26 Sep 06 - 28 Sep 06 - Dover

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26 Sep 06

We arrived much earlier in Dover than expected. We clocked 9.6 knots over the ground without changing the revs on the engine or adding sails. Hence we got a serious current with us and was lucky to still go around 5.5 knots when the current was against us.

At start from Dart Marina, we got hit quite hard with swells, jumping up and down for an hour or so. After that the sea became very calm and most of the time we didnt have any wind either.

Traffic wise, there were surprisingly little traffic in the area we sailed in. Out in the shipping lanes, lots of ships were sailing, but in the coastal zone, we didnt see much traffic. About 2 hours before reaching Dover, we did however have an incident. I had for some time seen an unclassified light a good distance from us. It certainly was some sort of ship, but due to the amount of white light from it, it was impossible to see any navigation lights or identifying lights. Its not the first time we have seen such light, and in all other cases, the lights were from the aft of cargo ships as they usually have lots of lights turned on for their staircases etc around their living quarters. Being an aft light, it obviously meant that unless the ship were at anchor (which it wasnt, as there werent any anchorlight to be seen - anchorlights are also white, but placed in such places that they usually are easy to see), it had to be going away from us.

I kept an eye out for it, and checked the bearing to it from time to time to determine if the vessel potentially could colide with ours at some point. The bearing at some points changed, and at others not.

The intensity of the lights however increased slowly, which surely indicated that we were getting closer to each other, why I was at constant watch. Suddenly I was able to see navigation and identification lights (and the contours of the ship in the night). It was a trawler heading straight for us, and only being about 200 meters away. The green/white top light (identification light) and the red or green navigation lights had been completely blocked out by all the other white light they had turned on on the ship until it came close enough to seperate out the different lights from eachother.

We had to react very fast, as we had to get out of the way of the trawler. Full speed ahead turning about 45 degrees to starboard, getting out of its path.

When we passed it we could see that it surely had its trawl out, and thus had to keep clear of it for some time. Incident was over.

We arrived at the western harbour entrance at Dover at about 4am in the morning, called in on VHF CH 80 which is Dover Marina, and then again at VHF CH 74 which is Dover port control. Its not allowed to enter Dover port until a clearance have been given by the port control. That is to avoid collisions with the high speed hover crafts constantly flying in and out during daytime, and all the other ships, ferries etc. entering and leaving Dover.

Dover Marina found a place for us in the Wellington part of the marina which is as far in as you can get into the marina.

Its quite spooky to try to navigate into the marina at nighttime. The entrance is quite narrow, and we had to cross a swing bridge which were opened for us. Fortunately we got pilot assistance most of the way. We moored at hammer head H ('hammer head' because the floating pontoons looks like a T shape).

Esmeralda had to jump to the pontoon to receive the mooring lines while I slowly got the ship in place. She is getting quite cool in handling ships now :)

We got some wellneeded sleep. I got out of bed around 11 am Danish time (10am UK time), and noticed that the dingy was full of water. Due to its is inflated, it still floated though. At first I though it had to be swells getting in over it, and started to empty it... until I discovered that it refilled as fast as I emptied it. The cork in the bottom had gone loose. Fixing that I got my arm well into the harbour water... Jeezz... its very cold already!.

I also noticed that the rubber handle of the Yamaha engine had fallen off and was floating around in the bottom of the dingy. As I was about to fix that, we got a visit from Paul Newman, who is one of my good friends and btw. also a customer of mine. Thanx for the chocolate and candy Paul. Katharina, Esmeralda and I are already chewing away!

We went to get something to eat at a local restaurant. It wasnt the cheapest one in town, but it had atmosphere... and additionally they adverticed with Wifi zone, and we could borrow one of their private laptops to get on the internet and handle all the stuff we needed to handle... emails, weather reports etc. Later we went shopping. Dover actually have a quite active and large shopping street, despite we had been told that there wasnt much to come for.

We planned to stay the night and go next day (27. sep) at 15.00 DK time as that was high water time. The difference between high and low water is about 4.5 meters here!

The weather and swell charts looked ok. But when I was about to pay for the stay at the marina, they told me that another 11.5m boat had come in, from Dunquerque, and they said it had been much rougher out there than they expected. I did feel a strong western wind even inside the sheltered marina, and decided to stay another night.

Today (28. Sep) we however expect to go again around 14.00. We cant continue to stay here, and we are almost home in DK so we'd better make the push to go the last miles.

Before going we will have to refuel... an estimated 300liters for the engine and some 20 liters for the generator. Ill as usual put it in the log when I know for sure.

Next stop.. Den Helder in Holland.