Kit was sorted out, a final shopping run made and all was ready by late afternoon.
I had planned for the possibility of the weather being too brisk to make anchoring downriver an attractive proposition and that was indeed the case. So we ate and had a few beers on board before retiring for an all too brief sleep.
We needed to make an early start to make the best of the tides so it was up, up and away at the ungodly hour of 4.00am. There was astonishing little wind given the forecast so we motored downriver, putting the sails up on the way. As we approached the entrance to the River Roach, the breeze finaly picked up enough to stop the noise machine.
With the tide helping us along, we wetre making a good 5 knots over the ground and as we cleared the land and got out into the Whitaker Channel the wind picked up and so did our speed.
We covered the 25 miles to the South West Sunk crossing in just over 4 hours. With the engine idling in neutral as a precsaution, we felt our way through the as yet unnamed gat through the sands and, if anything, I'd say it's deeper than it was last year.
We kept the engine idling as we crossed the Black Deep as there was a small feeder container ship coming up the channel on a collision course. As a sailing vessel (with caveats that didn't apply in this case) we were the stand on vessel but he showed no signs of altering course. If anything he was edging further to starboard and reducing our predicted CPA (closest point of approach).
I had a sneaky feeling he was shaping up to pass down Fisherman's Gat to I tried to call him on the VHF with no response. I executed a DSC call which, after a delay, was acknowledged but still no communication. As I'd guessed, he did indeed turn into the gat and we breathed again and stopped the engine, which had never been in gear.
By now, it was getting a bit too exciting for full sail although we were hitting over 7.5 knots at times.
I'd decided based on experience gained that the next time I needed to reef Pagan down, I'd drop the mizzen to see if that improved the balance of the reefed sail plain. With the first reef in the main, a moderate amount of genoa rolled away and the mizzen stowed she was much better behaved.
We had an excellent sail down to the North Foreland and on past Ramsgate. We put in a tack into the outer reached of Pegwell Bay to avoid an oncoming fishing boat and on the next "good" tack the wind started to head us and our speed began to drop off.
With only 10 miles to go to Dover and the conditions becoming tiring on top of a short night's sleep, I made the pragmatic decision to get the engine on and burn a bit of diesel to get into Dover sooner rather than later. It turned out to be a very fortunate decision.
Within an hour of making that call, the wind got up and, significantly, so did the sea state. Our speed over the ground bombed from around 5 knots to, at times, less than a knot and even with the revs piled on we were struggling to maintain 2 knots over the ground and that was with a supposedly fair tide. We had two hours before the tide would turn foul and I began to worry about not making it in time and even possibly being forced to turn tail and run back to Ramsgate.
Our cause was not helped by a yacht apparently tacking towards Dover in front of us. We eased off to let him pass ahead of us and then he prompty "tacked" and came back out again. We had to drop the engine speed to idle which, when the track data is examined, at least explains our lack of progress. With the engine idling we were going backwards at over 3 knots!
I was harbouring suspicions about the yacht in question and sure enough I spotted the give away evidence that he was actually motor sailing - there was copious quantites of water being ejected from his wet exhaust!
Blow me though if he didn't then "tack" back and aim back across our bows on a collision course so precise it could have been calculated. By now, he had barely a handkerchief of genoa showing and a scrap of mainsail. There was absolutely no way that he was making the speed he was making under sail and having been fooled once I was having none of it and stood on (as required by ColRegs for two vessels under motor in that circumstance) forcing him to duck our stern.
At that point he gave up and put his sails away!
There was a third yacht astern of both of us who had been, I guess, trying to find the best strategy for making progress under sail or motor and sail. After several zig zags, they too gave it up as a bad job. They were bigger than us and the other guy and were able to make a bit better speed so they got ahead but not by a lot.
By now, we were all struggling badly to make any progress at all. We all had the same thought - forget what the tide should be doing and get as close inshore as we dared. That made all the difference and made it to the entrance into Dover in, by now, very challenging sea conditions.
It can often be a roller coaster ride into and out of the harbour at Dover but this was the most challenging one yet. We had to cross a big sea with 2 to 3 metre short steep waves beam on to get into the harbour. To make matters worse, we had to wait, bows on into the sea with just enough power to give steerage way, for a ferry to enter before we could follow him in. It was a bit too exciting but we made it in without any damage and with remarkably little gear flying around below deck.
That was the day all over bar the beer. And we didn't go wild on the beer, having just a couple of pints (and dinner) at Cullins Yard before retiring early.
The decision had already been made that unless there was a drastic improvement in the forecast, we'd be using our rest day today in Dover instead of later in the week. It's a decision not without potentual downsides if the weather isn't as forecast over the next few days but with conditions predicted to be as bad today as they were towards the end of yesterday, we'd struggle to make Sovereign Harbour at Eastbourne, the next available port, in daylight, if indeed we made it at all.
Tomorrow looks a little better. Not a lot better but enough of an improvement to make an attempt to reach Eastbourne viable. We've also had a look at the option of crossing over to the French coast but with the tide times and the wind forecast it doesn't really work.
So we're currently hoping to clear out of Dover bright and early in the morning for what promises to be a slog, and probably a slog under motor at that, to Eastbourne. Deja bloody Vu because it's exactly what Glen and I were faced with nearly a year ago.
It'll be worth it though as it will position us nicely for an improvement, hopefully, in the weather from Wednesday onwards.
The track and key log points from yesterday ...
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