5 May 2012
Having examined the 5 day weather forecast after a couple of
days in Ramsgate I retired to Chepstow.
The weather was so bad (and predicted to be as bad for some days) that
it just didn’t make sense to stay there.
In the end I didn’t returns until the 3 May when it looked
as though there was a window to take the next step in the journey. The initial plan was to go directly
from Ramsgate to the Royal Sovereign Marina at Eastbourne. This would have been a 14 hour trek and
when I looked at the forecast it was clear that I probably only had 50% of that
before the next Force 5 to 7 arrived. So Dover it was!
All I can say was the wind was what was predicted and, after
a leisurely start I had a gentle sail to Dover.
Going into Dover you have to go to a holding area and wait
for the Harbour Master to give permission for you to come in. It is claimed to be the busiest harbour
in the UK and I can well believe it with all the ferries going into Europe. I
was fortunate I went straight in, sliding between incoming and outgoing ferry
times and round to the marina.
Everybody was very professional and helpful which made my life easy.
The town centre of Dover seems to have been isolated by
roads built around the town to connect the ferries to the major roads leading
to London et al. Unlike Ramsgate
which did have a lot of old houses and little streets which gave it some charm,
Dover is quite small and seemed almost forgotten. While I didn’t spend a huge amount of time there I did walk
the length of the main street and it seemed quite neglected. The roads obviously isolate this bit
from the greater Dover area and it seems to be the haunt of the ‘teens’ – no
decent pubs! Thank God for
Wetherspoons! There are probably very nice areas up by the Castle but that was some
distance from the marina so I din’t get there.
7 May 2012
The weather forecast was excellent light wind to blow me to
Eastbourne. The only problem was
that there is a Tidal Gate at Dungeness and, according to Murphy’s Law; this
would entail an early start. However even I was surprised at the time I would have to
leave; in order to lock out I would leave at 4am. Unlike Stuart and Seamus (he introduced me to sailing) I take
some time to get set up so I arose at the unearthly hour of 2am.
At 4:15 I left the marina and asked to leave Dover. I sneaked out the Eastern entrance and off
I went. There was no wind but the
sky was clear and dawn was a threat in the East. As I cleared the breakwater the sea was just about ruffled
by a breeze but when I hauled out the foresail (the wind was virtually astern
of me) and turned the engine off the speed dropped to between 1 and 2 knots –
insufficient to make Dungeness before the tide turned against me. The only solution was to put the engine
back on at lower than normal revs and see what the result was. 4 knots from the
engine with 2 from the tide and another 2 from the sail – suddenly I was doing
8 knots.
Zoomed round Dungeness in short order – well before the tide
turned and to make the whole trip more enjoyable the wind increased and I could
turn the engine off and sail to the Royal Sovereign Marina at Eastbourne (which
is about 3 miles from the town of Eastbourne)
The Marina is purpose built with a wide range of expensive
houses and flats. You enter it
through a dredged channel up to the locks (note the plural!) that let you into
the actual marina. It is just
stuck on the coast between Dover and Brighton with its own shops (Boots, ASD, restaurants
and bars etc.) but no pubs that I could find. Tom Cunliffe feels that when
going west it is sensible to stop there to ensure the tides are right for your
passage. Certainly for the single
handed sailor it is a logical stop.
It is only as I got into the lock that things started to go
wrong. It already had a couple of
commercial fishing boats in and I was last in on the Starboard side (it was
large enough to put big boats side by side!) and as I came slowly up to the
pontoon I climbed up onto the deck, my leg slipped and I pulled all the
ligaments behind my knee.
Fortunately a couple of the other boats saw it happen and people leapt
to my assistance and one actually came round with to help me moor.
Next day I could only just walk so I decided not to go to
Brighton even though the weather was perfect. I did, however, hobble to ASDA and Boots to get IBUPROFEN
and food.
