Day 4: Inverness to London

Mon Aug 29 2022

4 years and 2 months after we set off from Sydney, and 7 months since we left Cape Town, today marks our final sail of the first half of our circumnavigation.

As I write this, we’re in the Thames Estuary, 4 miles from the beginning of the River Thames proper, and trying to slow down so as to begin our upriver passage as the flood tide commences in two hour’s time.

It will take us a further 6 hours to reach St Katharine Docks, where we’ll be berthing Steely for the foreseeable future. We’re excited for the new phase that awaits us, for there is much to see and do in London, and getting stuck into work again is going to be both challenging and fulfilling. And of course we know that we still have a lot more sailing ahead of us.

But not any time soon, not even day sails. Amazing as SKD will be as a base, one major downside is that it is 45 miles up the river – there’s no popping out for a quick sail like we would do when we were living aboard and working full time in Sydney. We’re definitely a bit sad about that.

So I’m going to enjoy the remainder of the day – soaking in the sights and sounds of one of the world’s most historic and vibrant cities as we navigate through its very heart.

And as we do so, we’ll try and use the time (if its not too hectic) to reflect on the many memories, highs, lows, lessons and just general awesomeness of the last 4 years.

There’s too much to reflect on and write about to do justice on one of these passage diaries, so I’ll pull together a proper blog post about the first half in due course.

In the meantime, thanks as always for following along, and if you’re ever in London, come and see us in St Kat’s!

Day 4 Statistics:

Total Time on passage: 3 days, 22 hours
Total Distance covered: 513 nm

Distance in last 24 hours: 116
Average Speed: 4.8 knots

Distance to Sheerness: 4 nm
Distance to St Katharine Docks: 46 nm
Some 1st half statistics (Many more random stats from the first half to come in a separate blog post):

Number of times we’ve refuelled since Sydney: 36
Total amount of diesel purchased: 13,860 litres

Number of marinas we’ve berthed Steely in between Sydney and St Katharine’s Dock: 33

Here’s the full list so far:

• Coffs Harbour, Australia

• Gold Coast, Australia

• Rosslyn Bay, Australia

• Airlie Beach, Australia

• Hamilton Island, Australia

• Townsville, Australia

• Magnetic Island, Australia

• Port Douglas, Australia

• Darwin, Australia

• Nongsa Point, Indonesia

• Lombok, Indonesia

• Port Dickson, Malaysia

• Pangkor, Malaysia

• RLYC, Malaysia

• Telaga, Malaysia

• Rebak,Malaysia

• Penang, Malaysia

• Senibong Cove, Malaysia

• Yacht Haven, Thailand

• Phuket Boat Lagoon, Thailand

• Eden, Seychelles

• Stonetown, Tanzania

• Richards Bay, South Africa

• Cape Town, South Africa

• Horta, Azores

• Ponta Delgada, Azores

• Crosshaven, Ireland

• Dun Laghoire, Ireland

• Largs, Scotland

• Tarbert, Scotland

• Tobermory, Scotland

• Oban, Scotland

• Inverness, Scotland