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The World Cruise of Veleda IV |
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From Plymouth to London Log #12c Plymouth to London August 24, 1999 Limehouse Basin, London  I am writing this while moored in Limehouse Basin, the national headquarters for the Cruising Association, and a restored medieval dock area of downtown London just a mile or so from the Tower Bridge to the west and the Canary Wharf development to the east. We have arranged to spend our winter here, starting in October, but hope to shove off tomorrow Aug. 25 for the north side of the Thames estuary, Walton Backwater and Ipswich area, well known to Judy from her reading of the "Swallows and Amazons" books by Arthur Ransome, and then down to the Solent area for the Southampton Boat Show. We left Plymouth after the second day there, as the weather was rainy and dreary, and we wanted to get to London to see Judy's parents. We enjoyed the day we spent touring around Plymouth. It is steeped in maritime historical lore. We visited the dock from which the Mayflower departed. We walked the playing field where Drake completed his game of bowls before going after the Spanish Armada (besides, the tide was against any immediate departure). We walked the docks where Drake, Hawkins, Cook, Davis, Frobisher and others planned and departed for their voyages of plunder and exploration. We saw the naval memorial for the fallen sailors from Britain and the Commonwealth from the Plymouth area who gave their lives in various conflicts this century. There was also a Royal Air Force memorial for all the aviators from all branches, including the training squadrons who gave their lives, as did Judy's Uncle Joe, her father's brother. We took a ferry cruise up past the Royal Navy dockyards to view a variety of destroyers, frigates, submarines and supply and replenishment ships. There were at least three nuclear subs, as well as an Upholder class boat which will be used to train Canadian crews for the Upholder class subs Canada is getting from the RN. I was impressed with their maintenance facilities, where they can work simultaneously on three warships in enclosed repair sheds . Our anchorage was free and comfortable for the two nights we spent there. Plymouth was badly bombed during the war and has a relatively modern downtown, but they attempted to keep the historical character of the waterfront dock area. However, they did not have a library with access to the internet, and only one cyber cafe which was already closed for the weekend, so I was not able to send any E-mail until I got to London. Even then, when I used the internet at the Cruising Association, it had a different format to the one I used in Falmouth, and I had to try it twice, modifying the address list to suit. The one access number I have for AOL has not worked yet, and I have had others who say England has no AOL access number. I will continue to try, as an access number will be better than using the internet service. Anyway, we enjoyed Plymouth and may return there by land during the winter. Our sail from Plymouth started out nicely with a 10 knot following wind. We hoped to sail non-stop to London. However, the wind worked up to gale force with ten foot seas, catching us with a full genoa wrung out with our whisker pole and a full main. The seas became higher and more confused as we had a wind (35 to 45 knots) against current situation when the tide changed. Our genoa would occasionally lift up as Veleda swung broadside to, requiring considerable helm and effort to counteract it. Then one time I was not able to counteract the swing broadside fast enough, and the wind lifted the genoa and pole and wrapped the pole around the mast and the genoa around the forestay, twisting and breaking the whisker pole and warping the steel ring attaching the pole to the mast. The sail was O.K., but the situation caused us concern, so we headed for Dartmouth rather than carrying on to London non-stop. Things settled down once we entered the mouth of the Dart River. There was no room alongside, so we anchored across the channel from Dartmouth by Kingswear, where we had a good view of the town and especially of Dartmouth Royal Navy College, an officer training school where Prince Charles and several monarchs have trained. We normally would have been charged for anchoring anywhere in the harbour or river system, except that the harbourmaster courteously gave us a free night, since we had been turned away from the docks by a boater who did not want us rafted alongside. The harbourmaster said he should not have done so and apologised for the poor manners of that local boater. As an interesting aside, the harbourmaster indicated the harbour charge was a levy mostly for Prince Charles, who has hereditary rights to the Dart River and all uses thereon. It seems an anachronism, but I guess is a royal prerogative still in use. During the night we had a rap on our bow and when I got out of bed to see what it was, I found a chap standing on the stern of his 45 foot schooner fending off Veleda's bow! We had anchored in 32 feet of water near high tide, and had out only 3:1 or 4:1 scope (100 feet or so) of 3/8th chain cable. It was nearing low tide now, and we had not dragged, but with only 18 feet of water, we had a larger radius of swing, and the other boat had not turned. As the schooner was anchored before us, it was beholden on us to stay clear of him. He was not upset and understood that there are some crazy wanderings of boats with tidal changes in a river and with contrary winds. It was just a fact of life in the Dart River. In fact one of the regulations is that your boat cannot be left unattended during a tidal change while at anchor. I was in line with the other boats at anchor, except for this schooner who was sailing all over the anchorage with a 5:1 scope using rope line. So I shortened my cable, and turned on my engine to ease away from him. He still sailed all over the place, and our distance did not stabilize for another hour and a half until the current swung us both down in the same direction. It was not a restful night. The next day we motored a couple of miles up the river on a rising tide, a lovely winding route through tree covered hills, before heading out to sea. On our way back just before reaching Dartmouth we stopped to talk to Ramparsad, a concrete sloop we had been meeting in several ports from Bermuda to the Azores and Falmouth. It was Simeon on Ramparsad who showed me how to save on disc and use the