5 - 7 May - belated update..

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.