A bureaucrat takes a slow barge to Harwich

The "Thalatta" at Ipswich

I have to admit that, after a night watching the election results come in, even a good night’s sleep wasn’t entirely restorative, and I’d almost forgotten that we had plans for yesterday.

Many years ago, before Ros and I met, she had been invited to become the Patron of the East Coast Sail Trust. And, as is sometimes the case with these things, people change, and things get forgotten. Until recently that is, and Ros had been invited to spend a day on the water, aboard the "Thalatta", a 1906 coastal barge, owned by the Trust. And so, yesterday morning, we boarded "Thalatta" from the quayside in Ipswich on a squally day for a cruise down the Orwell towards Harwich and Felixstowe.

Whilst the weather wasn't terribly good, we made our way through the lock gates out into open water, fortified with mugs of hot tea and the occasional biscuit, and gently glided into the Orwell. And you run out of "urban" surprisingly quickly as you head south-easterly away from the town centre, past the marina at Woolverstone, past Pin Mill and on towards Levington. The banks are heavily tree-lined, offering tantalising glimpses of the cranes at Felixstowe's massive container port, and with an amazing number of sailing dinghys and motor yachts traveling up and down under the watchful eye of the Harwich Haven Authority.

Lunch was fortunately timed to coincide with some of the worst of the weather, and I emerged back on deck to find us close to some vast container ships at Felixstowe.

We had to turn back though from the original schedule, having intended to round Shotley Point and make our way up the Stour a bit, but with a steady 20 knot westerly breeze, and gusts up to 35 knots, discretion was clearly the better part of valour. And so we retraced our steps back to Ipswich, arriving back in the town after seven hours afloat.

All in all, it was a splendid day out, despite the weather, which sprang one more unpleasant surprise as we disembarked, a torrential downpour which made our decision to wear rain-resistant outfits all the more sensible.

Life can be hectic sometimes, and in a world where so much happens so quickly, a day about a coastal barge acts as an antidote to the sense of chaos. Nothing happens quickly, and you can enjoy the scenery as it passes by at a steady six knots or so. We may have to do this again sometime...