The Mersey Marina
11- 45 a.m.
April 17th
Charlie Cobb made the mouth of the Mersey, a little before lunch time. The call to Mersey Radio on VHF channel 12 had him waiting for river traffic then crawling past the Liver Buildings; he thought of the legend of the birds keeping watch, one out to sea and one inland. He wondered who else was watching. He passed the Albert Dock and cleared the Brunswick Lock making the Marina with some struggles, especially with banks and tides.
The berth had been pre-booked in a different name to Jake Howard and Cobb had to make sure that he got out the right set of fake documents. He cleared the paperwork easily when the young watch man came out to the boat to greet him. The young watch man was incurious and keen to be indoors out of the niggling April drizzle.
Cobb noted the CCTV camera on a pole in the centre of the marina and decided the controls would be in the marina office. He opened his rucksack took out a tube of superglue and popped it into his pocket with the lid off. He wrapped a scarf around his face and pulled his hood up and thanked the weather for the excuse of muffling is face.
Covering his head with a hood and his face with a scarf he walked quickly to the office, passing through the punch key gate. In the office it was dry and bright. Cobb looked around the room. There was a chart cabinet dead opposite a desk where two screens showed the images of two cameras. He noted that they turned when needed by way of a lever control. One watched the boats and the other watched the approach and office. Cobb didn’t want his presence recorded. Cobb noted that he could see the office behind the desk in the reflection of the window.
“You haven’t got a lower west coast chart I could have a look at have you?”
“You haven’t got one?”
“Unscheduled stop I’m afraid. I wasn’t going to go that far south, but I’m not sure yet”
“I’ve got one you can look at, but don’t take it away.”
The young watch man went to a filing cabinet. The moment his back was turned, Cobb moved the approach camera away from the office then moved the marina waters camera away from his boat to the other side of the marina. He took the super glue from his pocket and squeezed it into the ball socket and turned just in time, popping the glue quickly back in his coat pocket.
The young watch man put the chart on a nearby pin board as he did so Cobb glanced back at the control to see if the glue was visible or if he had left a trace from squeezing it into the gap. There was a bare trace, but nothing significant or noticeable. He made a show of looking at the map and noted some features. He liked the idea of Bristol as an entry to land if he went further by boat.
He thanked the watch man and walked back to his boat sure in the knowledge that the cameras wouldn’t record his presence there. He didn’t know how vital for his continued journey it was. He had sought to prevent a record of his presence, not knowing that the cameras were being watched by people close by.
Deciding not to go out Charlie settled exhausted into a bunk after cooking a well earned and heartily greasy fry up. He lay on his bunk smoking a lucky. The trip hadn’t been easy, but to his mind it had kept him away from people. He wasn’t sure whether to take the little boat further down the coast. If he did do that he’d have to be out of the Marina by five latest and there was a narrow window on the tide directions. He decided to get some sleep first and look at the charts and tides on waking. He dug in his bag and set a small digital alarm for three-thirty pm. It was warm and humid in the cabin from the cooking and Charlie slumped into a deep sleep, the memory of the cold Atlantic water and the dark land looming in his dreams.