library internet services to send E-mail while in Falmouth. We said farewell to Sam and Simeon and set sail for London with a reefed main and genoa . The sail was a good one as we crossed Lyme Bay, and passed Portland Bill, the Isle of Wight and the Solent, the white cliffs of Beachy Head and Dover, around Margate and Ramsgate into the Thames Estuary. It took us two nights sailing, about 54 hours, to get to Limehouse Basin here in London. We saw a tremendous amount of shipping, increasing greatly as we got to Dover and Ramsgate, and into the estuary. We were about two miles offshore, but inside the outbound traffic separation lane. There were at least three or four major ships on the horizon at any time. No napping on night watches! Around Dover at night was interesting. Now we had six to ten outbound ships offshore of us, but had major ferry traffic between Dover and Calais at the rate of one crossing ferry every five minutes or so. We could see the lights of Calais, and could see the ferries, but determining their courses, speeds and distances without radar was difficult. However, I only had to change my course and speed on two occasions to avoid one incoming and one outgoing ferry. We had no close calls. The last time I was in Dover was at night too, twenty years ago when I was returning to Germany with my mother. We were on a night ferry from the British train from London to Calais. I remember when we got to Calais, my mother and I had to sit outside on our suitcases from 5:00 to 8:00 am waiting for the Calais train station to open up to go on to Paris and Strasbourg. There are yellow incandescent lights all along the docks of Dover, casting a yellow glow on the chalk cliffs, and accentuating the floodlit castle above the city. I was glad we had good visibility for the trip. The estuary is wide open, but we had to be careful as there are sand bars and wrecks which have to be avoided. It was Judy's morning watch as we proceeded north up the coast through a buoyed and lighted channel inside the Goodwin Sands, the area where a cruise ship and container ship had collided yesterday. Fortunately, our passage was uncomplicated, and by dawn we were in the estuary of the Thames River. The sky was overcast, but no rain. The trip up the Thames was grey and boring. There was not much river traffic, but a increasing current as we approached London. We went through the Thames Barrier, a system of locks across the river to control flooding, past the Millennium Dome and the Canary Wharf development, and rounded the Isle of Dogs to see the Limehouse bridge and lock. At this bend, the wind was blowing 10 to 15 knots against a flood tide current. We tried to call Limehouse on our VHF; no response. We realized, after we were in, that the harbourmaster had heard us, but we had been unable to hear his response. Our main radio is set on U.S. frequencies, rather than International, and Channel 80, which marinas here use, is different. We will need to use our hand-held (which has an International setting) in similar circumstances in future. We circled around to approach a pontoon landing in front of the bridge, but had to back off as the current was pushing us down on it too fast, and there were only a few feet from the pontoon to the bridge. When we tried our second approach, the bridge started to open, and we proceeded past it to a second pontoon between the bridge and the lock. Again wind and current made the approach to the pontoon difficult. The lock was open, but had a red light showing! What to do? Try for the pontoon from a difficult angle or go into the lock against a red light? Then someone was waving us to go into the lock, which we did. We were asked to tie up on the starboard wall inside and go into the CA (Cruising Association) office for a berth. Exiting the lock we again had contrary winds and after two unsuccessful attempts (witnessed by a boater on a canal barge who did not attempt to help us or offer to take a line) to go alongside, gave up and went across to enter an unused slip. After 54 hours of sailing up the English Channel and the Thames River, we were frazzled, and glad to be alongside. The dockmaster was most friendly and helpful as were the people at the CA headquarters. We had been told that Limehouse was already booked up for the winter, and we were thinking of going on later to Burnham on Crouch, which River Dancer calls home and had recommended to us. However since arriving we have enjoyed the hospitality of the CA staff and they in turn were instrumental in helping us get a mooring here for the winter. Lorna and Lizzie especially have been very helpful. We have already been approached by Maggie, on Kiitos, who is program chair for the CA, to make a presentation on sailing down the Mississippi some time in February. The marina is run by the CA for the British Waterways. The facilities are excellent; good showers, washrooms, laundry, power and water on all the pontoons. The main attraction, though, is the headquarters building. It has a friendly staffed bar and clubhouse with good lunch and supper menus. The business office gives all kinds of help and cruise guides and other publications. However the ultimate is a full nautical library with charts, guides, nautical archives, publications, novels, and computers for E-mail and internet use. In addition, there are several cabins that can be used for visiting sailors and their guests. Judy is ecstatic! The basin is on the Docklands Light Rail transit line in an area in the east end of London known as the Tower Hamlets, between Tower Bridge and the Canary Wharf development. There is a public library about five minutes walk away, as well as a local strip of small grocery, variety and dry cleaning stores plus a good looking Indian restaurant, post office, hairdresser's, barber shop, and a marine metal working shop where Judy is thinking of volunteering to learn metal working (My wife the blacksmith!). We will move in here the first of October for the winter. We have been advised that the weather by the end of September can be rough, so we will probably be here for the full six months. I would like to venture out a few times, but it is a day's trip just to get to the entrance of the estuary, then another day to get anywhere else. Thus we would need a good four to six day window to risk going out after October. So this will be home from October to the end of March. More about London and our last five weeks of sailing before we settle in for the winter in my next log. |
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