Despite the gale force winds, we decided we really didn't like the Sharfleet Creek anchorage and we'd rather face a bit of a bouncy passage than stay another night.
On reflection the anchorage was really rather nice. Certainly nicer than the 6 hour nightmare of a voyage we had! The wind actually increased after we left instead of decreasing as forecast. We had winds well in excess of 40 knots for such a long time that in a lull it felt relatively benign, but it had actually lulled to 35 knots, which is the official wind speed of "gale force". For a time it was not much less than 45 knots and we saw gusts to 49 knots.
We were making only just over a knot through the water so the bow kept getting forced off course by the wind. No way the autohelm could have coped so I had to stand outside and helm the whole way, with waves breaking over the bow every 30 seconds or so and sending spray flying back into my face. Waves were mostly 2 to 3 meters high but the odd 4m rogue came through which really rocked us about. Hard work!
Stupidly we'd left the tender tied to the back of us so it was repeatedly taking off and spinning about. The rope to it looked very frayed so I ended up tying it to our centre cleat on the leward (downwind) side of us. This worked well until it decided to join me in the cockpit. I left it there as it seemed stable. Unfortunately during all of this craziness the bungs that stop air coming out had somehow popped out and vanished, so we are now without a working tender until we can solve that...
And when we got to "mucking flats", an anchorage recommended in our pilot guide as being "good shelter in a strong south westerly" to find 1m waves there, we felt a little disheartened as you can imagine, and had to endure another hour or so of it before we got to a vacant buoy off Gravesend (who's sailing club were lovely and let us use their buoy for the night) - where we didn't stay up long before collapsing into a warm bunk.
Up relatively early next day to make plans for a passage up to London - set off at noon with some excitement!
Wind again was strong and on the trip we encountered surprisingly large waves, even on a SW stretch of water after canary wharf! It was awesome! We managed to sail about half of the journey, motoring only where we had to go directly into the wind - which was annoyingly often.
All went really well and we made the 24 nautical mile journey in about 4 hours. It was brilliant to sail under the Dartford crossing, through the Thames barrier, past the millennium dome, Greenwich, Canary Wharf... and then suddenly, there was Tower Bridge! I'm getting teary just thinking about it. What an amazing trip!
We're going to be here in London now for just over 3 weeks. It's expensive, but it's a chance of a lifetime to be able to live in the centre of London for 3 weeks. I think it's about £160 a week + elec, but perhaps we can negotiate a discount for bulk. Not too bad considering the location.
Some stats:
Motored: 45 hours 18 mins
Sailed: 58 hours 46 mins
Anchored: 28 nights
Marina: 21 nights
Other: 42 nights
Mooring fees: £748
Logged: 465 nautical miles
BBQ: 15
Fish: 5
Some photos:
