Our delayed departure from St Katherines finally took place on Wednesday. We left on the ebb and darkenss fell as we left the river.
At first you are confronted by a confusing array of lights as all the various channels converge at the mouth and none seem to be the one's you want. However we were going up the most westerly so we just kept to post and finally the channel becomes more obvious. We had a fresh southerly which slowly died away leaving the sea smooth and level.
The featureless ocean belies what goes on below so you can never relax, so easily can you stray into the shallows and onto the hard unforgiving sandbanks. On a calm flood there's an element of safety but imagine going aground on a rough ebb tide, it makes me shudder. If you can't imagine it read Magic of the Swatchways!
Finally we saw the sunrise, got over Gunfleet, I relaxed and went for some sleep happy we were now all but home. I slept like a log (being sawn) and was wakened as we came up to PinMill, what great crew mates.
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