2015 brought a new project and a new challenge. A group was set up in Facebook:- "Friends of Dartford and Crayford Creek, aka Steam Crane Wharf" and I became involved ... So much work was done between late May and Mid-October it would take a book ...
Pentargon Springer spent ten weeks in Dartford Creek both Summers 2015 and 2016.
Mid-October 2015 it was time to move on or at least plan it.
It is my home mooring but not a good place to winter.
Pentargon Springer spent ten weeks in Dartford Creek both Summers 2015 and 2016.
Mid-October 2015 it was time to move on or at least plan it.
It is my home mooring but not a good place to winter.
Tide tables were consulted. Pentargon was parked on top of a mudbank and could only float off on a Tilbury high of 6.4m. Such tides are always Springs; it's how The River works. Spring tides happen twice a month and heights are unpredictable. The original intent was to leave on exceptional highs expected at the end of October and, by careful timing, to attempt a continuous passage from Kent to Middlesex in one swoop. To my knowledge, such a feat has never been attempted or achieved, certainly not in modern times. Pentargon was the first narrowboat ever to stay in the Darent and would be also the first to slingshot to Teddo.
It required Pentargon to be on The River, ready to go on slack water at dawn, say 0800 aiming for a Brentford High of 1600. This would give a total elapsed time of 8hrs. The tide runs later as it climbs from Gravesend. My mooring is 20mins later than Tilbury and reflected at Dagenham. By Tower Bridge it is +60mins. Now now don't be pedantic there at the back; even that lapse is only a prediction! By Brentford the difference is 1h45m. An old lighterman taught me that.
I said goodbye to Cliff on his final mooring at 2.45pm on Friday 30th August 2013 in Eltham Crematorium with honours and some tears. His son-in-law, John Davitt, read a beautiful and poetic eulogy to a doughty lighterman gone downriver on the final Job and Knock before Fiddler's Green.
" ... the Port of London's dying though she's been a grand old girl
and Father Thames no longer holds the shipping of the world.
They're filling in your docks and knocking down your wharves and pubs.
They're selling all your barges and they're scrapping all your tugs.
In their luxury apartments that command a river view,
as they sip their dry Martinis, do they ever think of you?
But still you'll have the last laugh as they're hell bound for the sin.
It'll be so full of lightermen that the buggers won't get in."
I had no previous figures to go by for the total haul, but from previous passages between Bow and Dartford, from opposite the Darent Flood Relief Barrier to Bugsby's reach should take about 3hrs at which time the tide would be racing up Greenwich Reach at over 5kts. In the event, this plan was scuppered on Thu.Oct15. when I was advised that, during the 'exceptional highs' I had hoped to use, the Darent Barrier would be lowered to prevent London flooding. Predictions on the Estuary are predictions. Timing was crucial. 17thOct was tail-end of the mid-month highs after which the boat could not be floated off for at least a fortnight!
Because of some long-standing commitment for Fri.16th October, and with the last the last usable tide being Sat.16th, life suddenly became interesting. Tilbury was forecast 6.3m at 1500 ... (4pm since we are on BST til next week!) ... Sunset 6pm. Nautical twilight 7.15pm. A phone call confirmed "Crispy Nails", my preferred bo'sun, was available, ready, willing and able to come aboard mid-day Saturday. Two weeks was telescoped into two days as the boat was made ready for sea.
Pentargon oozes along on the tide rather than being driven. The Lister is just able to push her along at 2kts plus any current or tide. (See the Severn descent in August 2017). Once freed of the bank and floated over the cill, she could take a falling tide down the Creek to the Barrier, out onto the Thames, which would be flowing towards the North Sea at 4kts. Once she cast off she would be totally committed. Crispy and I were fully aware there would be no turning back and no access to land unless she went all the way to Gravesend Town Pier some 6mls away.
Although Pentargon was fitted with nav lights for 'night-driving', we have more sense than to fly-boat on the Lower Thames. Town lights merge with house lights merge with car lights merge with marine navigation lights in a visual cacophony that confuses spatial perception and makes for great stress and confusion. Because she's under 11m in length, Pentargon is classed as a 'small recreational craft' by the Port of London Authority. She can, to all intents and purposes, come and go as she pleases on tidal water. In reality she is a 36' long, 7' high steel tank which can paint a huge blob on PLA radar. Most 'small' recreational boats are tupperware and PLA radar could shit theirselves if they saw a massive blob ejecting from the Darent and heading downstream in a fast-ebbing tide. I like to tell em the boat's passage plan, but it is impossible to contact them by VHF from the Creek or even in the Long Reach.
