Thames Barge

Mum and I had a lovely relaxing day today, starting with coffee in our local garden centre. We then picked up some sandwiches from the nearby supermarket before heading to the River Medway at Upnor. 

There we spent the next hour or so watching the tide come in, bringing with it racing yachts , "day boats",  and including 3 Thames barges.

The main picture shows one of them heading toward Chatham Historic Dockyard, where it moored up.  The extra shows it coming into the river mouth in almost full sail.  They are apparently taking part in the 2016 Medway Barge Match run by the Thames Sailing Barge Trust.

We ended our day at the Chatham Outlet Centre next to the dockyard - which after many years finally seems to be "coming to life" with a reasonable selection of factory outlet shops, resturants and dockside living.