Round Something

Our little family of coots living under our pontoon in St Katherine Docks have got little chicks hatching. One had managed to fall into the water though, so I had to rescue it and get it back onto the platform while Dan was trying to distract a madly pecking daddy coot on the other side. He did come and find the little chick, and hopefully the poor little thing managed to get back into the nest (unfortunately this was a little out of reach for my arms). All the crew arrived on Thursday afternoon, we now have Steffy, James, Jamey and Dan, along with Big Dan and Carolyn van der Toorn, who is our Skandia volunteer for the week. We started our trip with a walk across Tower Bridge, and I introduced the crew to a habit that my mother passed on to me. We had to walk around something before turning back towards the Bridge (and back to meet Dan), so our walk was the ‘Round Misshapen Building’ walk.
We left St Katherine Docks with the legend Chris Livitt, who came and enjoyed a pleasant sail down the Thames. It was a little sad saying Goodbye… from here we really are out and about on our adventure, and probably won’t be seeing my family or friends for quite a while. But, nothing like a fun bunch of crew and a day out on the water to pick up the spirits, and we did have a really nice sail out to Queenborough once the wind picked up a bit. There was a flotilla of Belgian cruisers all making their way up and down the Thames, and it felt quite festive and nomadic, seeing people and boats going off in all different directions, all on their own adventures.
Queenborough was packed, and we ended up rafting alongside some Belgian adventurers heading for London. They were leaving on the early tide, which meant a 5:30am start for us! This actually worked out quite well though. Wee Dan was up before I could say Boo and I must admit I have never had a crew so keen and ready to go – ON TIME AT 5:30am! Must be a record..
It was a rather uneventful sailing day though, with little to no wind for most of the morning, but thankfully a little breeze set in for the last couple hours, so we did manage to get sailing for a bit. Steffy has become quite handy on the winches, and Wee Dan is glued to the helm whenever the boat moves. We had a lovely reception, with Geoff Pierce and some of his family and friends coming out on their RIBs to escort us in. This was much appreciated, as it is a tight creek to get Scarlet into Bradwell, and we had to pick our way through a field of little boats on moorings.
Jim also came down to say hello, and this evening he is going to put us all to our paces on the Bradwell Activity Centre high ropes course…. Can’t wait!
Our afternoon has been amazing. We went for a walk along the coast and in the country. It is amazing how much I miss being out in the country. We had a great time rolling around in this field of really long and soft grass, and it got the whole crew behaving just the way we should be – crazy!! What a fun afternoon. Of course, this walk was the ‘Round Random Gate’ walk.

Pizza is up, and then we’re off to have more fun.
Later!