Today's exercise was to have a look at some of the local anchoring options ( an excuse for a lunch stop! ) then head up the Medway, past Gillingham, and up to Chatham Marina for a few days and visit the Historic Dockyard museum. We dropped off the mooring at 10:00 and motored the 2.5NM to Stangate Creek to have a look at the anchorage near the junction with the Medway. Following Stangate Creek south for another half mile brought us to the entrance to Sharfleet Creek which we gingerly nosed in to with the depth sounder giving intermittent readings due to the soft mud bottom. We anchored in a marked anchorage for lunch but with high tide approaching this spot was deemed too exposed for an overnight stay.
The point of looking at the anchoring possibilities was to see if there were any viable alternatives to Queenborough as a start point for a trip up the Thames to London but it looked as though Queenborough was the best option. After lunch a good sail was had as far as Gillingham where the river got narrower and the concentration of boats increased to the point that motoring seemed a good idea.
The point of looking at the anchoring possibilities was to see if there were any viable alternatives to Queenborough as a start point for a trip up the Thames to London but it looked as though Queenborough was the best option. After lunch a good sail was had as far as Gillingham where the river got narrower and the concentration of boats increased to the point that motoring seemed a good idea.
Sailing up the river Medway.
Gillingham.
Good views of Upnor castle were had before entering the lock at Chatham Maritime Marina where we were allocated a fantastic finger berth usually inhabited by 50'+ boats (a nice change from the rather meagre fingers in some of the Essex rivers marinas).
Upnor castle
'Norman James' on supersized finger!
River Medway looking towards the marina lock.
River Medway looking back downstream towards Gillingham.
We spent the following day getting our bearings, having a look around the retail complex that was located next to the marina, and having a pleasant meal in a local Italian restaurant where we had one of those "you've got to try that" moments when we saw deep fried pizza dough strips covered in sugar and chocolate sauce!
Naughty excess!
On Tuesday we planned a visit to the Historic Dockyard museum which is within walking distance of the marina. The highlight of the visit was the rope walk which is a quarter of a mile long and still makes traditional ropes today, and after volunteering to wind the machinery, we were given a short length of the resulting rope as a souvenir, now proudly on display in the saloon of 'Norman James'.
Rob helping to make rope.
The main rope walk, nearly a quarter of a mile long.
Breakdown of an anchor 'cable'
We also toured HMS Ocelot, a 1960's submarine, HMS Cavalier, a second world war destroyer, and HMS Gannet, a Victorian navy sloop and finally a display of historic lifeboats which really brought home how brave the lifeboatmen are.
HMS Ocelot
HMS Cavalier
HMS Gannet
Crew quarters.
Copper bottomed.
The following day we had a walk to Gillingham to try to have a look at the marina but couldn't get past security so decided to take our custom back to Chatham when we returned from our planned trip into London. On Friday 24th June we exited the marina lock and returned to Queenborough in order to be in position to follow the tide up the Thames to London where we had booked four night in the South Dock marina at Rotherhithe.
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