We had three nice relaxing days in Ramsgate, yesterday was exceptionally windy so we were glad we had the extra day. We had such a good response from all the boaters there, people wanting to know some history of the boat and congratulating us on the work we had done. There were people of many different nationalities, Danish, French, Dutch, German and so on. It was actually rare to hear an English voice! The nightlife was a little too lively and expensive for us unemployed folk so we saved our socialising pennies for Sunday afternoon and enjoyed a few drinks around the town.
We struggled to get an Internet connection whilst there, we rely on it for our weather forecasts and right up until 10pm last night we were trying to get connected. That being said the marina posts Met office forecast on the board so we could just use those in the morning. I will never, ever leave a port again unless I have checked all three of the forecasts we now use. We left Ramsgate, everything was lovely, pot of tea and some chocolate, this has become our routine, chocolate as an aperitif to breakfast! We made good speed and good time, we survived Dover, that's a busy place! We had initially thought of having an overnight stop there, but me watching the pennies said it might be more economical to head straight for Rye, considering the forecast was so good....... Martyn, I can only apologise! We passed Folkestone, which looked very nice, it would be a good place for a marina we thought as things started to get a bit choppy. We realised we were making much better time than we predicted and thought we would slow down. The earliest we could get in at Rye would be 3 hours before high water, which was at 5.30. So I made Martyn a sandwich, prepared the salad for our tea and we basically chilled out for a bit. Bad move.... We approached Dungeness and it really started to get choppy, when I say choppy I actually mean water over the deck. What should we do? Dungeness sticks out quite a lot so we thought if we could get round quite quick we could maybe shelter a little. By now things were getting quite scary, but at least we were hitting the waves head on. We were spending so much time trying to ride the waves that we didn't realise we were right in the middle of the firing range, and guess what? They were firing....! The first we knew was when the safety boat came alongside. they were trying to radio us but between Martyn trying to concentrate and the noise of the engine we didn't have a clue what they were saying although a look on the GPS gave us an idea. In the end I had to open the door and speak to them and we were advised that we needed to change our course with immediate effect. This meant we would have to turn back where we had come from. At this point we were already wet through as the water was coming straight under the windows into the boat, nothing much inside had moved as we had some control going into the waves. The change in course meant heading back out into the deep water, beam on. Some of you will understand what that means, for those who don't, if a wave hits you on the side of the boat, the boat rolls, it's very uncomfortable, the contents of the fridge and anything else ends up on the floor. After three attempts of trying to put everything back in the fridge I gave up and left it all on the floor - it was the safest place. We had to go so far back out into the rough water, they said they would guide us by radio the quickest way through but we couldn't hear a thing so we followed the limits of the firing range as shown on the chart. It was a long way round. We would hit one wave, two waves then the big one that flew under the window and soaked us. Every time it happened was like the first time you jump in the
sea, it was so cold! Turning the corner and heading for Rye brought it's own problems, we were back to beam on again, not just beam on but stern on as well, even worse, but at least land was in sight, if we can just make it in there then we will be OK. Needless to say, we survived, although the salad I made earlier was full of soil from one of my plants so that end up in the bin! We have nearly located all missing objects, I'm sure rest will make themselves present eventually. At one point today I did wonder if the last blog I wrote would actually be the last!
Today we were stupid, we didn't do our research and very nearly lost everything. We won't be doing that again. We will be in Rye for a few days and will not venture out again until we are 100% happy that we will be safe.
So far Rye is looking good. The Harbour Master was a very lovely chap even though I was soaking wet and probably smelt of Eau de' sea water! As I type we are moored up in Rye making our descent onto the mud at Strand Quay where we will spend a few days thanking our lucky stars that we survived and hoping for calm seas at the end of the week. This wasn't the kind of adventure I hoped for, but at least I know Elephant Daze can handle it - even if the contents don't fare just as well!
We struggled to get an Internet connection whilst there, we rely on it for our weather forecasts and right up until 10pm last night we were trying to get connected. That being said the marina posts Met office forecast on the board so we could just use those in the morning. I will never, ever leave a port again unless I have checked all three of the forecasts we now use. We left Ramsgate, everything was lovely, pot of tea and some chocolate, this has become our routine, chocolate as an aperitif to breakfast! We made good speed and good time, we survived Dover, that's a busy place! We had initially thought of having an overnight stop there, but me watching the pennies said it might be more economical to head straight for Rye, considering the forecast was so good....... Martyn, I can only apologise! We passed Folkestone, which looked very nice, it would be a good place for a marina we thought as things started to get a bit choppy. We realised we were making much better time than we predicted and thought we would slow down. The earliest we could get in at Rye would be 3 hours before high water, which was at 5.30. So I made Martyn a sandwich, prepared the salad for our tea and we basically chilled out for a bit. Bad move.... We approached Dungeness and it really started to get choppy, when I say choppy I actually mean water over the deck. What should we do? Dungeness sticks out quite a lot so we thought if we could get round quite quick we could maybe shelter a little. By now things were getting quite scary, but at least we were hitting the waves head on. We were spending so much time trying to ride the waves that we didn't realise we were right in the middle of the firing range, and guess what? They were firing....! The first we knew was when the safety boat came alongside. they were trying to radio us but between Martyn trying to concentrate and the noise of the engine we didn't have a clue what they were saying although a look on the GPS gave us an idea. In the end I had to open the door and speak to them and we were advised that we needed to change our course with immediate effect. This meant we would have to turn back where we had come from. At this point we were already wet through as the water was coming straight under the windows into the boat, nothing much inside had moved as we had some control going into the waves. The change in course meant heading back out into the deep water, beam on. Some of you will understand what that means, for those who don't, if a wave hits you on the side of the boat, the boat rolls, it's very uncomfortable, the contents of the fridge and anything else ends up on the floor. After three attempts of trying to put everything back in the fridge I gave up and left it all on the floor - it was the safest place. We had to go so far back out into the rough water, they said they would guide us by radio the quickest way through but we couldn't hear a thing so we followed the limits of the firing range as shown on the chart. It was a long way round. We would hit one wave, two waves then the big one that flew under the window and soaked us. Every time it happened was like the first time you jump in the
sea, it was so cold! Turning the corner and heading for Rye brought it's own problems, we were back to beam on again, not just beam on but stern on as well, even worse, but at least land was in sight, if we can just make it in there then we will be OK. Needless to say, we survived, although the salad I made earlier was full of soil from one of my plants so that end up in the bin! We have nearly located all missing objects, I'm sure rest will make themselves present eventually. At one point today I did wonder if the last blog I wrote would actually be the last!
Today we were stupid, we didn't do our research and very nearly lost everything. We won't be doing that again. We will be in Rye for a few days and will not venture out again until we are 100% happy that we will be safe.
So far Rye is looking good. The Harbour Master was a very lovely chap even though I was soaking wet and probably smelt of Eau de' sea water! As I type we are moored up in Rye making our descent onto the mud at Strand Quay where we will spend a few days thanking our lucky stars that we survived and hoping for calm seas at the end of the week. This wasn't the kind of adventure I hoped for, but at least I know Elephant Daze can handle it - even if the contents don't fare just as well!
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