Speedwell of Rhu Ship's Log

23 rd of August 2012 - Dover

Thursday 23rd August

Fortunately the tides weren't in our favour until 1100 so we could have a restful morning before locking out of the harbour. We could also wait for a bit of tidal height, as last time we had exited Eastbourne on springs we had bumped the bottom in the channel on the way out. There was already a little yellow boat waiting for the lock before we had slipped. This time, the wreck in the entrance was visible again but we had a minimum of 1 metre under the keel all the way out.

Once our mizzen and main were up we realised it was another cruising chute day so up it went. The little yellow boat had it's spinaker up soon after. Another yacht, Swift, that had just come round Beachy Head, also put her cruising chute up, so we all sailed across to Dungeness with colourful sails! It felt like the summer was finally here. We could explore parts of the boat whilst underway without getting cold and we wore only T-shirts all day!

As the wind dropped around Dungeness, the little yellow boat caught us up and entered the western entrance of Dover before us, on the red light. We, like well behaved children, waited for permission from Dover Port Control, Fairly sensible, given the amount of high speed traffic that passes through Dover. We found an easy berth in Granville Dock and managed to catch up briefly with the crew of Swift, who had arrived half an hour before us. They were also on route for the River Orwell.

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