HOME WATERS RECAPTURING AN EAST COAST CHILDHOOD
I’ve never seen Iken Church from the water,’ Paul Mullings wrote in an email, long before he arrived from down-under for an English summer away from a New Zealand winter. I gave him a slot with favourable tides to enter the Rivers Ore and Alde and it was booked into Whimbrel’s family summer sailing calendar. Paul is a seasoned sailor, downsizing to a Farr trailer-sailer. He’s part of an active group around New Zealand’s North Island. Essex born, he reappears now and then. On his last visit in 2017 he caressed the time worn stem of the famous spritsail racer, Veronica, in her marshland grave at Bedlams Bottom, Stangate Creek, and sailed the Medway’s inner passages. This voyage would be far more adventurous and weather dependent.
On a glorious Friday morning, late August, Paul’s lovely wife Shona delivered him to Bradwell. After coffee and chat, the girls departed just
