At last, with numerous jobs incomplete, but nothing that couldn’t wait and be done en route, we dropped our buoy in Woolverstone late on Friday 12 June. We only got to Halfpenny pier in Harwich, but at least we were away! The sail to Ramsgate on Saturday was a frustrating slow beat in F2’s, and we had to motor from North Foreland as we’d missed the tide. On Sunday the wind was still light. Off Dover we decided we’d not make either Boulogne or Eastbourne on the tide, so entered and dropped the hook in the small boat anchorage.
There was a vague plan that Luke, our 19-year-old grandson would join us for some part of the voyage. A phone call established that he could join us next day, so we delayed our voyage and moved into the most expensive marina of the whole voyage, where he could join us more easily. Another phone call established that some old friends from an earlier life could join us for dinner.