Chapter 14
Daisy was nervous. She’d done this journey before with Theo, all the way to Heybridge and the estuary, back when he was helping her out on the September Rose. It was a memory she reflected upon with mixed emotions. Theo had still been dating his ex, but the more time Theo and Daisy spent together, the harder it became for Daisy to ignore her feelings for him. It was here, in the marina, after she’d been cleaning out the water tank, that they nearly had their first kiss. Thankfully, she’d come to her senses before that happened. Less thankfully, it took her a lot longer to realise she really did want to be with him.
But all the things that had gone wrong were behind them now and she wasn’t going to waste time thinking about their past when they had their entire future in front of them. When she passed through this lock, she would be on the River Blackwater, which would mark her first step of the voyage to sea.
Daisy shouldn’t have been worried about the locks. By the time they reached Heybridge, they’d already passed eleven and she’d managed them all on her own. But she knew this one would be different. The minute they approached it, several men and women appeared from nearby houses and pubs to help her leave the safety of the canal and head onto the far more unpredictable river.
‘Guess you’re heading to the dry dock?’ one man said as he turned the windlass on his side of the canal. The water rushed in to fill the lock. ‘What’s up with her? She looks in pretty good nick to me.’
‘Just on a little trip,’ Daisy replied. She didn’t want to get into it here, not with people who probably knew a lot more about canal boats than she did. They might well say something to put her off, and that was the last thing she wanted.
Given it was high tide, it didn’t take long for the lock to reach the level of the water, and let them out onto the open water.
‘I’ve got this,’ the same man said, gesturing to the gates. ‘You get on her. And have a good trip.’
‘Thank you,’ Daisy replied, grateful she got to be aboard the September Rose for this part of her journey. As the gates opened, she steered them away from the canal. When she was all the way into the river, she cast a quick gaze over her shoulder and offered a wave of thanks to the man who was busy closing the gates behind her.
‘Well, that’s the first part done easily enough,’ Yvonne said.
‘It was easy, wasn’t it?’ Daisy replied.
Unfortunately, the momentary relief she felt at having made it off the canal so easily was followed by a sudden flood of adrenaline.
‘There are so many sailing boats,’ she said, the observation leaving her half aghast. ‘Has everyone in Maldon got a boat?’
Before that moment, Daisy had only been vaguely aware that sailing was a popular pastime on the Essex coast. After all, she had grown up farther inland, and it wasn’t like these types of vessels came up the canal to Wildflower Lock.
As the September Rose trundled out onto the river, Daisy was mesmerised by the sea of white sails drifting above the water. In every direction, she saw vessels of all shapes and sizes, their sails taut from the wind as they weaved one way and another across the river. Families, individuals. Boats that looked almost as long as the September Rose and others that could barely fit three people aboard.
‘Well, it’s the holidays,’ Yvonne said. There was clearly a touch of disdain in her voice. ‘That’s what it’s like now. Oh, it used to wind Harry up proper. Not that he couldn’t sail himself, mind. No, he was a wonderful sailor. One of those types, you know, could do anything once he’d been shown how. Now, you don’t want to go too close to the bank. It’s pretty shallow there.’
Daisy kept hold of the tiller, noting Yvonne’s every slight movement. She was certainly a skilled boatman, and thankfully, the river was wide, providing plenty of room for the boats to pass. The further they travelled, the fewer and fewer of them there were.
Gradually, she settled back into a rhythm, her body relaxing onto the back of the stern. How was it she’d never taken the boat on the river like this before? she thought, as she watched the seagulls swoop in the skies. It was so different from the canal. From the view to the wind, and even the smell of salty brininess that filled the air.
As they continued on, she and Yvonne fell into an easy silence. Now and then, one of them would point out a particular bird, or something on the shoreline that the other might not have seen, but mostly they just took their time enjoying the peace and tranquillity. Little by little, the river was getting wider.
‘You don’t mind if I head inside and close my eyes for half an hour, do you?’ Yvonne asked, just after they had spotted a heron diving into the water and emerging with a fish in his beak. ‘All those locks this morning seem to have taken it out of me.’
‘No, of course not,’ Daisy replied with just a hint of nervousness in her voice. She hadn’t been expecting Yvonne to leave her on her own quite so soon after heading onto the river, but it was quiet, and there didn’t seem to be much trouble she could get herself into. Besides, like Yvonne had said, Daisy was the skipper; it was her boat.
For over an hour, Daisy did nothing but look around her as she steered around the occasional boat that still whipped down the river. The buildings were becoming sparser and flat expanses of marshland spread out on either side of them. She glanced at her watch to see how long they’d been going, then looked out in front of her to find nothing but water.
‘Yvonne!’ she called loudly into the boat. ‘Yvonne, I think we’re nearly there.’
It took a couple more minutes before Yvonne appeared, her eyeliner and make-up smudged ever so slightly from the pillows.
‘I think we must be getting close to the mouth now,’ Daisy said, her voice now trembling from the enormity of what she was about to do.
Yvonne’s hand covered her mouth as she let out a small yawn. ‘You’re right. We got here quicker than I thought. Good news is we’ve got a perfect day for it. Barely a wave on the sea.’