East Coast passage

With a little help from local friends, Trevor Cherrett takes his 22ft harbour launch from the mud of Maldon to the rivers of Suffolk

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Maldon is famous for its colourful Thames barges, its salt, and losing to the Vikings. But my abiding memory is its mud: not just ordinary mud but a sort of creme caramel mousse into which my 22ft harbour launch Morgana sank softly last winter after her passage down the Thames and Lee Valleys in 2023 (PBO, July 2024).

But Morgana was kept warm, safe and sound in her berth in Jim Dines' boatyard alongside the Thames barges, Essex smacks and other native vessels, ready for departure in the spring of 2024.

Not for the first time I didn’t get away as early as I had hoped. Bad weather played its part but I was also short of crew; this was partly due to infirmity among my ancient mariners but also the longer distances to travel from more southern and westerly locations, the horrors of the M25 and the lack of a train station at Maldon. Who would help me get out of the mud?

Pub appeal

It was Maldon’s famous pub, the Queen's Head, that helped me out. Chris Torrance, a friendly fellow sailor berthed near me on the pontoons in his Essex smack Lily had already kindly offered to help me set off for Heybridge when he overheard me asking the lads at the boatyard if they could assist me.

Later we met up in the Queen's Head, and here, amidst the banter and a few pints, Dave Selby-mad about the boat in this very magazine-also offered to crew (or at least I think he did...).

By now it was late May. But I was ready to make my passage plans.

My first port of call was Heybridge Basin. It was a delight to head out into the open estuary after the shallow waters, weeds and locks of the Lee Valley the year before.