South Coast
& Thames Part 8
Report and pictures by Martin Longhurst
On Monday 4 October 2010
Waverley offered a sailing from Tilbury and Southend to Clacton for a River
Blackwater cruise with coach return. This
positioned her on the Essex coast ready for her upriver sail from Harwich to
Tower Pier on the Tuesday. This arrived
at ... which tied in nicely for an evening event organised by Waverley
supporter Jim Pettigrew to promote the “relaunch” of the paddler. This started with the invited guests joining
the trip boat London Rose to view the steamer’s arrival from Harwich and her
passage through the raised Tower Bridge.
After she had disembarked her passengers, the guests transferred to
Waverley for a short cruise downstream.
The objective was to promote the paddler to potential up-market event
organisers and amongst opinion formers.
The event was reported in the following day’s edition of the City AM newspaper.
The paddler spent the night
alongside Tower Pier before her trip to Tilbury, Southend and the River
Medway. Departure was delayed by a few
minutes to allow three “tugs with vessels” to pass upstream on the flood
tide. These were empty refuse barges
being returned to the central London transfer stations. Over 300 had joined before tug Revenge swung
the steamer between the pier and the bridge before she set off downstream. There was a brief delay approaching the Barrier
as some maintenance work was in progress.
More passengers came on board at Tilbury and we proceeded to Southend
where most got off and a lesser number gone on, including David and Naomi
Duncan who were on their way to Whitstable to join the ship the following
day. David was sporting his Waverley
bobble hat for the first time this season, as he had not been able to find it
earlier.
The small tug Haulier turned
the paddler off Gillingham Marina in the River Medway. On the return passage there was a small
presentation to Purser Jim by the Friends of Southend Lifeboat. This was followed by a wreath laying
ceremony to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the loss of the
previous Waverley at Dunkirk.
After disembarking her
passengers at Tower Pier the paddler returned to Tilbury for the night, having
offered an evening cruise from the Cruise Terminal. She steamed off early on the Thursday light
for Margate to give a non-landing upriver sailing to the Upper Pool of London,
also picking up at Whitstable.
Passengers were coached home from the Essex shore. On the Friday the paddler was chartered to a
purveyor of entertainment for younger people.
This entailed much preparation at Tilbury, including the installation of
a sound system, before she sailed in late afternoon to make her pick up at
Tower Pier. A slow cruise to just
beyond the Barrier was given with the ship full of party goers who were coached
off to a club on the steamer’s return to complete dancing the night away.
Waverley was now in position
to give her Saturday programme which started off with a single sailing to
Southend direct, primarily for the benefit of coach parties. There were about 300 on board when she
slipped her moorings at 09.30. The main
part of the day’s timetable was an up-river sailing from Southend and Tilbury,
turning in the Upper Pool. This is
always a popular sail and there were 775 aboard after Tilbury. While we waited for the customary 30 minute
interval between bridge lifts to elapse, commentator Jeremy Gold described the
buildings lining the shore and the paddler stemmed the ebbing tide with the
assistance of tug Revenge. This was
also a suitable moment for David Green, the Secretary of the London & Home
Counties Branch of the PSPS, to make a presentation to Purser Jim MacFadzean to
mark his retirement. In addition,
Jeremy Gold, as Chairman of the KC Trust, presented Jim with a Life Season
Ticket to sail on the Kingswear Castle and Alan and Peter Bushell made a
personal presentation to mark their long association working with Jim as his
coach organisers in the Thames area.
The steamer anchored off
Southend for the night before hauling up at about 06.30 to head for
Harwich. Here she berthed at Halfpenny
Pier amongst yachts decorated for the local Sea Shanty Weekend events. After a short delay while DFDS’s Dana Sirena
passed inbound for Parkestone Quay, the steamer sprung off the pier and turned
for the open sea. Once clear of the
Harwich Haven it was clear the wind was strong enough to cause gentle rolling
as we rounded the Naze and headed for Clacton.
Sea conditions were marginal alongside the pier but the crew managed to
embark everyone who wanted to sail, including those who had come from Great
Yarmouth by connecting coach.
Despite the clear skies, the
previous period of bad weather had depressed bookings and there were only about
300 on board for the passage to Tilbury.
Visibility was good and we enjoyed views of the various forts and wind
farms as we headed west. At Tilbury,
about 170 more came aboard for the evening cruise to Tower Pier and back and we
enjoyed a glorious sunset which backlit the Canary Wharf towers to great
effect. Planes were taking-off and
landing every few minutes at London City Airport (in Docklands) and we had a
grandstand view as the flightpath is along the line of the Thames. The Great Yarmouth, Harwich and Clacton
passengers disembarked at Tower Pier while the Tilbury passengers stayed on
board for the final trip of Waverley’s Thames season. Some filming for “Sherlock Holmes II” was
due to take place on the Monday off Dover and some technicians and their
equipment was brought on board at Tower Pier.
After Dover, the steamer was due to give her cruise to view Cunard’s new
Queen Elizabeth depart Southampton before heading to Weymouth for more fuel and
Glasgow for her final weekend of service for 2010.