Time’s tides respect no men

Invariably at tide time I have watched a small tan-sailed boat sail around the Thames Estuary’s first leg in from the North Sea, Sea Reach. For many years I wondered who this intrepid sailor was as the little boat could be seen even on days in mid-winter when most craft were laid up.

Then, one day, I watched her sail close in to, and later I got to know her owner, Nick Ardley, who I realised I knew from the pages of , where he often writes about his ditch-crawling adventures with his wife Christobel.