Sitting on the port deck after dinner on a Wednesday evening sees me motoring slowly towards the white cliffs of Dover. Not me personally; I'm chilling out having just cooked dinner for our crew of 11 (normally 12). Mariquita is on her merry way towards the Thames and the crew are holding their watches, eating chocolate, taking sights on the sextant and generally reverting back to the sort of deep and highly intellectual 'conversation' that watches tend to encourage such as, 'If you could be any alien from outer space, what one would you be?'.
I've only once before sailed this way and I think I recall it wasn't quite so pleasant. But here we are honking along with the tide, the sea all calm and friendly and the sky clear and glazed.
We're hoping to arrive in London by tomorrow night, moored up by Tower Bridge in what has been named the 'Avenue of Sail'; where a collection of some of the world's most beautiful and historic boats will be congregating, most of which are too big to pass under the 17 bridges the Pageant will parade under on the 3rd June.
And we are so excited! How lucky are we to be moored amongst such beautiful vessels, witnessing first hand one of the biggest flotilla of boats ever assembled on the River Thames, celebrating Her Majesty the Queen's 60 year reign.
Talking of rain, I hope the sun comes out soon. It will be my Birthday too - did I mention that? - and I like a sunny Birthday. But I won't be feeling too old, quite the spring chicken in fact; the oldest boat attending the Jubilee Pageant was built in 1740... Now that's proper old.
Anyway, I shall retire to my bunk for the night as it's getting cold and there is fog rolling in. I'll leave that to the rest of the crew.
Thanks for reading, stay tuned!
Cheers!
