Cinque

I've sailed into Brightlingsea a couple of times but have never driven there. I decided to go today to see the traditional Blessing And Reclaiming Of The Waters.  Dignitaries of the Cinque Ports and civic officials in their regalia attend a brief religious service. Following the Blessing, the dignitaries take to the water to lead the Smack Flotilla procession along the Brightlingsea Creek, past the Hard to West Ness for Reclaiming the Waters which asserts the rights of the people of Brightlingsea to use the waters in their Liberty, in a traditional boundary-marking custom akin to Beating the Bounds on land. The origins of this lie in a historic dispute of the local oystermen with those from Colchester over the position of West Ness and while this is no longer an issue today, the colourful custom is kept alive as part of the town’s maritime heritage. As I was watching the service I heard a couple of old boys saying that in the past nearly all the local inhabitants would have been connected to the sea. Brightlingsea is a Limb of Sandwich. This is the first time I've heard of its Cinque port connection.

My pic shows an Essex family watching the Thames sailing barge Edme, which was built in 1898, progressing towards West Ness after being blessed by the bishop of Colchester. 

Today's poem is The Glass by Edwin Morgan. http://theswisslounge.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/edwin-morgan.html

This was written about a much-loved person who had died twenty years previously. "A dead person can be both virtual and real" EM says.