A Cold Winter's Row

On a cold winter’s day, I decided to row out into the entrance of the River Blackwater on the Essex Coast.

I was dressed well to keep warm.

As I left the Bradwell Marina, I passed some yachts on their moorings, including a Lawrence Giles Peter Duck yacht, the original having been designed for Arthur Ransome.

I was then out into the estuary, looking upstream to where a light vessel was moored.

Just over a millennium ago, between two and four thousand Viking raiders sailed through this stretch of water, reaching Maldon and doing battle with Saxon Warriors, pitching their arrows and spears against the Saxon’s mighty shield walls.

I could imagine how the Vikings arrived in relatively small boats, with perhaps an east wind blowing them gently up the estuary.

Looking out to sea and on my starboard bow was the Bradwell Nuclear Power Station.

Close by on the bank a family were walking their two dogs.

As the afternoon wore on, it was getting very cold and I turned back.

A golden and then deep orange sky awaited me as the sun dropped to the horizon.