The beach at East Mersea Stone on the East end of Mersea Island, Essex

hsc stone

The three boats are the author's boat and the two HSC Wayfarers. Note tent on author's boat. This is perhaps our most popular destination for a short dinghy cruise from Paglesham. The beach is sand and shingle, not mud like most of Essex. In good weather it is a comfortable day's sail from Paglesham.

The big boat with the brown sails is of course a traditional Thames Sailing Barge.

stone point

Another picture of stone point showing how steep is the shingle bank where it is washed clean by the fast flowing tide. The green boat in the background is 'Mehala', the first boat owned by the HSC but no longer in our fleet.

 

stone point 01

And this picture taken 2005 shows the website editor discovering that the mud is soft if you stray too far from the firm shingle bank. I had several spectators but no rescuers!