Made it to Dover

Eastbourne Sovereign Harbour – Dover: 47.4 NM Year to Date: 115.8 NM Mouflon to Date: TBC Mark and Felix joined us for the journey over to Dover.

We set off fairly early, so that Mark and Felix would have time to get the train back. The idea was to get to Dover for about 4pm.

There was some friendly banter with a Dutch boat, Sisi Lais. When the skipper heard we were headed for Chatham, he told us his grandfather had had some difficulties with a chain there once.

Early on, we made good progress, two reefs in, and quickly found there would be no need to power sail. We were just under wind power for the first time on the trip.

Mark had been worried about seasickness, but it was poor Felix who succumbed. The sea was fairly choppy and she was soon not feeling well. She managed to recover but a visit to the heads set her off again and she was out of action for the rest of the trip.

By about Dungeness, though – roughly halfway – she’d picked up and was singing Beatles songs. She told us all about a book called Map Addict, which tells the story of a chap who’d discovered the bleak and forbidding Dungeness purely by looking at maps, and had been compelled to go there.

The weather was glorious, though a little cold on the first stretch, and we had a good old sail up. The wind and sea calmed down for the final stretch and everyone was feeling better, though the final stretch coming into Dover was very choppy.

Sean seems to have found his sea legs and was much more comfortable on this journey.

The currents coming into Dover are just amazing – the difference between our speed over water and ground was 3 knots, and we pointed her well into the tide to maintain our course.

Dinner was chicken curry, and Alex joined us for that. We then headed over to the pub for a right good sing song with the live band. Singing along to the Proclaimers cover was super. A lot of laughter and fooling around.