Fine weather but very cold overnight and then very foggy in the morning making even more justifiable my decision to push on late into the evening to make our way up the Thames to Limehouse and St Kat's 

{gallery}2007/brighton-limehouse{/gallery}

A cunningly timed passage to leave us in the relatively safe confines of The Thames Estuary during the evening hours of darkness and in open water watching for crab pots in what daylight we had! The weather window was fully exploited as it was foggy the following day and due to deteriorate later. I had calculated that we would only manage to get to Limehouse if we did some cruising after dark and, because of the crab and lobster pots littering the coast as a hazard, the best place to do this was coming up the Thames where there were none allowed to be set. David Harrison was not keen to spend more that Tuesday on the boat, for he had an appointment in Bournemouth with his mother on the Wednesday trying to get her into the smart residential home. The previous night, he had gone ashore and got some bread, ham, cheese and a few other chocolate biscuits and goodies for the cruise the next day and, whilst he was gone, I managed to get the rest of the boat ready for this day’s cruise and so we were right ready.

This was the perfect day for cruising – even better than the day before  - and so I decided to set off before dawn and get a half hour’s start on the day. This was an inspired decision for it meant that I was cruising into the brightness of the dawn and had turned before we had to cope with the actual sun rising above the horizon. It was soon light enough to see and to turn off all of our navigation lights etc and so we could cruise along at out modest 9-10knots without problems. The cruise went very well but it turned into a long debate about where we should stop and how far we could get. David really wanted us to stop at Ramsgate where his son could pick him up by car and take him back to Southampton to collect his own car and take it home. This would then be in good time for his outing with his mother the following day. Unfortunately, with the weather set to deteriorate as the week progressed and with me out of time to get Lady Martina round to London, that proposal would be no good for me and it would be better to get the boat into London this day. It would all hinge on how much time the cruise would take and what our arrival time in London would be. David was hoping that we could get in by 8.00pm but, what with the darkness and the Thames estuary tide fast running against us it would be more like 10.00pm before we would eventually get there.  

The other factor was that I could not bring the boat up the Thames the following morning for they had arranged a full closure of the Thames Barrier for this time. Once we arrived at Tower Bridge, there appeared no room at the jetty and so we moored up on the fuel barge, having checked with the barge owners who had no objection. Though the water buses had finished there was a good number of restaurant barges plying their trade on the river after dark, serving Christmas dinners and hosting Christmas parties but at least they did not speed too much not make a large wash; the idea being to lull their clients with a pleasant cruise. I served David and I a couple of  beers as we relaxed after an epic voyage before we called it a night and sloped off to our bunks.

This had been a very good day and now all that I needed to do was to fill up with fuel in the morning and then to try and get into Limehouse in time for my Council Meeting and David off in time for his commitments. We did this okay but, in my anxiety to get David off to his appointment on time, I went in a little early on the tide with my propellers grounding in the morning when entering Limehouse lock basin but then they were shot anyway and in need of repair! 

7.5-30(under bridge canopy)-5degC, 59-27-53%RH, 1036-1042mb steady, smooth/slight/calm seas in fine but cold weather good viz but fog in morning but tide against us

We spent two more days enjoying the fine weather and seaside amenities in Brighton, before continuing our voyage west to the Solent, where we had arranged for the boat to be lifted at Itchen Marine. This would give us chance to look for any damage to the props and shafts incurred during our summer's activities, and we planned to stay in the Southampton area for the period of the boat show, due to start in a fortnights time. 

{gallery}2007/brighton-southampton{/gallery}

With  the wind coming from the north it made sense to stick to the inshore passage through the Looe channel, so we treated ourselves to the new edition of the two Admiralty Leisure folios of charts which covered the passage. We didn't expect to find any major changes but as we also planned to follow the shallower North channel east of the Bramble bank we decided our 2001 editions were probably due for updating.

Taking the same channel in the other direction we crossed paths with an army landing craft, possibly late for the last war, or early for the next one. The pilot boat which accompanied it made sure we gave them a wide berth by heading straight for us until we changed course.

As we headed further into the Solent the radar began to get busier as boats of all shapes and sizes crossed our path. The area just outside the main channel in Southampton Water seems to be the most heavily occupied and several power boats seemed to think that a boat's length away was a suitable distance at which to pass. For these occasions we employ our 360° avoidance manoeuvre, which involves veering sharply off to starboard and describing a complete circle, so that we cross the wake of the overtaking vessel at right angles. The alternative, of being hit on the beam by several metre-high waves, sends miscellanous items crashing around the cabin and is a most unsettling experience.