Once the boat had been heaved off the shelf (and that could have been a story in itself!) and gotten past the sill it was a matter of planning what to do when we hit the River. We intentionally delayed til 5pm knowing that sunset was an hour later and that would put Ingress pier and Swanscombe Creek in our sights for a place to anchor overnight. In the event we arrived off Ingress Pier in rapidly deepening dusk at 7pm and threw the anchor. Time for some sleep. During the night the tide would finish its descent, rise some 6+m and fall again, before 'our' tide began to flood about 1030am on the morrow morn.
The best laid plans of mice and men
Cymbaline
I mentioned an original intention of leaving Dartford on exceptional highs predicted for the end of October 2015 to attempt a continuous passage, using tidal power only, from Kent to Middlesex. Such a feat has neither been attempted nor achieved in modern times to my knowledge, but I do have second-hand evidence of watermen of old doing it under oar during the 50s. It would require Pentargon to be on the Thames as high up to Crayford Ness as possible, ready to go at slack water about 6am or 7am, aiming at a Richmond High of 1600 and giving a total 'window' of 8+hrs. Martin would be with me. Such a haul is better not envisaged solo, especially when one carries chronic fatigue as a constant companion. I knew from previous passages of the top end, that a 1215 Limehouse dep. put us at Brentford about 1500. I had no figures for the lower river, but previous passages between Bow and Dartford on Pentargon took about 3hrs to the Barrier in a slower current. To Bugsby's Reach should take about 3hrs by which time my tide would be racing up past Greenwich at over 5kts, sweeping us past Newcastle Draw Dock at 10mph. I had been into Newcastle Draw Dock before on Kenya Jacaranda and familiarity bred no contempt. But developments on the stretch cautioned respect for the change in river traffic and all the 'new' ferry stops.
That beautiful plan was now discarded. The trip we were now on was to Bow Lock in Bow Creek. We arrived off Ingress at 7pm and threw the anchor far out enough we thought, to keep the boat afloat at bottom of tide. We brewed up and cooked up and Martin took some photographs. And the boat bottomed. And leaned over 7º as Springers with v bottoms are prone to do. It was about 100m too far in, but we are the first narrowboat ever to engage in this exercise! At 3am there would be another 'top o tide' where we could make "adjustments". At 3am we were both up, admiring the view and the floating Springer when we decided to weigh anchor, move the boat 200m towards the fairway (out to sea for land-lubbers) and drop anchor again. We wanted water under the boat at 'turn o tide'. Back to sleep. After breakfast with the last of the tide falling away, Pogue noticed the anchor rope going slack.
Realising the boat was bottoming the engine was quickly started., I drove up to the anchor, weighed it, swung the boat in a 'four n two' arc to ensure it would stay afloat in the still-falling tide and set a westerly course towards London. This is what real sailing is about. "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley" and ne'er more so than on the briny. The clock was at 10. The tide would not turn for another hour. But we were free. We poddled up the south side of the estuary in towards QE2. Correctly we should have crossed to the North side but there be dragons: a whole line of rather big ships and no sight line for the Long Reach on that side. We had tried to talk with London VTS but their radio equipment is set up to deal with big boats and aerials 100' above the water, so we motored on. Their radar at Crayfordness would pick us out eventually. Once I had a nice sight line, I took Pentargon right out into centre channel to go under [QE2]. It would give Martin some unique perspectives for his camera. I was aware of traffic but didn't want to go proper North side in case one of the tubs decided to do a [four n two], although I'd hear them on radio to VTS in advance. A 'four n two' refers to four short blasts on a ship's whistle followed by two short blasts, meaning it is about to slip from a starboard mooring and turn left in the river to proceed to sea.
The tide having just turned, the most likely traffic would be from behind. A sloop was making way up-river behind us under power and sail. She was hard in to the north side by Cross Ness when we saw her change tack suddenly and make for the south bank.
Looking down-river from the very middle we saw a huge ferry turning the corner and decided it would be VERY prudent to adopt a similar course as Ajax. Tiddlers are not SUPPOSED to be in the centre of the fairway. Knowing VTS would see us on radar, we tried calling to assure them but again "Station calling London VTS, unreadable".
