Part Two " A trip to London and back"

Day 3 Nieuwport to Ramsgate [56sm]

Another day, another story. A beautiful day, wind force 3 to 4, sunny, air temperature 5° C, wave height 0,5m to 1m. Perfect weather for crossing the English Channel.

 

yeah,.. ski gloves at helm

We kept inside the sand banks and passed Dunkerque and then before Calais we went up to the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS). We crossed the TSS under engine and caught the tide perfectly so we dropped out of the TSS nearly in Ramsgate. 

 waiting for a gap

 At Ramsgate Marina we all celebrated the successful crossing. A Belgian doctor from our small fleet came up with a plastic bag full of wine and filled up our glasses with a smile on his face and the sentence “Trust me, I´m a doctor and that wine is intravenous””

And for dinner we managed to find a small Indian restaurant.

A perfect day…

Day 4 Ramsgate to Chatham, canceled

Indeed, the trip for the day was cancelled, as a force 7 hit the coast and so the fleet stayed in the marina. It was quite relaxing, so everybody had a chance to repair their boats or just read a good book or have a walk. 

On the VHF I heard a Mayday from a catamaran which was outside in the channel and their engine had died. An hour later we saw the Ramsgate Lifeguard towing him in.

At dinner my father and I started to have an argument about our fuel consumption and whether we still had enough. Eventually we agreed to walk to  the fuel station and get 3 canisters of diesel. Luckily we made this decision.  

Day 5 Ramsgate to  London (80sm)

Since the trip to Chatham had been cancelled, it was decided to go to London in one day.

The alarm clock went mad at 4 in the morning and we motored out of Ramsgate. There was nearly no wind.

 

Ramsgate at dawn

 The headless sailor

 And so we motored up to the Thames Estuary. Only as the sun comes up the wind picked up and we set sails and sailed up the Thames past the Guntowers, Dartford Brigde, Thames Barrier Millennium Dome, and Greenwich.

 Crossing the Meridian

The engine of one boat from our fleet, the Freedom, died on the Thames. Hank and Harry were able to give them a tow up to the Limehouse basin. As we met in the evening they told us their story. The tow line broke 2 times. As they reached the lock for the Limehouse basin they were quite exhausted. Everyone, even I, was focussed on trying to help the Freedom to get into the lock. Only my parents thought to help Hank and Harry in the lock, and out of this a friendship grew. Hank ended his story with the words “I’m getting too old for this b….” 

 Limehouse basin at night

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