Cheers Dover

Leaving Dover was easy. Firstly because the fog finally lifted and secondly, because its a sh*t hole. I don’t mean to be unkind and I am not referring to the Marina. The Marina does exactly what it is meant to do, its just that as soon as you venture in to town in and around Market Square you start to feel scared for your wallet and pretty much everything you are standing in. Its not a nice place to be! The local council know this because they applied for funding to have the Market Square area regenerated. The funding was declined! Sorry Dover, looks like you are on your own…..

Departed Dover at 07.30 on 5th April 2017

Once out of Dover Harbour any nervousness of ships and being told off by port control were gone and with a light northerly breeze, the sails went up and we headed for Eastbourne. Now, I love sailing on the East Coast and I always will but an enormous amount of time is taken navigating around sandbanks, over the shallows and constantly keeping one eye on the depth sounder and to be fair, this in part is what makes it challenging and fun. Not on this coast! Immediately out of the harbour it was nearly 100ft deep, the sails went up and the auto pilot got switched on and it was a straight line for over 20 miles then a slight change of course to get round Dungeness and another straight line of about 20 miles to Eastbourne. Beautiful day with a lovely gentle breeze which meant I could sit on the foredeck in the sun with Max and chill out. The sails didn’t need adjusting and the auto pilot didn’t miss a beat. We were in the lock at about 15.30, the Harbour Master came aboard while the water in the lock was rising and assigned Fiesta a berth. I like Eastbourne.

The ship always seems to get messy after being at sea for a while so I was in the middle of clearing up when some hoodlum threw something at the boat. I looked outside and there was Justin, Tracey and Eddie Nurse standing on the quayside. So one penny richer (fortunately it landed on the boat and being unemployed, it went straight in my pocket) we went for a beer in the sun followed by a popadom frenzy and a curry. Lovely and good to see you all.

Leaving Dover, Max sporting his crew shirt bought by Sarah, along the way, Eastbourne lock, beer in the sun and curry house

Entrance to Eastbourne Harbour this morning