Well bollox to you then! Cymbeline passed us about 10 minutes later as we hugged the Littlebrook coolers. She had given us a warning blast a while back passing under [QE2] presumably frightening the livin' shit out of the motor traffic on the bridge 100' above her. Ajax rounded Crayford Ness hard in. (Bound for Erith) and about the same time Cymbeline rounded it in the middle of the fairway en-route for Dagenham Dock. Our GPS at 1145 showed we were doing 2.3kts going up the 'wrong' side of the Long Reach! Our clocks and tables showed the tide should have turned, though it did not appear so on the water. About time to make ourselves legal! Looking up and down the river for traffic, I swung hard to starboard just short of the Creek and, at right angles to the fairway, crossed over to the Purfleet side clear of the dragons and steadied her parallel to the North Bank and well in.
"Howzat look on radar, VTS? Shall we monitor 14 then? "
It required Pentargon to be on The River, ready to go on slack water at dawn, say 0800 aiming for a Brentford High of 1600. This would give a total elapsed time of 8hrs. The tide runs later as it climbs from Gravesend. My mooring is 20mins later than Tilbury and reflected at Dagenham. By Tower Bridge it is +60mins. Now now don't be pedantic there at the back; even that lapse is only a prediction! By Brentford the difference is 1h45m. An old lighterman taught me that.
I said goodbye to Cliff on his final mooring at 2.45pm on Friday 30th August 2013 in Eltham Crematorium with honours and some tears. His son-in-law, John Davitt, read a beautiful and poetic eulogy to a doughty lighterman gone downriver on the final Job and Knock before Fiddler's Green.
" ... the Port of London's dying though she's been a grand old girl
and Father Thames no longer holds the shipping of the world.
They're filling in your docks and knocking down your wharves and pubs.
They're selling all your barges and they're scrapping all your tugs.
In their luxury apartments that command a river view,
as they sip their dry Martinis, do they ever think of you?
But still you'll have the last laugh as they're hell bound for the sin.
It'll be so full of lightermen that the buggers won't get in."
I had no previous figures to go by for the total haul, but from previous passages between Bow and Dartford, from opposite the Darent Flood Relief Barrier to Bugsby's reach should take about 3hrs at which time the tide would be racing up Greenwich Reach at over 5kts. In the event, this plan was scuppered on Thu.Oct15. when I was advised that, during the 'exceptional highs' I had hoped to use, the Darent Barrier would be lowered to prevent London flooding. Predictions on the Estuary are predictions. Timing was crucial. 17thOct was tail-end of the mid-month highs after which the boat could not be floated off for at least a fortnight!
Because of some long-standing commitment for Fri.16th October, and with the last the last usable tide being Sat.16th, life suddenly became interesting. Tilbury was forecast 6.3m at 1500 ... (4pm since we are on BST til next week!) ... Sunset 6pm. Nautical twilight 7.15pm. A phone call confirmed "Crispy Nails", my preferred bo'sun, was available, ready, willing and able to come aboard mid-day Saturday. Two weeks was telescoped into two days as the boat was made ready for sea.
Pentargon oozes along on the tide rather than being driven. The Lister is just able to push her along at 2kts plus any current or tide. (See the Severn descent in August 2017). Once freed of the bank and floated over the cill, she could take a falling tide down the Creek to the Barrier, out onto the Thames, which would be flowing towards the North Sea at 4kts. Once she cast off she would be totally committed. Crispy and I were fully aware there would be no turning back and no access to land unless she went all the way to Gravesend Town Pier some 6mls away.
Although Pentargon was fitted with nav lights for 'night-driving', we have more sense than to fly-boat on the Lower Thames. Town lights merge with house lights merge with car lights merge with marine navigation lights in a visual cacophony that confuses spatial perception and makes for great stress and confusion. Because she's under 11m in length, Pentargon is classed as a 'small recreational craft' by the Port of London Authority. She can, to all intents and purposes, come and go as she pleases on tidal water. In reality she is a 36' long, 7' high steel tank which can paint a huge blob on PLA radar. Most 'small' recreational boats are tupperware and PLA radar could shit theirselves if they saw a massive blob ejecting from the Darent and heading downstream in a fast-ebbing tide. I like to tell em the boat's passage plan, but it is impossible to contact them by VHF from the Creek or even in the Long Reach.
Once the boat had been heaved off the shelf (and that could have been a story in itself!) and gotten past the sill it was a matter of planning what to do when we hit the River. We intentionally delayed til 5pm knowing that sunset was an hour later and that would put Ingress pier and Swanscombe Creek in our sights for a place to anchor overnight. In the event we arrived off Ingress Pier in rapidly deepening dusk at 7pm and threw the anchor. Time for some sleep. During the night the tide would finish its descent, rise some 6+m and fall again, before 'our' tide began to flood about 1030am on the morrow morn.
