Out of Lockdown

 

Long legged avocet line the shore of the creek. Their bold, black barred, plumage aglow in the afternoon sun. Their shrill yelping cries mingling with the waves of birdsong, which wash over the mudflats like a balm to the soul.

One wades into the shallows. Sifting the heady salt marsh admixture of water and silt for sustenance. Upturned beak casting from side to side.

A godwit, in rufous summer plumage already, ambles down to join the avocet. Peering doubtfully into the tea brown waters.

Stargazer is anchored in Godwit creek. 'Our' spot in Sharfleet creek. Well sheltered to the north and the east. Tomorrow's forecast is equivocal - depending on the weather site consulted. We will either have a fine eighteen knot passage making breeze or a stiff twenty seven knots. In either case from the north east. If the latter, we'll stay put in our sheltered bay. If the former, we will make for Ramsgate on the morning tide.

For now, we are recharging our batteries, in the still of the creek . Stargazer, literally, with her solar panels deployed. Myself, figuratively, drinking in the chorus of birdsong, the avian antics and the open horizons which surround us. Relishing the release from lockdown.

This morning we locked out of the marina and stole downriver. Riding the ebb, past Upnor village. Shafts of sunlight periodically piercing swirling banks of sea fog.

We beat downriver in a zephyr of easterly breeze. Wind and sun strengthening as we sail.

We slip into the familiar mouth of 'our' creek at low water. The first of the flood helping us in, as the sun boils off the last whisps of the mist. Eager to begin a new season of adventure.