Athene V30
Well-Known Member
I have finally got round to downloading the pictures from our trip.
The trip started on Sunday 24th May from Brightlingsea heading up the Wallet and then across the North Sea to Stellendam. A spectacular sunset at sea ended a rather windless day
and was followed by not quite so spectacular sunrise over Maas
A day was spent in Stellendam to get some rest after the 23 and a half hour crossing
where Vince and Joe came to see us.
The we sailed to Calais, probably the best sail of the trip 106.6 miles in 19 hours and only 4hrs30 under power off Ostende and in doing so won the Little Ship Club Diamond Jubilee Challenge Shield for the longest trip divided by waterline length made to get to Calais for the Bank Holiday weekend. In Calais we met up with others from the Royal Naval Sailing Association to celebrate 75 years of the Association and Karouise became a fender for a few days!
. The RN was present too
in the form of London URNUs ship HMS Puncher.
After Calais 4 boats (3 sail and 1 power) set off in very loose company to Boulogne, then 3 continued to Dieppe, Fecamp
Honfleur
where the 3 boats rafted outside the town square. It appears that Honfleur is anti mobos as thay charge 1.5 times the price of the same length sailing boat - quite disgusting really. The 3 boats are Verus Amica a 35 foot Trintella
, Soul Searcher a Princess 45
and of course Karouise my Cutlass 27
Then came Ouistreham and the D Day anniversary celebrations - cant find my pics from there at moment! Afterwards the 2 sailing boats crossed to Itchenor (113 miles in 22 hours) with our wonderful mobo mother / host boat setting off back up the French Coast for Ipswich. No more daily change of ice packs for my cold bag!!
We spent a night at Itchenor and had the largest mixed grill I have ever attempted (and failed) to eat at the pub! Next day moving all of 4 miles to Thorney Channel (almost as nice as Walton Backwaters) and then on to Gospost where we met up with the Solent Branch RNSA. We attended the Commodore's Dinner at the Victoria and Albert YC in Old Portsmouth - you can't see that I had boat shoes on can you!
After a weekend in Gosport we visited the Folly Inn on the River Medina and Lymington before I had to turn back for home revisiting Thorney on my way to Brighton (stopped a couple of days to see my Mum who lives there). Leaving Brighton was early on tide at Beachy Head passing Royal Sovereign at slack water
then on past Dungeness
and on to Calais (just picking up a waiting buoy) rather than into Dover, allowing me to go to Gravelines the next day. Then back over the North Sea to Wrabness on the River Stour before heading up to Ipswich to see Dave & Angie in Soul Searcher for a night out! The next night was at the Royal Harwich Yacht Club for an East Coast RNSA Rally then back to Brightlingsea and home!
A few statistics:
36 days on boat, visited 17 different places of which 10 I think were new to me. Travelled 848.8 miles according to GPS. 174 hours underway of which a horrendous 62% were under power and 23.5 were at night.
When I refer to 'we' or 'us' I of course mean Karouise and me! We had a FABULOUS time!
The trip started on Sunday 24th May from Brightlingsea heading up the Wallet and then across the North Sea to Stellendam. A spectacular sunset at sea ended a rather windless day
A day was spent in Stellendam to get some rest after the 23 and a half hour crossing
The we sailed to Calais, probably the best sail of the trip 106.6 miles in 19 hours and only 4hrs30 under power off Ostende and in doing so won the Little Ship Club Diamond Jubilee Challenge Shield for the longest trip divided by waterline length made to get to Calais for the Bank Holiday weekend. In Calais we met up with others from the Royal Naval Sailing Association to celebrate 75 years of the Association and Karouise became a fender for a few days!
After Calais 4 boats (3 sail and 1 power) set off in very loose company to Boulogne, then 3 continued to Dieppe, Fecamp
Then came Ouistreham and the D Day anniversary celebrations - cant find my pics from there at moment! Afterwards the 2 sailing boats crossed to Itchenor (113 miles in 22 hours) with our wonderful mobo mother / host boat setting off back up the French Coast for Ipswich. No more daily change of ice packs for my cold bag!!
We spent a night at Itchenor and had the largest mixed grill I have ever attempted (and failed) to eat at the pub! Next day moving all of 4 miles to Thorney Channel (almost as nice as Walton Backwaters) and then on to Gospost where we met up with the Solent Branch RNSA. We attended the Commodore's Dinner at the Victoria and Albert YC in Old Portsmouth - you can't see that I had boat shoes on can you!
After a weekend in Gosport we visited the Folly Inn on the River Medina and Lymington before I had to turn back for home revisiting Thorney on my way to Brighton (stopped a couple of days to see my Mum who lives there). Leaving Brighton was early on tide at Beachy Head passing Royal Sovereign at slack water
A few statistics:
36 days on boat, visited 17 different places of which 10 I think were new to me. Travelled 848.8 miles according to GPS. 174 hours underway of which a horrendous 62% were under power and 23.5 were at night.
When I refer to 'we' or 'us' I of course mean Karouise and me! We had a FABULOUS time!
