The night is moonless dark, studded with stars. A frost glitters scrunchy crisp on Stargazer's decks, as we hoist sail off Woolverstone. Pick our way gingerly downstream, along the pathway of green and red flashes. Past the cranes of Felixstowe. A blaze of light in the night. A hum of activity in the stillness.
A bleary sun clambers unsteadily into the sky. Wreathed in cloud. As if still clutching its duvet, against the dawn chill.
Stargazer broad reaches seaward, through the Medusa Channel. It is low water springs. We are double reefed. In part to give me reaction time, in case the depth drops unacceptably. In part whilst the breeze reveals its true colours, clear of the shore.
The Naze Tower is a mile to starboard. Stargazer is clear of the shoals, which guard the Orwell approaches. The sun beams, fully risen, duvet discarded . I brew a celebratory pot of coffee and shed one thermal layer.
The breeze settles to a steady eighteen knots on the starboard quarter. Perfect. Ten nautical miles ahead lies the Swin Spitway. It is now 07.00. We do not want to arrive before 09.00. In order to give enough rise of tide for Stargazer to slip through.
Such is our speed (SOG), there is a danger that we may. I furl the jib, to take some way off. We arrive at 08.50. I put full faith in my "black book," of depth clearances, and commit to the gutway. Creeping through, at four knots, hugging our waypoints (not the buoyed channel) precisely. Least depth: point nine of a metre.
Now it is time to give Stargazer her head. She spreads her wings, Full main and jib unfurled before a fair wind.
A fair tide urges Stargazer south. Bearding the channel buoys with boiling white wakes.
Stargazer stands in toward the north Kent shore. Now a hazy sliver of grey on the horizon. Revelling in this champagne conjunction of wind, weather and tide.
Big skies, filled with bubbling clouds, dwarf the merchantmen; which scurry along the shipping lanes of the London River.
Stargazer sweeps on. Slaloming through shipping. The cranes of Thamesport, and the entrance to the Medway, now in plain sight. Successfully shaken down, ready for the season. Eager to be on her way.
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