Tag: oare creek

Photos from a few days sailing on the North Kent coast

  

 

My daughter Ella and I took these photos last week during a sailing trip from Oare Creek where we keep our little plastic Hunter. Most of the time the wind kept us pretty busy as we slipped from creek to creek, and the weather wasn’t exactly camera-friendly.

But a few days in the weather suddenly improved and so we slipped out to have a close look at a local landmark, Guy Maunsell’s Red Sands Fort. (Read about them here and here, and see a Pathé newsreel here.)

The light that afternoon was fascinating, as it so often is on the sea, and so it was time to take out the Fuji Finepix s200. See the shot above of a fishing boat stuck on the spit off Shellness (above), and below the moment when a cloud came over to shade us in our boat just as a sneaky breeze kicked up a rash of ripples on the face of the water (below).

That breeze carried us down to the Isle of Harty.

Good news on the banks of Faversham and Oare Creeks

 

There were two great pieces of news at Hollowshore this weekend: Ham Marshes have been saved from the gravel-diggers, and the sailing barge repair business previously at Standard Quay in Faversham has arrived at Oare Creek.

Swale Borough Council’s planners are to be congratulated for making the right decision on the Marshes – it never did make any sense to destroy an internationally important habitat for wildlife, or to expand one business in a way that would destroy others.

Faversham’s loss of the sailing barge repairers is sad and unnecessary, but their arrival just yards from the wonderful The Shipwright’s Arms on the banks of Oare Creek is good news for the area’s boating community, and for the pub – and at least the repair business remains in the area.

It’ll be fascinating to see which vessels come in for repairs and restoration, and we can watch it all happening from our own mooring over a cup of tea and a slice of malt loaf…

1936 Harry Feltham yacht for sale at Faversham

This 1936 Harry Feltham-built 24ft sailing yacht is for sale on eBay, ending at 9pm on Sunday. She’s moored at Oare Creek, Faversham.

There’s a bit of history about her – it’s said she was once sailed by Amy Johnson, who referred to in her diary under the boat’s old name of Margaret.

The boat was done up extensively in 2005 or so. It has two berths and a pipe cot, and comes with sails and a modern 2hp diesel. Some varnish and paint is now required, apparently.

Place your bid here.

Thanks to my pal Steve Taylor for pointing her out. As he says, she deserves a good home.