20 passengers which gave us a grand total on board of 49, we headed up
the coast to Southwold and anchored off the river and pier. It is
notoriously exposed to the North Sea swell and more trips from this
pier have been called off than actually made. The ship was rolling
around all night, fortunately not so much that it affected me in my
cabin by the water line, but others in the penthouse seemed to have
suffered.
We upped anchor and made a pass at the pier to check out conditions
then a turn around and in again unfortunately without success, the
offshore wind caught us and we were away. On our third attempt we made
it and despite the rolling and bashing around we managed to take on
261.
Lovely trip south down the East coast past Sizewell Nuclear Power
Station to see the three eyed fish, past Harwich and into the Thames
for the run up to Tower Pier. Lovely clear night and the tide in so
the city was looking fantastic, St. Pauls, the London Eye all showing
up really well as we approached the Tower Bridge.
Not long to get everyone off and we turned and headed back downriver
to Tilbury. All tied up by 22:20 and then we have to take on fuel,
bunkers, so the barge is alongside now and should be finished by half
eleven. Long day, with a 09:00 departure tomorrow light ship to
Southend and then back up to the city. Rotten weather forecast, let's
hope that they have it wrong.
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