Down Channel 2

 

Stargazer smokes east, along the Sheppey shoreline. Carving her spray strewn way, through the short chop, in eighteen knots apparent. Hard on the wind.

This morning we beat down river with the Tuesday Club. (A Corinthian weekly cruise in company, from the upriver marinas and club moorings, which pauses for a convivial lunch at anchor in Stangate Creek. Completely spontaneous it has become a Medway midweek institution). 

Stargazer scythes her way through the fleet. Standing on past the silos of Thamesport. . . . .

. . . .and out into the London River.

The ebbing tide urges us along. And depths reduce beneath Stargazer's keel. Soon we are able to ease sheets, to tiptoe across the spit, which guards the mouth of the Swale. 

Stargazer runs down the channel, toward Faversham Creek . Whitstable to port.

We round the point, at Harty Ferry, in search of a lee.

Finding our sheltered anchorage behind its wooded flank.