We made it to Dunkirk and back

jecuk

jecuk

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Saw some of the threads below. We got there and back arriving at Chertsey at 10pm last night. It was quite an experience.

Limehouse to Ramsgate had us in a force 6 with a failed bilge pump which made it an entertaining and slightly damp trip. Also broke a davit there as the dinghy got hit by a wave from the side.

Some spot caulking repairs on the hoist in Ramsgate and in Dunkirk sorted the leak out. Exposed a weak very old repair that we had never seen pottering about on the river.

Good trip over and back. In general much more of an odyssey than I expected. Learnt a lot about old wooden boats at sea for the first time in a while - rubbish in bilges not an issue on river, big issue at sea.

We had a great run up the estuary yesterday. 14.5 hours Ramsgate to Laleham. Will post some pictures tonight.
 
Plastic fantastics

Congratulations.
We heard a little of your exploits at Ramsgate but gather everyone rallied round and you were soon back up and running.
Lady Gay looked lovely in the Bassin du Commerce, as did the other Little Ships. A wonderful weekend only marred slightly by the high winds over Saturday afternoon through to Monday evening.
We were in the "OTHER" bassin with the peasants (Brooms) and returned on Tuesday morning across the channel, leaving Dunkirk 03.00 BST and stopping at Shepperton around 20.00. A long day. What an excellent place, the Thames Court Hotel. A good evening. Then a much less fraught run back up to Sonning yesterday, arriving 18.30. We did the 1st 3 locks before the lock keepers came on and a few others were unmanned, either breaks or absence, so again speed of locking was good. With a crew of 2 and myself we had a good system for self service locking. Clearly a midweek run saw less traffic, but was rather surprised at just HOW little traffic.
A great weekend and thanks to all the Little Ships who make a huge effort to get so many boats across.
 
I think

jecuk said:
Saw some of the threads below. We got there and back arriving at Chertsey at 10pm last night. It was quite an experience.

Limehouse to Ramsgate had us in a force 6 with a failed bilge pump which made it an entertaining and slightly damp trip. Also broke a davit there as the dinghy got hit by a wave from the side.

Some spot caulking repairs on the hoist in Ramsgate and in Dunkirk sorted the leak out. Exposed a weak very old repair that we had never seen pottering about on the river.

Good trip over and back. In general much more of an odyssey than I expected. Learnt a lot about old wooden boats at sea for the first time in a while - rubbish in bilges not an issue on river, big issue at sea.

We had a great run up the estuary yesterday. 14.5 hours Ramsgate to Laleham. Will post some pictures tonight.
Click to expand...

I ran past you at Twick last night bout 630 ish? few boats going up.

You are STILL on the bbc front page (England)
 
I was in Leeds yesterday..what the hell has that got to do with Dunkirk? Well, my very elderly landlady when I was at Uni in the 70s said that some men rescued from Dunkirk ended up sleeping in Victoria Road in Headingley, and she and her family took three in (big house) and fed and cleaned them up and gave them what they really wanted which was...Sleep.

I drove down Victoria road yesterday and thought about them briefly, a forgotten snippet of Leeds history.

Well done on your trip

Tim
 
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