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!