After filling up the tanks with diesel on the fuel dock, we decided to take it slowly over to Calais. Leaving early next morning we had a good run up the Thames estuary and headed for Dover. There are now some huge Wind Farms on the Kentish flats and the narrow and shallow channels on of the Thames are used by very large container ships heading up to Tilbury Docks. I took the easy way of navigation and was following our track that we had used entering the River six months earlier. Being rusty we sort of forgot that this put us on the wrong side of the river. We dodged a container ship doing twenty knots in very shallow water however her wake seemed enormous and smashed us about a bit. We were soon back where we should have been and were up near the starboard marker buoys.
Our next challenge was to enter England's busiest port. Although it is extremely busy you do have to radio ahead, so that the Port Authority can slot you in between Cross Channel Ferries. We were able to manoeuvre behind a ferry and motor to the west side of the harbour. Our berth was a hammerhead opposite the life raft. After London, Dover did very little for us. A huge majority of shops were vacant. We had lousy fish & chips and a few pints in the most un-atmospheric pub we've ever come across. Calais here we come.
With very little wind, putting up the sails wasn't an option so we motored the short distance over to the French coast. The sea was a lot choppy than we expected, but we were determined to be all tied up and ready to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary that night.
The entrance to Calais Marina was very hard to spot as the Pilot books will tell you, it's tucked away. Another problem was that the Lock Gates are missing, however the swing bridge remains. The swing bridge opens on the hour and there are buoys to pick up, but we found it just as easy to float around in the bay as this area was fairly quiet. The problem is without the lock gates, depths drop down to half a metre at the supposed visitors dock or 2.1 metre at the rougher town wall where we ended up. To compensate for this, we were only a hundred metres from a superb restaurant, where for only 16euros per person we had the best meal we have eaten in 6 months of travelling. Of course we also had a lovely crisp bottle of French Chablis to go with our seafood dishes. The next day we explored the town of Calais which was bombed during the war. The old town has some interesting old buildings which is a stark contrast to the post-war buildings which sprung up near the docks.