Ramsgate to West Mersea

I've been watching the wind forecast for Ramsgate and Brightlingsea for weeks now. Every few hours it looks different. Last weekend there was a clear window on Friday but we got stuck in Dover when the swing bridge broke, locking us in to the Wellington harbour. This week has looked Ok all week but Alison had hospital appointments and work and I had work. By Thursday, Friday was looking calm with light westerly and southwesterly winds, Saturday had strong southwesterly winds and Sunday was calm again. Calm was what I wanted as we would be using Alex as an extra hand and boats are not his thing. We drove to Ramsgate and fitted a new main sheet cleat and left at 11 when they opened the gate and bridge.

There was a strong smell of diesel when we got to the boat, most unusual, but the engine started without problems.

It started lovely. Just as predicted. By Fishermans Gat it was raining and the wind got up but the sea state was still only slight. By the time we got through the Spitway the sun was out again and we had a lovely evening.

We aimed straight from the Wallet Spitway buoy towards the Nass beacon. On the plotter at most zoom levels, this looks OK, but there is a little ridge just south of the Eagle and it caught me out. I was chatting with Alex and not keeping a good enough lookout. Suddenly the sea was breaking in front of me and before I could do anything we were bumping along the sand. We headed north and got off without too much trouble but it really is worth pointing at North West Knoll.

We got to West Mersea bang on low water so we picked up a buoy in the quarters and had dinner and then motored up to our buoy at 10:30. Home at last.