The Grand Shaft

In the wooded hills above Dover on its western flank are major and what were once, virtually impregnable military structures. The "Redoubts" were used to house troops to defend the port against French invaders.

Nestling amongst the Redoubts is the extraordinary "Grand Shaft". The shaft extends down to the port below and is surrounded by 3 spiral staircases to facilitate the swift dispatch of the British troops from the Redoubts on the hill, to port where they could then harrass the French invaders.

We discovered these fascinating structures on a rain drenched walk to the "Western Heights" earlier today.

The marina where Bonny is parked is just to the right of centre in the photo above.

Our walk took place after a very good and very late all day breakfast and a visit to the Dover Museum where we marveled at their principle exhibit - a Bronze Age boat recovered from a building site in Dover town centre in the 1990s. Apparently, at around 3000 years old it's the oldest boat in the world - even older than Bonny :)!

That's the boat in the museum. Below is a half scale 'replica' of what it is thought to have looked like (minus the red life jackets) when in use.

On our return the weather had improved and it was time to take some photos of Bonny and the crew...

Andy's missing from the above photos because he has to be home by Thursday.

We have an OKish weather window over the next few days and so we depart for Eastbourne early tomorrow morning and then intend to leave there for Plymouth on Friday and hope to get there by Sunday.

All the way to Dover

That's Basty preparing the G&T in celebration of our arrival in Dover - such a long passage - must have been at least 15 miles!

Earlier, Andy arrived in Ramsgate at about 1330 but Bonny was still pinned to the pontoon by a strong westerly wind. He only had a three days and I was getting worried that he might have to spend them all in Dover. Thankfully by 1500, the wind had moderated sufficiently to allow us to coax Bonny down to the end of the pontoon. From there, I reasoned that despite the risk of maiming some, or indeed all of the crew, we should escape close scrutiny by the Marina authorities.

Whether we did or not I'm not sure, but to my great relief and not inconsiderable surprise, we managed to extricate ourselves without damaging anything or anyone and headed out to sea. 

We then enjoyed a beat down to the South Foreland, sometimes in brisk winds. By aroumd 1900 with Dover 6 miles off our beam, the wind died and so we motored the last hour or so into Dover. 

Once inside, and under the watchful eyes of Dover Port Contry, we motored towards the new western marina. 10 minutes in, the skipper became so disorientated that we passed an East Cardinal buoy  to the West (rather than to the East which is what we should have done) causing Port Control to call us up to warn we were heading for shallow water! 

We eventually made it to the marina without mishap. Our plan to eat ashore was scuppered by torrential rain so Mick cooked up an excellent meal and a thoroughly enjoyable evening was had by all.

A windy day in Ramsgate

Basty arrived around 1330, just in time to witness another round of stowage rationalisation on board the good ship Bonny, because, sure enough and as forecast it was very windy and we weren't going anywhere. 

Well that's not strictly true. We did move backwards, sideways and forwards over the course of about half an hour in the area between the long pontoon we were moored to and other pontoons opposite which created a fairway about 60 metres long and 15 metres wide. 

We had decided we would move further into the marina in an attempt to get out of the swell. The trouble was the strong wind was pinning us so hard  against the pontoon that the usual tactic of "springing off" (reversing with a line from the stern running forward to the pontoon in order to pull the stern in and therefore the bow out) was completely ineffective. Thankfully I gave up trying just in time to avoid running full tilt into the boat in front. Next I tried to reverse off the pontoon. That worked but there was just not enough room to get up enough speed to turn the boat across the wind and all I managed to do was to hold her more or less stationary across the fairway with the wind blowing from behind.

It quickly became apparent that we had little choice but to go back from whence we came. I did so by driving the bow slowly against the pontoon enabling Mick to somehow get 'ashore' and prevent serious damage as the bow then scraped alongside the pontoon. With our downeind progress halted the rest of the boat was then blown slongside the pontoon!

A couple of hours later this boat 

came charging in to moor up opposite us. One mistake would have spelt disaster for them and us! However, the young woman skipper with a sail training crew of four men handled the situation perfectly. She stopped the boat on a sixpence parallel to the pontoon and two crew immediately jumped 'ashore' to attach lines to the pontoon fore and aft. Within seconds the lines were secured and just as well, because they were immediately bar tight as the  wind did it's best to blow what was probably 7 tons of boat directly on to us.  It probably took the crew 15 minutes to manouvre their boat back the 2 or so metres the boat had been blown off whilst the crew attached the lines.

All in all a very impressive performance. I just hope no one was watching my earlier shinanigins!

In the Begining..

                 The Mate in repose!

... we didn't get up early enough and by the time we had got up, showered, done the shopping, had breakfast, turned the boat round (the boat being in Chatham Maritime Marine) to facilitate fitting the ' 'new' hydrovane rudder, it was 1300 and to make the most of the tides, we should have left at 1100! We eventually locked out at 1330. The upshot was that by 1830 when we should have been rounding North Foreland with the last of the fair ebb tide, we still had some 2-3 hours to go and were punching the foul flood tide. Fortunately, the convergence of the North Sea and Channel tidal streams around the Foreland mean that even late comers like us, still had a couple of hours of South flowing current to enjoy after low water.

I should have said earlier, that on Sharon's suggesion,  I had taken the boat into Chatham Marina on Saturday in order to facilitate the stowing of gear and stores. Charles drove down to Hoo with me and then drove my car round to Chatham where I later met up with Mick, whom Sharon and Vince had driven down. Sailing pal Tony, came down too and finished off a wood work job in the cockpit that he'd started last year. He also brouht a most welcome present of home made cake.

Then it was time to say my goodbyes to Sharon and Vince, following which Mick and I spent the next few hours re+organising the stowage so that we could squeeze the new stores in.

