Given that we'd has a long and tiring day yesterday and that the forecast suggested the weather would be fairly taxing, we decided to make a short hop down the coast to Dover today.
With F4/5 forecast from the NW and the evidence of our own senses telling us it was fairly breezy, we put a reef in the main before departure.
We left Ramsgate just past eleven to catch a fair tide down the channel. Following the example of a couple of other yachts ahead of us, we circles round in the outer harbour to hoist the main before heading out between the breakwaters.
It was fairly bouncy in the harbour entrance but settled down a bit once properly outside. We headed west on a course to clear the shoals making cracking time with the genoa and main both pulling.
However it was hard work at the helm keeping both sails filled without coming too far off course and after a while we furled the genoa and made life much easier sailing under main alone. We lost getting in for a knot off boat speed but with a fair tide we were still bowling among at over 5 knots over the ground.
In no time at all we were on the VHF asking for permission to enter port. Dropping the main just off the harbour entrance was a bit of a muddled exercise due to bad management mainly but we got it sorted out quite quickly and without any harm done
We ducked into the eastern entrance as instructed behind a departing ferry and scuttled across the outer harbour into the tidal inner harbour where the fish are more our size!
Moored up, we wandered along the sea front ending up in the seafood restaurant above the water sports centre for, well either a late lunch or an early dinner.
After generally lazing around and doing some odd chores, Rik and I went to Cullins Yard for a couple of beers. Interesting place!
Tomorrow we head on westward and see where we get
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