We arrived in the river Itchen around 5pm, as the 2 knot tide was ebbing strongly and with a lively 15 knot wind blowing downriver. This made the mooring operation a little trickier than anticipated but the introduction of a handful of extra ropes soon had the situation under control. Itchen Marine has the distinction of being one of the cheapest places to keep a boat in the Solent, and as we gazed at the mudbanks on which some of the boats were lying we could see why. However, mud didn't bother us in our spot on the fuel berth and we were pleased that the yard had agreed to attend to our needs promptly and efficiently.

The efficiency continued the next morning as we were greeted at 8am by a team of line-handlers who enthusiastically crewed us round to the travel hoist, and we were out, pressure washed and secured by 9am. There was some noticeable damage to one blade on each prop, but nothing that couldn't be fixed by the lump-hammer wielding yard manager and his mate with the sledge hammer.

This was the first leg of a re-positioning and recovery cruise after I had parted company with my former partner Louise Busby following our last cruise together. Lady Martina had been laid up in Itchen Marine, our last port of call, with a bent propeller and lack of time and opportunity to get it back to home waters until now. I was pleased to enjoy the company of Broom Owners Club friend and engineer, David Harrison, on board as my crew so as to be better able to deal with any problems that arose. Original ideas of a cruise to Ramsgate were thwarted by further pop vibrations but we made good progress to Brighton on this first day having cleverly interpreted the calming sea conditions

{gallery}2007/southampton-brighton{/gallery}

The weather situation was even more in interesting to judge in the morning. Storm Force winds were due to clear the Channel from the West and we were due to follow in the calmer conditions of the aftermath. However, this morning, the storm force winds and consequent swell had been slower to clear the Channel from the west and so the further and sooner we cruised east the more we would still find it a problem. This was a typical case where the Shipping Forecast area reports were unnecessarily off-putting due to their sheer size and lack or precision. Sea conditions for us were smooth to slight as a consequence. 

In essence the shipping forecasts, that covered this wider area, and even the inshore forecasts, which were not very localised, would put off most sailors from venturing out. However, I was armed with the very local forecasts and wind vectors reported by downloading the GRIB files and could see that close inshore and in the Solent area it would be calm and even sheltered as the winds had gone round to the north-west. Despite our best intentions to set off even earlier, it was just before 8.00am that we cast off as it took time to prepare the boat to leave in the absence of the specific knowledge and experience of Louise, my regular crew.

All was well as we left under the Itchen bridge and along Southampton water and it soon became apparent that the vibrations from the props and shafts were a problem at high speeds and so we had to throttle back and settle for the much lower speed of 9-10knots. This immediately meant that any idea of cruising on to Ramsgate this afternoon was out of the question and we would have to thus settle for Brighton as our destination. We had judged the weather well but our progress was limited by the propeller damage to the Port side, where vibrations built up over 10kn or 1600 rpm,  However, this gave a chance of view the passing ports and settlements of Chichester, Selsey Bill, Littlehampton, Worthing and Portslade until Brighton Marina at Black Rock hove into view. We got into Brighton around 2.00pm in the sunshine, though the day was quite cold. Much of the time spent washing off the boat and then getting all of the charts and electronics set up for the next leg the following day.

By this time I had calculated that we would only manage to get to Limehouse if we did some cruising after dark and, because of the crab and lobster pots littering the coast as a hazard, the best place to do this was coming up the Thames where there were none allowed to be set. David Harrison was not keen to spend more that Tuesday on the boat, for he had an appointment in Bournemouth with his mother on the Wednesday trying to get her into the smart residential home. He went ashore and got some bread, ham, cheese and a few other chocolate biscuits and goodies for the cruise the next day and, whilst he was gone, I managed to get the rest of the boat ready for the day’s cruise ahead.

13 -18degC, 58-30%RH, 1031mb steady, smooth/slight seas in fine weather with good viz and a following tide

{gallery}2007/stvalery-brighton{/gallery}

After our various incidents involving encounters with the bottom we were concerned we might not be able to run the boat at full speed and sure enough as we increased it to 15 knots we felt a vibration which indicated all was not well down below. We had anticipated a fall back plan of a shorter passage to Boulogne if necessary, but with a comfortable cruising speed of around 10 knots we could still make our original intended destination of Brighton in a reasonable eight hour cruise so set a course straight across the shipping lanes and set up our inflight entertainment for a long passage.

The weather on the south coast was warm and sunny and we found Brighton in bank holiday mood. With an impromptu visit from Dan and James arranged by text message as we crossed the channel, we spent the next day in holiday mode, making the trip into town on the Volks Railway and hiring deck chairs on the beach.

