Summary of the trip

To follow....

3 Aug 2010 - Ramsgate to Levington

Dawn in Thames Estuary

A quiet night, even the port did not make too much noise and the keel stopped clonking when I let it down after low water. Weighed anchor and motored out of the bay at 03:55.  Not our favourite time to start, but with lights from the port, a good moon and lots of buoys it was easy enough to find the way.  Breakfast under way and then a bit of daylight made us feel a bit better.  Motoring with the tide also helps morale whereas motoring against it is just painful. 

Coming to Foulger's Gat, I expected the tide to be against us, as I had noted that direction in the next hour of the tidal atlas (Moan: why don't they put tidal arrows in Fisherman's Gat and Foulger's Gat?). However the tide continued to be with us, but the light following wind was useless so the motoring continued until near Sunk Head, where we turned across wind and tide and could at last start sailing.  We then sailed the rest of the way, a bit slowly at times, and eventually picked up our mooring.

After lunch and a bit of packing the marina let us use a berth temporarily whilst we unloaded a whole carful of stuff, winkling out bottles of wine and cider and presents for the family from odd corners. It seemed a strangely sad packing up our home for the last 2 months and going through the normally-familiar checklist for leaving the boat.

2 Aug 2010 - Dover to Ramsgate

Light forecast and not much wind when we left around lunchtime.  Pam had just bought herself (well, not quite - I had to pay as her card had just gone out of date) a fishing rod. So we decided to start fishing as soon as we left the harbour.  We continued slow motoring and she continued fishing until it was clear that getting back to Levington was not a realistic option. Eventually she caught a good sized mackerel and then continued fishing, but failed to catch another. Arriving near Ramsgate we listened to the chat from the marina on the radio and it soon became apparent that the place was crowded, just with cruising boats - I wonder what it's like in Ramsgate Week!  We decided as the forecast was for continuing light wind to anchor in the bay instead. This would also suit our planned early departure.

Tomorrow: Back to Levington even if we have to motor all the way.

Radio Waves

Have you ever stopped to think of all the different forms of radio used in a normal cruising boat?  About 30-40 years ago the radios in normal use were Radio 4 Long Wave for the shipping forecast and Seafix RDF (medium wave I think) for position fixing, for which it was awkward to use and not very effective.

How different now.  The list for our boat is:

• VHF (SSB for emergency communications and for talking to marinas etc)
• VHF FM for entertainment
• VHF reception for AIS signals
• GPS for accurate position fixing
• GSM for portable telephony
• SMS messaging, which I guess is part of GSM
• GPRS for receiving weather forecasts via mobile phone
• WiFi for computer communication (weather information, email, blogs etc)
• 3G as above
• Wireless networking between instruments (at present only the wind instrument)
• Radar for detecting ships etc

Ones which are commonly used but we do not have are:

• Navtex for weather forecasts etc
• EPIRB for distress messages
• Radio 4 long wave for shipping forecast

Pilot Books

The pilot books claim to be your companion in strange waters, giving useful navigational and pilotage information and details of shore facilities, such as restaurants, chandleries etc. However the authors cannot get to every corner of their patch each year, so the information is inevitably out of date. Some information is I think just copied out of old books unchecked. They are also worried that we might do something careless, so they issue strong warnings about dangers, both real and imagined. In such cases you have to read between the lines to see if it is safe to do anything at all!

Below are a few extracts from pilot books, together with what they really mean:

Pilot book: "Anchor beyond the moorings"
Real Meaning: "The space beyond the moorings is filled with more moorings, so you cannot anchor there"
Pilot book: "Anchor well in to the bay to stay out of the tide"
Real Meaning: "Try to find a space anywhere among all the anchored boats already there"
Pilot book: "Make good a track to place ... lighthouse bearing 110 1/2 mile and continue on this track until the first port beacon No 2 bears 215...SHOM chart 7125 is the only one to use..."
Real Meaning: "Go into the middle of the bay and then follow the beacons to the harbour"
Pilot book: "The belfry of ... church will be open just to the left [of the light tower]"
Real Meaning: "Nobody has ever seen this transit. Enter the middle of the bay and head for the harbour"
Pilot book: "...but is subjected to the Atlantic swell, strong tidal streams, steep seas and the visibility is often poor"
Real Meaning: "dozens of boats go through every day in summer, so you can do it too"
Pilot book: "...with swell and strong onshore winds against the ebb, the bar can become impassable..."
Real Meaning: "don't be stupid"
Pilot book: "The passage from ... over ... to ... is included for interest. It should on no account be attempted by visitors unless..."
Real Meaning: "I am mad"

31 July / 1 Aug 2010 - Cherbourg to Dover

Leaving cool and misty Cherbourg

Weather and forecast are definitely more of the English Channel variety rather han the warm sun of S Brittany. However the wind looked more promising for our crossing, so we motored out of the outer harbour and found enough wind to sail, with the aim of going to Eastbourne. After a while we put up the cruising chute and kept it up for ages - on a deep broad reach with SW wind. The strong tide round the Cotentin peninsula took us torwards the East at a good rate. Around 4 pm we decided the wind was a bit strong for the cruising chute and so took it down with some difficulty. Later put a reef in the main as the wind was getting to F5.

We saw a lot of sea - not much else

Just before dark we put the second reef in the main. Shortly afterwards the wind dropped off a bit and after a while we felt that the autopilot could cope again (we had stopped using it earlier in the day as it reacts a bit late to the effect of waves) so we each managed a bit of rest.

It appeared that we could get to Eastbourne very late or just carry on to Dover in the favourable tide and arrive in the morning, which seemed the better choice. We eventually ran out of wind between Beachy Head and Dungeness and motored for the rest of the way, having tide with us almost to Dover Harbour. A shame to have to motor at the end but this was more than compensated by hour after hour of fast downwind sailing for the first 3/4 of the trip. We found the AIS, even though the basic NASA model, quite useful for deciding when to avoid ships. We did one gybe to avoid a couple of ships.

Went into Granville Dock and settled down for a snooze. Fortunately the tides do not require an early start tomorrow.

Tomorrow we hope to get back home, hopefully avoiding the need to stop in Ramsgate, our least-favourite harbour of the trip.

30 July 2010 - Dielette to Cherbourg

Smooth but fast-flowing water off Cap de la Hague

Left 8:30 and made reasonable progress on a beat. We soon picked up the fast tide of the Race of Alderney (Raz Blanchard to the French) and did not take long to get carried past Cap de La Hague. The water was reasonable smooth, with swirly patches, however most of the wind was made by the tide carrying us forward. Kept checking our speed on the GPS. No records were broken, but we did a fair bit of 12 and 13 knots over the ground with a max of 14 - that suggests a maximum tidal flow of about 9 knots.

We were eventually left in choppy water with light wind and so did a bit of motoring. Looked as if we might motor all day, so headed over to Cherbourg before the tide started taking us back W again. Took the opportunity to buy food, wine etc.

Cherbourg Breakwater - time for repairs?

Tomorrow the forecasts suggest a bit more wind, so we will try again