Ramsgate to Dover

Up late and slowly, just because we could - can't leave until after HW at 1330 due to the tide flows.  Did the passage planning for today to Dover, and tomorrow's leg on to Eastbourne.  Huge thought required about when is the best time to pass headlands due to the tides, and then working back with estimated speeds per hour (as the tide changes) to find the optimal time to leave.

Had a pleasant lunch at a boaty (not touristy) quayside cafe behind the the marina, a surgical strike into Wilkinsons for some tupperware, then we made tomorrow's lunches because it will be a very early start - how organised are we!  Leaving Ramsgate was much easier at half tide, had a decent bit of water under the keel.

Same wind as yesterday i.e. light and on the nose-ish.  Put the mainsail up anyway, and as yesterday hoisted our motoring cone - whilst most yachts don't bother, it seems a good idea when we are around a lot of commercial and port authority shipping.  Motor-sailed the direct route close-in past South Foreland and to a point about 2nm off Dover.  Saw 5 ferries criss-crossing before we got there, but no need to alter course.  Doused the sail - by now it was 1830 and flat calm - and called up Dover Port Control for permission to approach the harbour - they are very strict about that.  Through the western entrance and straight into the marina's tidal basin with no problem.  Dover Harbour is huge, it has its own tidal streams (yes, I know, we go on about tides a lot :-) 

So another lovely calm, stress-free day that went according to plan ... until we arrived at the pontoon.  Sirena IV is immaculately behaved out at sea, she steers herself on a steady course when motor-sailing so that we only need to touch the wheel occasionally.  Yet put a line onto a pontoon and she starts swinging around and charging backwards and forwards - well, she wasn't designed for marinas (they didn't have them back in the early 70s)