Thames sailing barge and Essex coast

This old lady was going our way and made a pretty good point to steer by all the way from Harwich back towards Heybridge. Early in the day she was over 3 miles ahead and downwind there wasn't a lot we could do but as the course changed and the run turned into a reach we overhauled her. Eventually she had to start tacking and then it was game over. We were on our mooring about 40 minutes before she came past.
This picture was off West Mersea where we passed her - restorations have been going on apace in the last 20 years and sometimes you can see 6 or 8 of these in a day.
Lovely sight, and if it had been force 5-6 and a broad reach we wouldn't have been able to get a sniff of her, let alone catch her.