Ramsgate to Brighton......

Ferry dodging

Yesterday was another long day, but I wanted to get as far as possible whilst the weather was fair, as heavy rain was forecast for later on.

All sails up

I am sitting in Brighton Marina now writing this and already Ramsgate seems like a distant memory - that’s caused by either my age or the cleansing affect of a long day at sea and the fresh air.
In the morning, conditions were good enough to sail and I had all three sails up and the engine off for the first time - which is a great feeling and is what sailing is all about.

As I passed Dover, all of a sudden the sea became very busy and I had to do a bit of ferry dodging, even though I had right of way (sail over power), but because of the RORO’s lack of manoeuvrability it was down to me to prevent a collision......especially important as I know Brown Eyes would not stand a chance against something that wouldn’t even notice us if we collided!

Not the best view of a ferry coming out of Dover

The afternoon was not so good, the sky darkened, the wind dropped and we had to revert to the horsepower of Volvo to push on......which we did.

The day's route

Some great views along the route...

and several other boats.....

A junk-rig yacht

Arriving at Brighton Marina about 2030hrs I found all the visitor berths full, so pushed a little further into the marina to find a space. My depth indicator soon dropped to zero and I felt Brown Eye’s bottom scrape the mud! Quickly going into reverse I managed to pull clear and changed direction......eventually finding a berth on an old pontoon that had seen better days, but it was a welcome, secure resting place after covering more than 70 miles that day.

A visitor at Brighton

I later found out that although normally dredged to 2m, the marina is only 0.8m at the moment, hence the grounding - evidently they are waiting for the summer to arrive before dredging!

A day off today, a chance to do some jobs on Brown Eyes and to check my running legs are still working.....they are!