Dover – Ramsgate: 28.5 NM Year to Date: 144.3 NM Mouflon to Date: TBC We awoke with sore heads but had a very pleasant short sail around the southeastern-most point of England.
It was a bit cloudy and overcast as we headed out of Dover this morning, but despite hangovers that did nothing to dampen the spirits of Mouflon’s intrepid crew.
The wind was kind to us, starting on a broad reach, then a beam reach and finally close hauled as we came around the low water of Goodwin Sands.
At one point, Mouflon was right over and Alex suggested putting a reef in (he really was struggling with the hangover). We couldn’t manage to get the luff of the sail tight, though, and when I went up to have a look it was clear the first reefing line had snapped free of the mast – there’s normally a metal ring strapped to the mast and this had broken free.
We dropped down to two reefs instead for the rest for the rest of the journey; I’ll take a look at fixing reef 1 when I get chance in Chatham.
The last stretch motoring in was a bit of a fight against the tide. We arrived in Ramsgate just after 5pm. Fish and Chips and then down the pub.
In the pub, Alex and I pored ov just a couple of pints that night, we hauled back to the boat for an early night.
It was a bit cloudy and overcast as we headed out of Dover this morning, but despite hangovers that did nothing to dampen the spirits of Mouflon’s intrepid crew.
The wind was kind to us, starting on a broad reach, then a beam reach and finally close hauled as we came around the low water of Goodwin Sands.
At one point, Mouflon was right over and Alex suggested putting a reef in (he really was struggling with the hangover). We couldn’t manage to get the luff of the sail tight, though, and when I went up to have a look it was clear the first reefing line had snapped free of the mast – there’s normally a metal ring strapped to the mast and this had broken free.
We dropped down to two reefs instead for the rest for the rest of the journey; I’ll take a look at fixing reef 1 when I get chance in Chatham.
The last stretch motoring in was a bit of a fight against the tide. We arrived in Ramsgate just after 5pm. Fish and Chips and just a couple of pints later, we hauled back to the boat for an early night.
It was a bit cloudy and overcast as we headed out of Dover this morning, but despite hangovers that did nothing to dampen the spirits of Mouflon’s intrepid crew.
The wind was kind to us, starting on a broad reach, then a beam reach and finally close hauled as we came around the low water of Goodwin Sands.
At one point, Mouflon was right over and Alex suggested putting a reef in (he really was struggling with the hangover). We couldn’t manage to get the luff of the sail tight, though, and when I went up to have a look it was clear the first reefing line had snapped free of the mast – there’s normally a metal ring strapped to the mast and this had broken free.
We dropped down to two reefs instead for the rest for the rest of the journey; I’ll take a look at fixing reef 1 when I get chance in Chatham.
The last stretch motoring in was a bit of a fight against the tide. We arrived in Ramsgate just after 5pm.
Fish and Chips and diwn the pub.
The Red Lion was getting ready for a lively Easter Sunday night of arguments over match results and spillt pints. We sat in a corner and pored over the little charts on the iPhone. About 10 hours, we reckoned. Tide against us for most of the morning, we decided we’d keep as close as possible to the shore.
We had a good old chat but everyone was keen for an early start to get us home at a decent hour. Just a couple of pints later, we hauled back to the boat for some well earned rest.
Wow, you ended up a long way East – was that because of the tide?
Glad you managed to do it on schedule. Nice photos
No, there is actually a sandbank. We had plenty of time so went around. As luck would have it, it meant we dodged a big nasty raincloud too
Oh, yes, we had an excellent ship's photographer. She might even make competent crew some day.