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The sea lock at St Valery opens only an hour before high water, which wouldn't be until nine that evening, so we moored up at the canal pontoon, which despite the sign indicating a maximum stay of 72 hours, was occupied mainly by algae covered boats which had clearly been there a lot longer. It was just near enough to cycle to the town centre, a popular seaside resort which was gearing up for a busy bank holiday weekend. We would have liked to stay longer but the forecast for the Sunday was not so good, and we opted to take the best weather for our cross channel trip. Having not entered the port before we called at the harbour office for a copy of their buoyage list and harbour channel plan. Crossing 8 miles of drying sandbank the winding channel changes frequently and the buoys are constantly managed to maintain access to the harbour.

The huge sea lock eventually opened at 9pm after an amount of debate with the lock operator over bridge heights and draughts, and having reduced our air draught to 3.7m by dropping the mast we were asked to reduce our bridge height a little further, necessitating the complete removal of the canopy. In the event we had a clear 5.5 metres which would have allowed us to leave the whole mast up!

We were greeted by a dory-driving harbour master who directed us to one of the hammerhead berths, one of the few that remain afloat at all states of the tide. Despite the lateness of the hour and the delay to our dining arrangements we stopped in the club bar after a visit to the harbour office for a drink with Eric and Claudia on Fiomina whose Bâle registered boat had accompanied us for the latter stages of the canal cruise.

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We were stopped at Picquigny for the navigational lunch break and when eventually our turn came, the lock-keeper started proceedings by asking us our draught. We gave him our normal answer of 'about a metre' and thought little more of it. It was only when we saw the level in the lock drop to less than 3 feet on our echo sounder that we began to be suspicious, and then as we passed the central gates discovered a sill dividing the two lock pounds. With the depth gauge reading 1.2m , the sound of our keel scraping across the sill indicated that either we had more than a metre draught, or their depth gauge was up the creek. The downstream sections of the lock are designed to pass larger draught vessels whilst minimising loss of water through the system. The archaic three gated design, combined with their still manual operation, is highly labour intensive and by the end of the day we had up to seven orange clad attendants busily winding away at lock gates and sluices.

Most boats seemed to be heading for Abbeville, or even St Valery, but we opted for a quiet village mooring at a place called Pont-Rémy. The Navicarte indicated a host facilities which were no longer in evidence, but there was a bin-bag clad electricity and water supply which may yet see service in the future.

Thunder clouds threatened as we moored up and by the time we had embarked on our customary bike ride to see what was going on, the heavens had opened and we treated the villagers to the obviously hilarious sight of us cycling round in the torrential rain in our all-over Dutch rain capes. There was just time before the worst of it arrived to reach the top of the hill where a tiny British military cemetery holds a handful of graves from 1918-1919. With many of these dated after Armistice day we couldn't imagine what unfortunate circumstance had led to their demise so late in the day in this out of the way corner of France. [Post note: Pont-Remy British Cemetery was established by casualty clearing stations and hospitals posted to the area in 1918-1919.]

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Our destination for the day was Amiens, regional capital of Picardie, which has good mooring facilities close to the town centre. Whilst the moorings were provided free, the water and electricity were dispensed by a complex electrical token system, in which you bought six units at the tourist office, which could each be 3 hours of electricity, or 200 litres of water. There were only a handful of boats at the Pont Amont of which we were surprised to find two were Brooms, one of whom we had met before in Limehouse. David and Jill on Summer Celebration were on their way upstream so it was useful to compare notes of our respective voyages. We were even more surprised the next day when a fourth Broom, Samphire, turned up.

Arriving from upstream at Amiens, we were able to catch a glimpse from the river of the 'hortillonages'. Accessible only by small boat, this network of market and ornamental gardens covers 300 hectares. Traditional horn-shaped boats tour the area but with wet weather dogging our stay in the city an opportunity for a visit did not present itself. A more popular visit in the steady rain was the interior of the 12th century cathedral. Covering an area of 7,700 square metres, it is the largest in France, although the upkeep of the interior struggled to match the grand scale. Each evening the exterior of the cathedral is brought to life with a 'son & lumiere' performance, depicting the statuary of the facade in vivid colours. The colours transform the stone figures into human characters, who tell the story of the town in the context of its religious history.

Other attractions in the city include the house of Jules Verne, who lived in the city and wrote many of his most famous works, including Around the World in 80 days, from his home in Rue Charles-Dubois. Amiens Plage should have been a glimpse of the seaside in the summer city, but in the inclement weather just a few hardy souls in raincoats were determinedly trying out the isolated deck chairs. And on Quai Belu in the old St Leu quarter the canalside restaurants which should have been buzzing with life were windswept and deserted. In Blackpool we call it lights weather!

