London Cruise - Plan B scuppered

Just picked up the news via the excellent East Coast Pilot web site that the Havengore Bridge is broken and will remain closed until further notice

The bridge is the only route onto and off Foulness Island, home to a small village and a very large and top secret military firing and testing range

It lifts for two hours either side of High Water when the range is not operating to permit access to and from Havengore Creek which then links, as can be seen from the chart below, via several drying channels to the River Roach and thence to the River Crouch

Using the Havengore route saves the long haul down the Whitaker Channel past Foulness Sands and then all the way down the Swin along the edge of the Maplin Sands

However, it does involve over three miles of transit over the drying Maplin Sands and can only be attempted, in settled weather, by suitably shoal draft craft

Erbas is suitably shoal draft provided the tides are nearer springs than neaps and I had forseen the possibility that I might be too tired for an 03:30 to 04:00 start on Saturday morning. I had therefore cooked up a plan B which involved leaving via the Havengore at about 11:00 and offsetting the distance, and therefore time, saved against the foul tide we'd then encounter as the tide ebbed from the Thames and Medway

Plan B already looked iffy with F4 gusting 5 from the South West forecast for Saturday afternoon, it's likely it'd be too little tide and too much chop to attempt it being, as it is, a good metre less tide than full Springs on Saturday

However, it's now totally academic 'cos the bridge is broke

That could prove to be an annoyance next weekend as I'd pencilled in using the Havengore to return to the Crouch / Roach on our return trip (again, weather and tide permitting)

On the weather front, Saturday now looks fairly good for the run down to Chatham.

However, Sunday to Thursday doesn't look so hot. It's generally being forecast as West South West or Westerly fives and sixes gusting seven or eight for the whole five days before settling down slightly in time for next weekend

However, the confidence level is still low, there's qutie a range of possibilities being bandied about and a key advantage is that from Chatham we're heading up river in reasonably sheltered waters - although Westerly strong winds could kick up an uncomfortable chop even then with the added drawback of potentially slowing us down drastically.

So at the moment, Chatham is looking good provided the forecast holds and I can get enough rest between dropping the hook on Friday and the essential early start before dawn on Saturday

From there, only the gods know what is going to happen!