly breeze made for a pleasant sail to the Whittaker Channel. Clara, Trinco and KaNeeTa followed around thirty minutes later. By 11:15 we had turned south a little way east of the Inner Whittaker and then it was not long before Clara was leading the way heading south west in the East Swin. The wind had backed to north west and freshened, but in the shelter of the Maplin Sands it was comfortable sailing all of the way. Two hours later the sea became a little more choppy as we crossed the Thames but all was calm again as we entered the River Medway. We were all comfortably berthed in Chatham Marina by 16:15. ‘Clara’ hosted drinks aboard and later we made our way to the dockside restaurants where we chose an excellent establishment serving curry.
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Saturday 17th September
‘Verlette’, ‘Clara’ and ‘KaNeeTa’ opted for a rest day in Chatham while ‘Laodice’ left for Queenborough in order to reduce the length of the trip to London scheduled for Sunday. ‘Tamarisk’ and ‘Trinco’ also made an early start and headed for St Katharine Dock. The wind, still fresh, had now backed to the west making for a lot of close hauled sailing with both boats locking into St Katharine Dock late afternoon. Meanwhile ‘Coco’ had left Burnham in the morning and met up with ‘Laodice’ at Queenborough.
Please click the thumbnails below to view the full picture.
Sunday 18th September
‘Verlette’ locked out of Chatham at 9:00 with Clara and KaNeeTa nearly an hour behind. ‘Verlette’ left the River Medway and turned west towards London at 11:00. ‘Laodice’ and ‘Coco’ had left Queenborough and were about 30 minutes ahead. With similar wind conditions to Saturday motor-sailing was the popular choice though ‘Clara’ with her self-tacking jib sailed into Docklands before using her engine. A return to work on Tuesday and no lock operation at St Katharine Dock on Monday meant ‘Tamarisk’ had to leave London early in the morning. ‘Tamarisk’ could be seen on the north shore of the Thames heading east as we made our way to London, too far away for a photograph but near enough to wave. ‘Tamarisk’ arrived in Burnham at dusk. ‘Verlette’, ‘KaNeeTa’, ‘Clara’, ‘Laodice’ and ‘Coco’ were all safely berthed in St Katharine Dock by 19:00 and soon met up with ‘Trinco’. Security was tight for boats arriving in London and we were all visited by the Police Rib as we came through Docklands, some great banter was followed by a smile and being waved on without a search of the lockers and bilges being necessary. The seventy six metre long Dutch square rigger ‘Stad Amsterdam’ kept a reasonable distance behind Verlette as we showed her the way to Tower Bridge where it lay to buoys respectfully lowering its national flag to half mast for the whole of Monday.
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Monday 19th September
This cruise to London was planned in December 2021 and the main day in London was always to be this Monday with a top notch lunch as the focal point of the event. With the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II now set for the same day the lunch was switched to a late afternoon Supper. Some late evening reconnaissance on Sunday meant we could nominate a hotel bar enabling viewing of the whole of the funeral on a big screen by those who chose to do so. By late afternoon and evening we were enjoying a fabulous meal at Smiths of Wapping and we were joined by others who had made the journey by road just for the meal. Tom and Amy Keeper arrived by Thames Clipper so they could at least claim to have arrived by boat.
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Tuesday 20th September
We all locked out at the first opportunity and since by now the wind had died, motoring was the only option. Coco had work commitments on Wednesday so they continued to Burnham arriving in the evening whilst we all arrived in Queenborough mid afternoon. The remaining five boats were settled on the pontoon at Queenborough by 16:15 and after rigorous testing of the theory that ‘Clara’ has a bottomless pit of red wine we set off to the town visiting the local Micro Pub and another pub for a meal.
Please click the thumbnails below to view the full picture.
Wednesday 21st September
Some walked into the town again in the morning for a stroll but it was soon time to leave the Queenborough Pontoon. Still without any wind to speak all five boats left the pontoon around midday and made the comfortable journey from Queenborough to Burnham under motor, arriving at Burnham late afternoon. We had the privilege of passing close to the famous Thames Barge ‘Elsie May’ under full sail off Sheerness and we were all pleased to see Andy and Gina Wood-Hill who came out on their motor cruiser ‘Boscolina’ to welcome us back into the River Crouch.
Please click the thumbnails below to view the full picture.
All in all a very successful cruise without any rain or thrills or spills and several of us were able to put a tick next to the item ‘Sail to St Katharine Dock’ on our ‘Bucket List’.
Thanks to all the participants for supplying all of these photographs which help to tell the story.
Steve Barham
Cruiser Class Captain