Sitting Around

Day 24 – North Foreland – 13th June – 0 nm

I was glad to be heading north at last, to leave the South Coast behind – well, except we weren't.

 Today was supposed to be the crossing of the Thames Estuary, 26 nm of open water and technical nav; I was slightly nervous but looking forward to it.  I enjoyed my previous crossing here in 2012, it was a highlight of the trip, and so I was looking forward to seeing it all ‘in reverse’ this time. However, once again conditions were annoyingly ‘sort of, but not quite’.
   
The weather may have worked for a coastal ‘options’ day, but to paddle across 26 nm of shallow water, sandbanks and nav probably wasn't the best of ideas. It also boils down to more basic things than just the paddling perhaps, it would be a 6 hrs+ crossing and frankly for me that is too long to go without a pee - I could tie a knot in it I guess. Going on limited food for that length of time was not a brilliant option either.

It took time, and was frustrating, to make the no-go call, but I knew it was the right thing to do.

So once again we dodged the ‘youf’ and headed back to base. Pascale set out on a bike ride to Sandwich and Deal. Rather ironically she couldn't find an open bakery for a lunchtime butty there.

 I sat on the campsite - planning, snoozing, kit-checking and answering an eclectic mix of PSK emails: Taran Handling in New York, Boat choice in the Southern Hemisphere, a coaching booking for 18 months hence (I didn't even know what I was doing tomorrow!) and big rudder v little rudder.

Life goes on I guess.

Footnote:
During the day I calculated that with the current daily average, the projected finish was now  around 95 days. It made for a bit of a glum day. I didn't know at the time but the actual figure of  92 days was to be the highest figure for the whole trip.