Downstream

sandbank off Thorpe Bay,
part of a temporary harbour
intended to be used in the
Normandy landings following
D-Day. But it sprang a leak
and was brought into the
Thames Estuary and allowed
to sink. ‘It’s visible from the
shore and so I wanted to
swim to it,’ says Wouter, who
has now done the route twice,
along with others. ‘We notify
the coastguard, saying when
we are going and where and