The finishing straight

 On Monday morning Roger, Georgina and I left the Suffolk yacht Harbour for Ramsgate. It was a fascinating navigational challenge. Crossing the Thames Estuary is a maze of sandbanks and wind farms. A fellow sailor helped us by showing us a route from a book called ‘Crossing the Thames Estuary’ and Georgina put all the waypoints on our Raymarine so we were able to be much more daring than we would otherwise have been. The tide was in our favour (not just luck!) and we arrived in Ramsgate in good time. 




As we approached Ramsgate we heard a ‘pan pan’ (distress call) from Moon River. Moon River is one of our fleet, helmed by an indomitable woman called Barbara.  We were worried and hoped she was ok. We were reassured that the life boat went out to her. She was waiting for us in the marina and told us her tiller had broken and she had lost all steerage - we were pleased to offer a much needed cup of tea and Ricks, a fellow single handed, brought the biscuits. 

Yesterday was our 52nd wedding anniversary (yes I know, how have we put up with each other for so long?) and we had a really lovely meal with Georgina at an Italian restaurant below the yacht club in Ramsgate - one to remember. 

The weather forecast for today was for a Force 6 in the afternoon. We do not like Force 6s. We decided to set off with the tide for Dover, which is only 16 miles from Ramsgate, aiming to arrive by lunchtime. The plan just about worked, but the wind really was getting up in the last half hour and the sea was getting quite choppy. Coming into Dover is a bit intimidating. There is a lot of ferry traffic and they are quite big beside our boat. But Dover VTS handle it like traffic controllers. You have to radio in and they tell you which entrance to take and when it is safe to go. Once in the harbour you contact the marina and they give you your berth information. It all happens quite quickly.  Georgina took us into the harbour and our berth with aplomb. 


Tomorrow, weather permitting, we are aiming to get to Eastbourne. Once again, fingers crossed. 


Levington to Ramsgate         44.5 nms

Ramsgate to Dover        16 nms

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