– Blue Belle Goes To France –
We left Teddington Lock at midnight on the ebb tide. Looking ahead all we saw was a murky darkness. We had no idea where the river was going. There were no lights, no houses on the river with lights on. Just darkness. At that point we were glad we had Chris of Charlie Delta Marine on board as he had a young pair of eyes and knowledge of the river based on his many trips over the years. He knew which way the river turned, and so we chugged gently downstream over Richmond Half Tide Weir and around the even darker banks of Kew Gardens until at last we came upon bridges all lit up, and street lights pointing our way to the sea.
We called up London Port Control to let them know we were passing through London, but we need not have bothered as we saw no boats and no people. It was eerie. As we passed The Houses of Parliament and under Westminster Bridge we remembered the famous lines of William Wordsworth.
The River glideth at his own sweet will Dear God! the very houses seem asleep And all that mighty heart is lying still.
At 2am we passed under Tower Bridge, the last bridge in London. The tide was flowing fast now and we reached Woolwich Reach and the Thames Barrier very quickly. At this point we went below for an hours sleep, and then awoke to relieve Chris for a few hours. Dawn was breaking now, and the Thames Estuary looked desolate in the half light and wide expanses of mud and abandoned wharves. About 5am we passed out in to the estuary proper. We had seen just two boats; cruise liners making their way upstream on the now flooding tide. At this point we could have diverted to the Medway and waited for the next change of tide, but we carried on heading for the inside passage around North Foreland. It became quite choppy with wind and against tide rounding the point but it soon died away and we headed out to sea to avoid The Goodwin Sands and steered a course up channel to allow the tide to carry us down hopefully to Calais Harbour Entrance. We had Force 3 winds and a light sea. We could see France in the distance and almost smell the Moules Frites. At 6pm we radioed Calais Port Control for permission to enter but were asked to wait a while until two ferries had come and gone. And then we rushed in and tied up to a mooring buoy outside the entrance to Calais Marina to wait the tide coming up high enough to cross the sill of the lock into the inner harbour.
We had arrived.
For the past three months we have been exploring Belgium and Northern France. Blue Belle has been a delight to cruise in. She steers well and straight and has attracted admirers everywhere we have been. The wider beam makes such a huge difference that looking at a plan would never show, and gives a feeling of spaciousness which we love. The fixed height wheelhouse allows much bigger windows and is the place where we live all the time, with a view on all the action coming and going along the waterways. With the thermally broke windows we no longer have to wipe condensation off the frames every morning and with a washing machine, 2200 litres of water and 1200AH of batteries, and solar panels we are very self-sufficient and able to linger in the beautiful spots we find everywhere in France.
