At dinner last night with the Insurer(Retired) , the Flautist, and the Owners Agent I was scolded for not having included photos within the episode of the Thames crossing. I had to admit that none were taken for I had left the camera in some forgotten part of the cabin.
However, you didn't miss much as there wasn't much to see. Here were the highlights. Imagine all of these in a dull monochrome.
As I turned East at the end of the Crouch estuary I saw the base columns of half a dozen wind turbines (but not the blades, they were hidden in the cloud - or perhaps they were yet to be fitted) at the limits of visibility to the north. Then, as we passed through Fishermans Gat a further wind farm loomed through the gloom, about a couple of miles away to the East. This was in various stages of construction, with not a blade turning. There was a ship that looked like a small cruise liner sending forth small boats to the base of one - was this taking the tourists to look at them (part of a "green" tourist cruise?) I wondered.
A swift swooped under Vagabonds bow just before we passed the North Foreland. A couple of fast catamarans labelled "Wind Farm Support Vessels" were shown on the GPS as " AIS identified threat vessels", before appearing out of the gloom half a mile away and dashing off. Finally, as were neared Ramsgate there were a couple of container ships taking on the Pilot before moving up Channel .
Otherwise we had the sea to ourselves, and photos of predominately grey waves are pretty uninspiring, so I was never moved to risk leaving Vagabond to herself whilst I delved in the cabin for the camera.
Next time, I'll include it in my cockpit checklist of sandwiches, personal epirb, P beaker, drink, knife, binoculars, gloves, scarf, hat, spare glasses, hand bearing compass, foghorn, harness. If you have any other ideas of stuff that you might think should be added to this list, please let me know and I'll build a new locker for it!
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