It is New Year's Eve, in Chatham's historic dockyard. Where Nelson's Victory was built, during the great age of sail. A silhouetted crane, memento of the shipbuilding days, throws a sharp naval salute skyward.
Christmas lights sparkle, above the decks of meticulously preserved steam tugs. Once they guided warships through the Medway's meanders. Now they are cosseted, by their erstwhile stokers and ship's boys, turned volunteer caretakers. The seafaring tugs and their crews grow old companionably. Keeping one another young at heart.
Around the three basins, with their river locks, cobbled quays and dry docks, lights glow in the windows of houses and hostelries Which have sprung up where industrious naval workshops once stood.
The Greenpeace patrol boat Witness alights, beside Stargazer, in Basin Number One. Her sailors resting. As the brisk tempo of our bustling world is temporarily suspended. In a contemplative stillness, becalmed between the festive crescendos of Christmas and New Year.
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