Blazing sun and Beachy Head

Dover harbour, castle on hill

Big contrast to last year's hairy chillsome sailing - hot weather and no wind! Leaving Dover, we motor-sailed into a mill-pond, and conditions got hotter as the day progressed.


There was early mist and haze which hid the grey bulk of Dungeness nuclear power station
 until we were close by.

Lesley saw two fins about 300m behind us for a couple of minutes - we can't say what they were.

We were heading for Eastbourne but as we neared the town, with tide flowing in our favour, we realised the tide & weather were right to keep on going all the way to Brighton. 

Beachy Head

These were ideal conditions to round Beachy Head, which is tricky in rough weather. So we ventured in pretty close for a superb view of the towering cliffs.

Kept chugging down the coast on the 10-metre depth contour, until we arrived in Brighton after 11 hours and 65 miles, jockeying with legions of Sunday sailors in huge shiny yachts and even huger motorboats which sounded their air-horns just for fun.




We rarely sit about and drink alcohol (no time) but today we lounged in the cockpit with whisky and Campari to celebrate a long leg. Down the hatch.







    

   

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)