Spring Tides

As we neared Dover our speed dropped again. The tide had turned. I knew the last leg would be against the tide, but I hadn't really worked it out in detail.

As we got near to the western entrance it hit us like a brick wall. There was no way we could make any decent progress to Ramsgate. We called up Port Control, dropped the sails and made for the entrance. Through the breakwaters we were doing 1 knot at full throttle. Once inside we got back up to 4.5!

As we motored gently in we discussed various options. The traditional option was to drop anchor in the outer harbour by the beach and wait for the tide. We could wait out a whole tide and get to Ramsgate during daylight or we could go in the small hours. We could do the same thing in the tidal part of the Marina. Or we could stop at Dover. Pete needed to get home by Sunday lunch time and had really had enough. The forecast said the winds would be stronger, not lighter, so our choices for continuing were a headwind over favourable tide or wind and tide against us. Two bad options.

So stopping it was. We had already missed the last train to Rye but Pete could get a train to London so I packed him off and settled down for a nice sleep. Pete made the train with 9 minutes to spare. I should have given him a cup of tea. Then he would have needed to run for it...