Back online again.

14th September

There is no internet connection here. I have a chance to finish a couple of long posts that I started a while back and will feed them through as and when.

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We are on the east coast – in a cottage looking down onto Southwold beach. We fall sleep to the sound of waves breaking on sand and wake to the sun rising out of the sea – well, we would do if the cloud hadn’t followed us from the Wescountry.

The lows that have affected the west all summer have given way to high pressure, causing a layer of cloud over this part of the coast and a very bracing north easterly. It does look better this morning, patches of blue sky, the sun spilling intermittently on the water and the wind lighter.

Yesterday, a blue yacht about the same size as Blue Mistress motored up the coast, pitching into the seas, a lone figure at the helm, mainsail ready. I guess he had the tide but it looked a long hard slog into the wind.

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Ships off Southwold 2009

The horizon here is full of ships. At night their lights spread into the distance – twenty four vessels at the last count.

This is a sure sign of the recession.

We have come all this way to see exactly what we see each night off Teignmouth. There are twelve vessels there, moored closer inshore.

The last time this happened was in the early nineties.

When the ships disappear, then we will know the recession is almost over – but not until.