And there she wasn’t…

At about 12.30pm a cheer went up from the 50 or 60 children from Ethelbert Road Primary School who were sitting on the North Bank of Faversham Creek. They had spotted a slight movement as the Cambria lifted off the blocks. Half an hour later, after a few sticky moments as she squeezed out of her customised cocoon, and another great round of applause rang out, hooters sounded and the children’s home made flags waved frantically.

It could have been a scene from the Faversham’s ship-building heyday when half the Town flocked to the banks to watch the Sideways Launches from Pollock’s shipyard opposite Standard Quay, or crowd onto the new barges as they were launched from Goldfinches Barge Yard, which was approximately where Cambria launched today.

SB Cambria is now nearly ready for her new life in education, passing on all of the many skills she embodies.

We have put a few pictures of the event up on a new page and hope to add more later – there were a lot of people there with cameras!

Cambria has now been shepherded by the two tugs to moor on Iron Wharf behind SB Mirosa, still clad in her winter covering. Here, Cambria’s new mast, rigging and lee boards will be craned on and she will return, fully rigged out to pride of place on Standard Quay. She hopes to be out sailing soon and compete in the first match of the season on the Medway on 11th June (for a list of barge matches this year see www.sailingbargeassociation.co.uk/bargematches.html <