Typical Bank Holiday Weather for 12 hours on a Thames Barge!

I guess we were lucky to get a dry day for our trip on Thames Barge Hydrogen from Maldon, Essex, given the forecast a few days before but it was dull, cold and very windy. The crew from Topsail charters were excellent with good food and show of seamanship. The spinning Capstain was while we were anchored at lunch - very spooky. Other images include how best to survive the weather, winding up the anchor and the one minute break in the cloud during the day!! Map of the area - we sailed from Maldon to Brightlingsea and back.

 

Great Dunmow,Essex

We are staying at Great Dunmow for the night ready for an early sailing on a Thames Barge from Maldon in the morning. Typical Essex small town with lots of colourful buildings. 

 

Maldon Essex 2.Boats

The afternoon was spent on Thames Barge Kitty - a percentage of it attempting to get away from the Quay at Maldon as the incoming tide and strong wind took us back to the Quay many times before we eventually got away. The other boats including Hydrogen had similar problems. It was a very High tide as shown by the beach huts! Lots to photograph for participants, up, forward and down 

Misty Morning at Stratford-upon-Avon

We woke up to a misty morning in our hotel in Alcester. I took the penultimate image of a lovely isolated  group of trees from the bedroom before breakfast; by the time we got back to the room the mist had cleared to reveal previously hidden houses. Luckily the mist was patchy and stayed around in Stratford till mid morning giving some great autumn vistas. Lots of cobwebs adorning various barge 'friends'. Some people were busy decorating one of the tree with crochet squares - a custom I had first encountered in Moscow

Thames Barge Race

After all the hot dry weather of the last 2 weeks, it was inevitable that it would change on the day I had booked to follow the Thames Barge Race from Pin Mill. It was raining hard and very windy when we left Ipswich at 6.30am and continued for most of the day with just a short dry spell in the middle of the day. The rain helped to add atmosphere to the pictures but the wind meant that we couldn't go out to the open sea as Kitty, the barge we were on, is smaller and lighter than those competing.I did get a few distant shots of the larger classes sailing out from the harbour. Anyway I enjoyed the day though may have to try again for the images I had in mind for today.