Across the Thames and Queenborough : Saturday 18th June

Having got up at stupid O'clock, we weighed anchor at 04:45 and headed off to cross the Thames with the intention of stopping at Queenborough in the river Swale. Avoiding Foulness sands requires quite a trip in the 'wrong' direction and we motor sailed down the Crouch for nearly two hours with only a few seals on the sands for company before eventually turning into the Thames at 'Inner Whitaker' south cardinal buoy. 

Foulness sands just visible with seals at the waters edge.

At 06:40 we had switched off the engine and were sailing with a fair tide.  By 08:30 the wind dropped out again so more motor sailing, but were now only about 2NM from the Medway FWB.  

LNG tanker headed for the Isle of Grain.

We had to slow down slightly to allow a large LNG carrier and it's fleet of attendant tugs to maintain course  towards the Isle of Grain LNG terminal, then crossed the main shipping channel and entered the small craft channel just to the south.

Medway VTS at Garrison point, Sheerness.

We followed the channel, passing the Medway VTS facility at Sheerness and into the Medway, keeping close to the east shore we then turned into the Swale at Queenborough spit and at 10:05 picked up a visitor mooring at Queenborough harbour. The mooring looked very substantial, and we found out later that it was designed to take up to four rafted boats! 

'Norman James' on the 4 boat mooring!

The harbour staff run a water taxi service form the moorings to the walk ashore pontoon which we used in the afternoon but we came to the conclusion that although it was a good staging point, Queenborough was not a terribly attractive place in a sort of post industrial decay sort of way. 

The walk ashore pontoon at Queenborough harbour.

One of the entertainments on offer was the steady stream of fairly large coasters moving up and down the Swale near high tide with the channel going straight through the moorings!

 Coaster sailing through the moorings.

In addition to the visitor moorings and the all tide pontoon, the harbour had a concrete barge moored in the river which was available for boats to moor against, this was fendered with short lengths of (very) heavy hawser draped over bollards on the deck.

Alternative mooring facility.

After a night on the mooring we spent the next day exploring the local creeks and heading up to Chatham Marina.