The Tall Ships heading out to sea from Sharpness

Having followed, and blipped, the journeys of several of the Tall Ships going to the eponymous Festival in Gloucester Docks last weekend, I attempted to discover when they would be returning to the sea. There are a couple of online maritime vessel tracking sites, but these sailing boats seem not to have transponders switched on at all times. To be honest I’m rather pleased that they are sometimes off the grid. 

I even rang the harbour master’s office at Sharpness Docks where they would have to pass through to transition from the inland canal to the ocean waves. I actually spoke to the pilot’s office which would supply the pilots for the boats to travel down the Severn’s estuary to reach the Bristol Channel. These are quite treacherous waters with very distinct and quite narrow channels between constantly shifting sand banks. 

Having ascertained that at least two, and possibly three, of the five sailing vessels would be leaving at the high tide from Sharpness Docks I decided to drive there, and before leaving sent a message to Incredibish (this link is to his blip of a quite different view of the scene) who lives quite close to these docks, and whom I thought would be interested to see them. They only come to this area every few years so it is worth making an effort.

I was late arriving but my estimation of the departure time was rather premature. I found Incredibish already in situ looking at the boats waiting on the canal inside the docks. We thus had plenty of time to chat and catch up on life whether personal, local or global. Quite a crowd had gathered, with a lot of young children and their families. When the lock gates finally opened the first vessel quickly motored out of the lock through theouter harbour and out to the sea. they would be catching the ebbing tide and despite the strong winds none had their sails set, which was a pity from a visual point of view.

We both rushed to see them clear the staging at the harbour entrance and I decided to concentrate on them as they ventured south towards the two Severn Bridges carrying the motorways between England Wales. You can see the sun illuminating the huge constructions that hold the suspension bridges wires.

The first boat in the main Blip is ’S/V Spirit of Falmouth’, followed by 'S-V Irene' and then 'S-V Grayhound' which are both added as ‘Extras’.

The day had started brightly but by the time the high tide was finished and they left the docks the gloomy weather had set in. I found it quite hard to expose the images, given the distances involved and the changing light.