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After several showery days we had developed a better wet weather cruising canopy that could be used with the mast down, but the transitional faffing that was required meant that a spell of fine weather was still essential to move to a state of readiness. This came eventually after lunch so we made the necessary call to Point Control, and gave them the 40 minute warning they needed to attend the opening bridge immediately downstream of our mooring. This gave us ample time to fix the cover, and by the time we were ready the bridge keeper had arrived, as had the rain.

The rest of the cruise passed in a dismal drizzle with each lock-keeper asking hopefully if we would be stopping before the next lock. At Sailly the lock is still operated manually, and the student attendant had a couple of even younger assistants to help him, all standing patiently in the steady rain. This was a great relief to the crew who had feared being pressed into manual labour for some rain-soaked winding. The young lock keeper assured us that the best moorings for Corbie were before the next lock and persuaded us that we wouldn't need it that evening - given that we wouldn't arrive until close to their 6pm closing time it was probably good, if slightly biased, advice.

He was proved right and we found good moorings next to a large campsite upstream of the Corbie lock, although the coin/token operated electricity remained a mystery. None of the offerings we tried made any impression, and by the time we found the campsite reception they were already closed for the night.

There is not too much to see in Corbie - the Navicarte could only think to mention the 7th century abbey, of which 'little trace remains'. We did find the remaining third of the abbey church, the greater part having been deemed surplus to requirements some two centuries ago. Sadly 'ascension' of its 55m towers is allowed only occasionally, and although the next opportunity was to be the coming Friday, we did not envisage being in town that long.

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We were beginning to wonder if we had made the right decision, but at the next lock we were greeted by the local waterways agent, and presented with an impressive set of detailed coloured charts for the rest of the canal, all printed on waterproof card, and showing every facility and navigational detail of interest. We were promised 1.2m depth for the rest of the waterway, and were relieved that we were not asked to sign the disclaimer of responsibility for the lack of greater depth. A diligent team of lock/bridge operators followed us along the waterway and we were impressed by their attention to waterborne tourism, given that no license fee is payable for cruising this waterway.

We had planned a fairly short cruise to the hire boat base at Cappy, where good pontoon and alongside moorings are provided, equipped with water and power. The small village was typically sleepy on a Sunday afternoon but a handful of eating places and a boulangerie make this a reasonably well-equipped stop.

With an afternoon free we had intended to visit the Froissy-Cappy railway, a narrow gauge steam driven line, which was built to transport troops and supplies to the front line in 1916. Later used for village reconstruction and then for sugar-beet transport, it has been completely renovated by an association of volunteers and their museum is an impressive collection of all the types of wagon available for the 60cm wide tracks.

We had some difficulty locating the train station at Cappy, and eventually discovered that the only real station is at Froissy and visitors make a round trip from there, to the end of the line at Dompierre. The normal way to visit the railway would be to walk or cycle the 2km along the towpath to the station at Froissy, but we never do the normal thing, so we intercepted the train as it conducted its end-of-line turn, a little downstream of the lock at Cappy. In fact we later discovered a very serviceable mooring quay just upstream of the Froissy bridge, which was ideally located next door to the station, but of course with hindsight these things are always easy.

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Our passage for the day would take us 50km up the Canal du Nord, joining the section shared with the Canal de la Somme as far as Péronne. From what we could see there were no other suitable mooring places prior to this - the banks of the canal, completed only in the 1960's, are mostly of sloping concrete, so are highly unsuitable for an overnight stop. Combined with the heavy wash from the frequent barge traffic, stopping en route would be less than desirable. We made good progress along the wide canal, with only the large locks causing us some delays. Even if there were no other boats waiting, the size of the lock chambers made for a notable wait if the lock had to be emptied or filled for our passage.

As lunchtime approached the clouds thickened and we made the practical decision to stop off at a lock waiting quay for a lunch break, which allowed the first of a series of showers to pass overhead. After this the afternoon deteriorated into a steady drizzle and we had to fashion a temporary tent out of our canopy and assorted boathooks in order to continue on our way without getting totally soaked.

The port de plaisance at Peronne is a combined affair with a popular 3* camping and caravan site and the highly recommended facilities include on-site 'friterie', bread-ordering, games area and swimming pool as well as the regular household necessities. The site is somewhat distant to the centre of Peronne, further hampered during our visit by the complete replacement of the only road bridge and a contraflow system causing long queues.

An important goal in the Battle of the Somme, Péronne is at the centre of the circuit of remembrance, and its Historial de la Grand Guerre, housed in the Chateau du Péronne is a contemporary juxtaposition of life on the home front and in the trenches. Starting with the events leading up to 1914, and an explanation of why it became a 'world' war, the unusual displays include a collection of architects' models of proposed war memorials, and a reconstruction of the Yves Gibeau 'museum', housed in his attic in Roucy, near to the Chemin du Dames.