The best laid plans of mice and men
Cymbaline
I mentioned an original intention of leaving Dartford on exceptional highs predicted for the end of October 2015 to attempt a continuous passage, using tidal power only, from Kent to Middlesex. Such a feat has neither been attempted nor achieved in modern times to my knowledge, but I do have second-hand evidence of watermen of old doing it under oar during the 50s. It would require Pentargon to be on the Thames as high up to Crayford Ness as possible, ready to go at slack water about 6am or 7am, aiming at a Richmond High of 1600 and giving a total 'window' of 8+hrs. Martin would be with me. Such a haul is better not envisaged solo, especially when one carries chronic fatigue as a constant companion. I knew from previous passages of the top end, that a 1215 Limehouse dep. put us at Brentford about 1500. I had no figures for the lower river, but previous passages between Bow and Dartford on Pentargon took about 3hrs to the Barrier in a slower current. To Bugsby's Reach should take about 3hrs by which time my tide would be racing up past Greenwich at over 5kts, sweeping us past Newcastle Draw Dock at 10mph. I had been into Newcastle Draw Dock before on Kenya Jacaranda and familiarity bred no contempt. But developments on the stretch cautioned respect for the change in river traffic and all the 'new' ferry stops.
That beautiful plan was now discarded. The trip we were now on was to Bow Lock in Bow Creek. We arrived off Ingress at 7pm and threw the anchor far out enough we thought, to keep the boat afloat at bottom of tide. We brewed up and cooked up and Martin took some photographs. And the boat bottomed. And leaned over 7º as Springers with v bottoms are prone to do. It was about 100m too far in, but we are the first narrowboat ever to engage in this exercise! At 3am there would be another 'top o tide' where we could make "adjustments". At 3am we were both up, admiring the view and the floating Springer when we decided to weigh anchor, move the boat 200m towards the fairway (out to sea for land-lubbers) and drop anchor again. We wanted water under the boat at 'turn o tide'. Back to sleep. After breakfast with the last of the tide falling away, Pogue noticed the anchor rope going slack.
Realising the boat was bottoming the engine was quickly started., I drove up to the anchor, weighed it, swung the boat in a 'four n two' arc to ensure it would stay afloat in the still-falling tide and set a westerly course towards London. This is what real sailing is about. "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley" and ne'er more so than on the briny. The clock was at 10. The tide would not turn for another hour. But we were free. We poddled up the south side of the estuary in towards QE2. Correctly we should have crossed to the North side but there be dragons: a whole line of rather big ships and no sight line for the Long Reach on that side. We had tried to talk with London VTS but their radio equipment is set up to deal with big boats and aerials 100' above the water, so we motored on. Their radar at Crayfordness would pick us out eventually. Once I had a nice sight line, I took Pentargon right out into centre channel to go under [QE2]. It would give Martin some unique perspectives for his camera. I was aware of traffic but didn't want to go proper North side in case one of the tubs decided to do a [four n two], although I'd hear them on radio to VTS in advance. A 'four n two' refers to four short blasts on a ship's whistle followed by two short blasts, meaning it is about to slip from a starboard mooring and turn left in the river to proceed to sea.
The tide having just turned, the most likely traffic would be from behind. A sloop was making way up-river behind us under power and sail. She was hard in to the north side by Cross Ness when we saw her change tack suddenly and make for the south bank.
Looking down-river from the very middle we saw a huge ferry turning the corner and decided it would be VERY prudent to adopt a similar course as Ajax. Tiddlers are not SUPPOSED to be in the centre of the fairway. Knowing VTS would see us on radar, we tried calling to assure them but again "Station calling London VTS, unreadable".
Well bollox to you then! Cymbeline passed us about 10 minutes later as we hugged the Littlebrook coolers. She had given us a warning blast a while back passing under [QE2] presumably frightening the livin' shit out of the motor traffic on the bridge 100' above her. Ajax rounded Crayford Ness hard in. (Bound for Erith) and about the same time Cymbeline rounded it in the middle of the fairway en-route for Dagenham Dock. Our GPS at 1145 showed we were doing 2.3kts going up the 'wrong' side of the Long Reach! Our clocks and tables showed the tide should have turned, though it did not appear so on the water. About time to make ourselves legal! Looking up and down the river for traffic, I swung hard to starboard just short of the Creek and, at right angles to the fairway, crossed over to the Purfleet side clear of the dragons and steadied her parallel to the North Bank and well in.
"Howzat look on radar, VTS? Shall we monitor 14 then? "
