Up in the Air
At a cruising speed and altitude of 90 knots and 5,000 feet, the Brisfit quickly covered the offshore leg of its journey. Thames estuary and river mouth a dark mass to the left, Mersey Is. below. Off to their right lay the North Sea. The overcast thinned a bit, letting in the early spring sunshine.
They turned right, following along the coast to the northeast. Soon, they were over Walton-on-Naze and the headland of the Naze itself, near where the
al Misr Estate was located. The Naze (headland, in Old English:
naes or literally "nose") was a slowly-eroding headland jutting out into the North Sea. On the heights of the peninsula an octagonal dark brick tower rose, placed there in 1720 to assist in navigation.
Beyond the Naze was a protected estuary called "Hamford Water", and somewhere in this marshland, approximately 5 miles southwest of Harwich was the
al Misr Estate. Formerly belonging to Sir Aubrey Penhew, since passed on to Edward Gavigan via probate. Knowing where the estate was on the map was one thing, finding it on the ground was another. The estate had 2 components: a vast walled-in tract of rich farmland either rented out or left to go fallow, and the mansion itself set on an island on the south side of the estuary separated from land by a slough and reedy marshes.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:55, Tue 03 Jan 2012.