Through the Havengore

We always considered the Havengore to be impossible for us but today was a really big tide and Trevor thought we might be OK. Alison thought a trip up the Roach might be nice anyway so I suggested we have a look. We had a lovely sail down to the entrance to the Roach and then motored in against the wind. A bermudan ketch Sea Orchid caught us up under motor and then anchored outside Yokefleet creek. We rang the bridge and they said there should be enough water for us at 13:00. We crept towards the bridge, going aground in soft mud for a couple of minutes once.

The bridge lifted for us and we went through, trying to follow the instructions the lady controlling the bridge had given us. The sea in Havengore Creek was quite choppy. Sea Orchid came out behind us and overtook, looking like they knew what they were doing so we snuck in behind them. A few motorboats came in from the sea giving us more indications of the right route.

Going over the Broomway was scary - even with the high spring tide we were not sure we wouldn't bump but we got over it without mishap. It seemed to take forever to get across the Maplin sands into deep water but it all went well. We motored all the way, to make it easier to back off if we grounded, but we had the stay sail up to steady us a bit.

We hadn't really planned what to do next. We had a choice of going down river and back into the Crouch or Blackwater or hopping over to Queenborough. Once we could see the chimney on the Isle of Grain it was too tempting. We set sail and turned the engine off for a choppy but safe journey across the Thames, and arrived right by the wreck of the Richard Montgomery, an obstruction we hear about all the time. We sailed most of the way in but it started raining and we decided to motor to Queenborough.

We rafted up against two big yachts from Canvey on the pontoon and went to the Flying Dutchman pub for a nice dinner.