Sirenia

[ianfr]

We are on a two week sailing holiday, and arrived in Gravelines to see Sirenia parked up behind us. After introducing ourselves, we have sailed back to Ramsgate and Brightlingsea in company after seeing the forecast for this week.

We are currently holed up in Brightlingsea harbour having a great time under the circumstances. Clive and Tim have been great company, and it was a comfort sailing back across from Gravelines to Ramsgate and doing our first part night passage for years. The wait in Ramsgate for a curry delivery was quite entertaining in its own way. We had planned to stay in Ramsgate but another peek at the forecast put us underway across the estuary before the real weather hit. We had a rapid run back 10:15 to 16:45 in the marina. 8.4 knots on the plotter at times.

So thanks to Clive and Tim for making what was heading for a washout into an entertaining trip.


Ian & Jo

 

[Saguday]

Good call.

F9's coming

 

[CliveG]

Ian & Jo

It was great to meet you and have your company for the last few days.
We had had an interesting sail to Oostende and had stayed there for a few days.
Due to Robert having the Montgomery Dock full of Dragons we had to go into the Mercator Marina.

On the day we arrived we had a visit from some of the local Police.
They wanted to see our passports and ships papers and to have details of our propulsion system and was it diesel or petrol.
No mention was made about red diesel (Much to our relief).
They also asked if we had life jackets and flares but did not want to look at them.
They went away happy.

While we were in Oostende we visited the Atlantic Wall museum at the western end of the town.
We got there by tram from the railway station just by the marina.
The ticket office sold us the tram ticket and a ticket for entry to the museum.
The stop you need is a request stop and if you do not ring the bell you end up in Middlesburg.
(Guess how we know that)
The museum is highly recommended for anyone interested in the 1st or 2nd world war.

From Oostende we hopped west ward along the coast stopping at Niuewpoort, and Dunkerque before going on the Gravelines.
We arrived at Gravelines a bit early for the gate to be open so we did a Dylan and drifted up the entrance channel with the tide.
Just as we came round the corner the gates were opening.
We had just shot ashore for a quick visit to Lidel to check the wine stock when Ian & Jo arrived in Apogee.

Following our trip back to Brightlingsea with them, we all escaped from there this morning.
Ian & Jo back to their mud hole in Tolsbury and us to Shotley on our way back to the Deben.
We had tide and wind (18 to 24 Knots) with us up the Wallet and averaged over 7 Knots over the ground.

 

[FullCircle]

Nice one Clive. Did you use that fishing gear you trawled off that bloke last time you came out of Gravelines?