The Ramsgate-Brighton passages is a long(ish), boring one. Apart from the white cliffs of Dover and Beachy Head (the UK Nr1 suicide spot), the scenery is uninspiring – not counting the monstrosity at Dungeness.
This time round, it looked like it wasn’t going to be different. Forecast said no wind and seastate moderate to slight. Well, if we were going to be motoring anyway, it might at well be in conditions like that.

Left Ramsgate at 05H15 and made our way down inside the Goodwins. Shot past Dover like a bullet – tide helping us along. Sun made brave attempts to break though the cloud. All in all, quite pleasant. The good news show continued till we were just past Dungeness; the the tide turned and out of nowhere quite strong headwinds materialised. SOG dropped to just above 5kts. We were getting there, just not as fast as a while ago.
Snorky (autopilot) did not miss a beat, so not much to do, other than take in the scenery and having a couple of father/daughter chats.

By the time we reached Beachy Head, things turned nastu for a bit. The tide was again running with us, but the headwinds had now increased to 20-25kts. This made for short, steep seas and painfully slow progress. ‘Mer peu aggite, devenant belle’ – my foot. Lost of pitching and sea over deck. I also developed as sudden craving for ‘betonkoeken’*

By the time we were on our final stretch towards Brighton, the wind backed a bit. Out came the genoa and soon we were romping along at 8kts. Hand-helmed the final stretch as this seems to be lobster-pot country. Was dodging them all the way. Kind of fun.

Getting a visitor berth in Brighton always takes a lot of patience. Especially in Summer when there are students/temp staff on duty. Being directed to a vacant berth only to find 1 meter of water there when we arrived (Guapa draws 2.1m) was all part of the course. Got sorted in the end, and that's all that matters. Being based on the East Coast, we're not altogether unfamiliar with running aground.

Now waiting for the other half of the crew to arrive. And Evita’s heading home tonight. Plans are to cross to France in the morning. Forecast again for little or no wind, so we’ll see what comes of it. More motoring most likely. Not too bad, it will give Brigitte and Yanni and opportunity to gently ease into boat-routine. Worked out our fuel consumption over the last 2 years: just under 3.5ltr/hour at cruising speed. Not bad, not bad at all.

To sum up: it was one of those passages best forgotten. All that matters is that we got here in one piece and nothing broke along the way.
Here’s hoping Summer is now here to stay.

Guapa weather axiom: There is no such thing as ‘variable winds’. Variable winds invariably means wind in the nose.

*Betonkoeken (concrete biscuits): Belgian equivalent of seabiscuits – naval staple diet in rough weather.