29 August 2010; At sea.

So we departed Tilbury at the civilized time of 8 am in the morning. As we were docked with the nose up the river we had to swing around off the berth before going down the river. With a wind force four blowing from the West and the current coming from the same direction (ebbing), I had a tugboat hooked up to the stern to act as a pivoting point while we swung around on the current. That maneuver is a bit eerie to see because while we are making the swing we are also set bodily down the river by the current. By the time we were finished and lined up, we were also about a mile downstream from the dock. From there onwards the ebb current pushed us towards open waters, four hours down the river. We passed the familiar sights, the construction of the new container terminal, Southend on Sea and finally the wide estuary of the Thames. Here we had to slow down to reduce the ships squat because we were going through the Princess channel which is very shallow, especially during ebb tide. We knew that we would have enough water under the keel, as the shallowest patch of sea bottom was exactly 7 meters under water and that is a measurement at chart datum. This is normally the lowest of the low waters and 7 meters is our draft so we only needed a little bit more to stay afloat. So I watched the echo sounder to see what the score would be this time and the meter stopped at 1.6 meters under the keel, just over 5 feet. Nothing to worry about as long as we sailed over it with a speed of no more than 10 knots.

Last night I already saw on the weather forecast an issue developing around the North coast of Scotland. A low pressure centre was curving around the top and coming down the coast and at the same time pulling a weather front over England, bringing rain in a lot of places. If my calculation was right we would be out in the open and heading south before the wind would start to pick up in the Thames area. Thus I listened for the gale warnings to come in on the traffic channels. Normally they start broadcasting about 3 hours before the weather becomes imminent, enough time for everybody to take protective measures; for ship and those onboard. The first warning came in around 10 am and thus I knew that I would be southbound by the time it would start to blow in the Thames estuary.

By 11.00 I was approaching the pilot station and then we hit congestion. A supply vessel and a dredger were both waiting ahead of me to receive the pilot, before mine could leave. So it took half an hour longer than planned before the good ship Prinsendam was on its merry way south, away from all the developing mayhem. By 2 pm. we were passing Dover with a wind force 7 in the back but the cold wind made for very good visibility and the white cliffs were very clearly visible. As we were going out on the Ebb, the following wind pushed the sea at even greater speeds through the Dover channel and at a certain moment we had almost 3 knots of current with us. That did not last long as the flood started to push the water the other way shortly after, but still you do not see 3 knots everyday in the channel.

The next thing I was waiting for, was the wind to turn North as predicted because that would mean that the swells could smoothen out overnight and we would have a good day in St. Peter Port tomorrow. The wind change came but not before it rained cats and dogs for an hour, making only the chief officer happy as it washed all the salt from the decks.

Thus it looks good for tomorrow. The remnants of the swell should be from the West and that will make the anchorage sheltered. Same for the wind from the North West or North, also the island will offer shelter here as well, or at least partly. The wind will also have blown all the clouds away and so it will be a sunny day, albeit a nippy one.