More Emblem

Its 7 am and ive been trolling through old DVD's of our trips on EMBLEM.

These pics date back to pre 2000 , I cant quite remember the exact date and I apologise for the poor qualtity as I have taken them from video .

Even though I dont remember the exact date I do remember we were following the Thames Barge Match

Steve was the owner skipper of Emblem and I was enlisted as crew along with a chap called simon. My old mukka Gary was also enlisted but due to his work committments he couldnt join us untill day 2 when we arrived at Gravesend.

mixing it with the heavies in the Thames Estuary

The following STILLS show Emblem.....as filmed by Gary approaching Gravesend Pier where we collected Gary....Gary you may remember from previous posts owned Disponibel which may feature again in future DVD finds.

Gary was an important part of our crew as we could always rely on him to film evrything and anything....the downside with taking stills from the DVD is that there is no commentary...maybe oneday ill work out how to download a portion of the dvd disc

Anyway, i digress, we had set off from chatham and berthed overnight at Queenborough, Isle of sheppy. day 2 saw us at Gravesend awaiting Gary who, due to work committments couldnt make the first day. We had a rough time he would meet us at Gravesend pier but we arrived early and in an effort to bide time we moored onto one of the ships Bouys opposite the pier. Within minutes of us securing our lines, Simon, one of our crew had his fishing line over the side with a bait of Ragworm and Squid......Suddenly, a roar of twin diesels approached and the PLA Pilot boat pulled alongside our starboard quarter......Steve, being the skipper was pushed towards them and they asked "do you have permission to moor here?".......gulp....luckily while Steve was making sorry noises my mobile rang and gary announced his arrival at the pier.

Steve duly conveyed the info to the Pilot Boat that we would vacate the Ships Bouy forthwith and they, having done their duty, put both engines into full ahead and sped off......Simons fishing rod suddenly bent alarmingly and his fishing line began to 'Run Out' very rapidly

A swift attack of the knife soon put paid to the Gravesend pilot boat taking the majority of simons line.

We manouvered alongside the Pier and picked up Gary and then set off and followed the barge race as it approached Gravesend.

It was a fantastic day with good winds and hot sun.......this however didnt help us one bit....Steve had just had Emblem re-rigged and bought some new heavy canvas sails........We spent hours faffing with them, rigging and re-rigging and eventually we had foresail and mizzen full an bye.......steve put the Gardner into neutral and.........we started to go Backwards.

Eventually the Race was won...dont ask me who by as it was a few years ago now and we repaired to Queenborough

A short Dinghy ride took us to our evenings entertainment.

Ill let the Pics do the Talking

Trying to sort out the sails

Just a few suitable knots and turns

A few Heave O's on the haliards and we're away

Next on the list was the foresail.......Im not overly happy with how young I look on these next stills :/

In awe of sailing backwards with mizzern and foresail full an bye

And finally a couple of stills of the reason we were out there in the first place....The annual Thames barge Match

Is it just me or do splitters behave like this the world over?

So, a very happy event indeed, Thames barge owners enjoyed their race and the crew of Emblem enjoyed their cruise

Skipper steve saw us safely back to Queenborough and a few jars were quaffed before hitting the sack.