Sojourn to the Solent - Day 3 (Thursday)

We were up and doing not so bright and early at 04:30BST and underway as planned at 05:00

The early morning mist was a bit of a nuisance given our lack of radar but it soon burnt off and for the rest of the day vis was as clear as I can recall seeing

The wind was as forecast. Very light and from the wrong direction (regardless of our heading!). We hoisted the sails for the sake of it but they weren't doing much and it was a day off motoring

The benefits of the clean bottom and the repitched prop soon made themselves evident. We romped along with the engine lazily burbling at around 1800 to 1900 RPM and our speed over the ground rarely dropped below 7 knots.

We were probably making around five and a half knots through the water although the log was showing a knot slower. I had a feeling it was under reading and today confirmed it

At times it was a bit rolly and when the sun went in a bit chilly too but it was a pretty decent passage by any measure.

We made the run from Burnham to Dover in exactly 8 hours at an average speed of 7.125 knots! Awesome :) (and looking at the level in the tank, I reckon we used around 21l of diesel which is much better than before I repitched the prop)

That was largely due to keeping up with the tide. In fact, we only had a foul tide for about half an hour or so down the Barrow and that was only because we were getting on for two hours ahead on the passage plan at that stage

Our arrival in Dover was rather interesting due to the amount of leisure traffic trying to get in and out of the marina. But as usual port control were handling the almost continuous VHF traffic with considerable professionalism and courtesy

A minor error in berthing instructions caused a bit of grief (we were told the berth was port side to, it was starboard so all the lines and fenders had to be reset) and the allocated berth was a bit tight but we got in without any great drama.

We'd had breakfast underway and scoffed some snacks so lunch went by the board. We toddled off to Sharp and Enright to purchase a new outboard kill cord (damned if I know where the old one went) and then somehow ended up in Cullins Yard for a couple of beers

Back on board, a bit of sorting out and sitting around passed the time until it was beer-o-clock and then it was back to Cullins for more beer and grub

Tomorrow we're "doing" Dover Castle