...and on to Bradwell, on the river Blackwater

We walked to Burnham to get supplies this morning. Incidentally there was a nice laburnum tree growing in one of the garden of one of the houses - we realised immediately that it was a Burnham laburnum! We took some photos of each other in our team shirts, then slipped our lines after lunch and sailed with the wind behind us out of the river Crouch. We took a left hand turn into the river Blackwater and motored against the wind. We radioed a few other vessels to try to get confirmation that they could 'see' us via our AIS signal (the 'automatic identification system' should enable other vessels to see an image of us on their electronic chart plotter; in fact you should be able to do the same via your computer - just find a site that displays ships locations via their AIS signals). The firing range safety boat replied - his AIS wasn't working - sorry. We tried a few other commercial vessels - neither of them answered our call so we gave up. We arrived at Bradwell marina in the evening and found very few staff around - struggl;ed to find our berth and to get a key to the facilities, and to find a way of plugging into the electricity.

(If anyone would like another polo shirt incidentally, please contact Diane by 30 May).

Harwich tomorrow perhaps, weather permitting.

the marina at Burnham on Crouch

Steve at the helm, modelling the team polo shirt