Bumpy ride from Dover 10th August 2017

I hate it when the weather doesn't look brilliant, there are times when it's hard to make the call. Yesterday we made the call to divert to Dover, which was the right decision at the time, but ironically it passed by quickly and turned out to be a lovely evening.

We had more or less made our minds up we would be staying in Dover for more than a night. However it did look as if there was a weather window and it was only a three hour sail so we decided to go for it. This was after a full English breakfast cooked by yours truly.

As always we had to ask permission to leave the marina and enter the harbour. Dover Harbour are brilliant with yachts, they are polite on the radio and always manage to get us through despite an endless stream of ferries, cruise ships and various other boats.

Loads of work is being done at Dover at the moment so we had to be escorted through the new cut. Once in the harbour it was quite rough, which did not bode well. We got out to sea and it wasn't pleasant, in fact the sail didn't go up.

It was lumpy and bumpy and the wind was more on the nose than it should have been. Plus there was more wind than there should have been, We were definitely in a force 6, the wind was 26 knots, the forecast was up to 20 knots.

Not long out of Dover we were passed by a Spitfire as it fly along the cliffs. John heard it before we saw it as the engine sound is unmistakable. It was good to see. No photo as it was far too bouncy. It, or a second one passed us once more.

Despite the rocking and rolling the leaping up and down it didn't take as long as we thought it would, just three and a quarter hours. it was a long three and a quarter hours. I felt as if someone was just throwing buckets of salt water over me. It was also hard to see the buoys as we approached Ramsgate
the sea was that rough.  At this stage I need to say we must have our sea legs as despite an incredibly rough journey we had no seasickness tablets and the full English had remained in place.

Although not as busy as Dover, Ramsgate is quite a busy harbour and you need permission to enter. This was swiftly given and it's such a relief to be in the outer harbour. We then contacted the marina who basically gave us three pontoons and said choose a berth. It's great when that happens as you can get the one you are most comfortable getting into.

They say practise makes perfect and my throwing of the ropes to loop round the cleats has improved considerably, to such an extent that ive not jumped off the boat to moor up for the entire season.

Agin the wether gods decided to play with us and the weather decided to be glorious for a couple of days.  We still didn't make the Ramsgate War Tunnels but did walk to Broadstairs. It was the Broadstairs folk festival and there were more Morris dancers than you could shake a stick at and there were a lot of sticks been shaken. Every pub had live music and was also full. It was a really great atmosphere.

Sailing info
As before but the toilets on the pontoons were now back in action.
Staff as friendly and helpful as always.
Distance logged. - 17.2 miles
Time - 3 1/2 hours