We finally finished around 8 pm and legged it round to the pub for a pint and a fish and chip supper. Sailing pal, Howard with his partner Victoria and his two kids Ewan ans Elsa joined us there for a very convivial evening. Maybe that's why we were rather slow to get going the following day!

With the wind behind us, the sail to Ramsgate was most enjoyable, until, after rounding NorthForeland we had to head South West directly into the blustery wind. We motored for the last hour and once in hot footed it ashore in search of a curry. Which to our great relief we found. It was very good too.

Unfortunately, tomorrow's weather looks rather grim and so we will stay put. Andy has decided not to travel down tomorrow but Basty will. At present, the outlook for Tuesday gives some reason for optimism. I just knew the long spell of easterlies would end when we started our passage west!

Countdown to departure and other snippets

You may be wondering why this shot figures in a sailing blog. Well it's to demonstrate the other challenge I have to address before casting off. The back garden is something of an unruly jungle thanks to me spending so much time prepping the boat but also due to years of neglect. Somehow, I just never noticed all the little trees and bushes were growing until... I must now belatedly dispatch the worst offenders before departure otherwise the jungle will have completely taken over by the time I get back. By the way, that's my eldest son Charles not me! I don't mind climbing masts but I draw the line at swinging a chainsaw around 20 feet up a bloody fir tree. 

That mission was a success by the way....

I tackled some more today but had to retreat to bed with a nasty upset tummy. I'll leave the details to your imagination, except to say it is worse 🤣.

Anyway what else is there to report? Well if you've read my post of 28th February which went on and on about the now cancelled cruise to the South Atlantic, you will have read about my plumbing problems. Well, they took a turn for the worst last week and because the NHS unsurprisingly cancelled my Urology appointment, I now have to go private! I just hope expensive investigations and  radical intervention can be avoided. The charming and very young GP I saw on Monday gave me cause to hope that additional meds will keep me going.

Back to sailing matters. Departure from the Medway (the state of the job list, the weather and the prostate, allowing) is set for 1st/2nd July for a shakedown cruise to Plymouth/Falmouth, then hopefully all being well, we'll depart for Madeira. We're avoiding mainland Spain and Portugal because of the still on-going Orca incidents. Bonny's keel hung rudder is probably less attractive to Orcas than modern designs, but I don't want to risk it. Also the Hydrovane rudder will be extremely vulnerable to the attentions of those inquisitive creatures.

Our itinerary has been updated too. I really was very disappointed to can the South Atlantic objective. It was after all something of a consolation prize for forgoing a full circumnavigation. Therefore when Mick mentioned the possibility of heading for Canada after the Carribean I thought it a brilliant idea. It will add a completely different dimension to the venture. 

Lots of challenges to be sure, including finding the right time to head north so as to avoid hurricanes and the worst of the North American Spring storms. Too early means a greater likelihood of those, too late a greater risk of hurricanes. 

Then there's the Gulf Stream to manage. It can provide a fast track northwards from the Florida Straights as I discovered on Arctic Smoke in 2017 - we clocked 10 knots over the bottom on occasions en route to the Bahamas! However, it's a deadly fast track in strong, or even moderate northerly winds. The wind against the tide creates a very nasty confused sea - I suspect, a bit like the Portland Race on steriods and of course the area covered is vast. 

Today's marine weather forecasts provide a lot of information on ocean currents as well as the weather but of course one needs an internet connection to access them. 

To that end I've bought a clever little gizmo that, when connected to a satphone can provide a connection just about adequate for downloading graphical weather and current information. 

Of course that will eat up the £s and so the Satphone will only be used when essential. We certainly won't be able to afford to ring home every day!

In addition to the Satphone, Gizmo and weather forecasts, another much more basic piece of kit will be needed. A thermometer! Why? Well, if you recall your school Geography - you'll remember that the UK weather is so mild because it's bathed in the remnents of the warm Gulf Stream. So if we want to check whether we've escaped the Stream's warm embrace we just need to measure the sea temperature!

The jobs are slowly getting ticked off the list. Many of these have been electrical or related and Mick's expertise have been invaluable.

One, still to be done is to replace the cabling to the steaming/mast head light.

The existing cables that run up the mast to this, are domestic flex - not ideal on a boat especially when at the base of the mast one of the cable had clearly suffered an accident and had been rejoined with a normal terminal block and had been left totally unprotected. Its amazing that it survived the passage back from the Azores in 2021.

I was sure I had a replacement light fitting on the boat but I couldn't find it. Then I tackled the shed....

 .... and low and behold....

It was in the deepest darkest hole and had clearly never been any where near Bonny. It must have been Arctic Smoke's recesses I was thinking of.

Working on a boat on a mooring on the River Medway, rather than sailing one, has its compensations....

The 2023 Medway Barge Match gets underway.

🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞

Another change of plan

Since my previous post, I have received feedback from sailing sources, and others who have visited South Africa in recent months and have heard and read various news reports on the continuing deterioration of the social and political situation in South Africa. 

Less news worthy, but no less concerning is the level of crime and social unrest in Brazil. I've been a member of a WhatsApp group focused on encouraging sailors to visit that country and its clear that plenty are doing so. However, it was after reading a post on the group that sought to reassure potential members of a planned sailing rally, that all would be well, thanks to a strong armed police presence, that I decided Brazil was also not the place for me.

Of course plenty of travellers of all types have visited strife ridden countries and have survived to tell the tale and many have considered their experiences worthwhile and of benefit to the local communties they have engaged with. 

It is also true that nowhere is without risk and that goes for my fallback destination - the islands of the Southern Caribbean. But everyone has to draw their own line.

The plan is still to head off in June/July this year once the boat is ready. We may visit Ireland first.