We had a very pleasant and fun May on Spellbinder, staying in the Solent and Chichester, sailing with friends and testing our new systems. I had also won a free lift out at Berthon, Chichester, at a charity lunch raffle, so Spellbinder missed her usual Bosham Quay scrub off. Eldest son Tom was also able to take her out with friends, getting used to her prior to some planned sailing on her later in the summer.

So, with a clean bottom and freshly replaced anodes, Tom – the skipper – and I set off from Gosport at 0400 on 1st June in company with Richard, Claire and Jonathan who were aboard Skybird.

Heading east out through the submarine barrier and Looe channel, which cuts through Owers bank south of Selsey Bill, we soon had a decent quartering wind, ideal for the cruising chute, which stayed up for most of the passage.

It was a great passage, beautifully navigated and skippered by Tom, and we locked into Eastbourne rather earlier than planned, making good speed.

At Eastbourne we shopped and welcomed Rose – Spellbinder’s artist in residence – on board. We had drinks with the crew of Skybird coming on board and settled down for the night.

Stronger following winds were forecast for the next bit of our trip. We locked out, quickly reefed and set the genoa pole and had a very fast passage, goose-winging, most of the way to Ramsgate.

Skybird and Spellbinder were well matched – Skybird lighter and shorter, and Spellbinder heavier and longer. We had a very fast passage, averaging 8.5 knots over the ground, arriving together without incident into Ramsgate, to be met by Ginny and David, aboard Serena.

We had a decision to make for the next day, as the weather was set to close in. There was some debate amongst the crews but we had a bit more of an imperative to get to London and Tom made the call to sail round to Queenborough the next day.

We had to have 3 reefs in both the genoa and main as we round the Kent coast, but the many mudflats and sandbanks kept the waves down and we sailed motored into Queenborough without difficulty, except for a broken furling line which required repair.

Queenborough wears its heart on its sleeve, and is not the prettiest of places, but we found a craft beer pub, walked locally and did some work on Spellbinder while waiting out more bad weather. Rose managed to paint: the results are below.

Tom – now a newly qualified doctor – went running and managed to help a drunken Polish cyclist who had bashed his head. He came back to the yacht rather bloody, having awaited the arrival of paramedics.

By Friday the fronts had passed over and we set off for London. I last sailed up the Thames with the family in our previous yacht Kianga over 10 years ago, so it was good to see how things had changed. Tom was on the ball when it came to the pilotage, radio stations to monitor and general awareness required for such a passage.

We passed through the Greenwich meridian for the 2nd time this trip – if all goes to plan, we’ll do it twice more this summer. Our destination was South Dock, a largely residential marina but one from where Rose could depart, Tom head off to some pre-wedding drinks, and Sue and Jonty could arrive.

The next day we timed our lock out to coincide with the arrival of Skybird and Serena, who we accompanied into St Katherine lock, a little way upstream, with its entrance just before Tower Bridge.

In the lock we joined Intuition and passed through into this rather beautiful, well presented, well run and reassuringly expensive marina in the heart of London.

We are here for a couple of days. There are 6 yachts from my yacht club here, and we have a dinner planned in the Tower of London. We have now been joined by Marc, a French friend and fellow member, who will remain with us for the main cruise, which will see us sail to Chatham and then up to East Anglia.