Crossing the Channel

From Gillingham we planned to do the Channel crossing in two steps, firstly from Gillingham to Ramsgate, then from Ramsgate to Calais. We left Gillingham around 2pm, reaching Ramsgate about 8:30pm that evening. Emma had go to sleep quite happily as we motored along and we settled down to a fish and chip supper.

We had originally planned to leave Ramsgate the next day at around 2pm, but Andrew, Roy and Stephen reviewed the weather, saw that some more bad weather coming in, so decided to catch the earlier tide and leave early in the morning instead.

Leaving Ramsgate harbour

From my point of view, the crossing was pretty uneventful as I wasn’t actually in control of the boat; I was just looking after Emma. I am trying to persuade Stephen to write blog post about the crossing from his point of view, hopefully he’ll get round to it quite soon.

Emma turned out to be the best sailor of all of us! As I have mentioned before, Stephen and I are not very good sailors (inland waterways are fine – hence this trip involves very little time at sea). I start feeling queasy very quick, but I am generally fine so long as I either (a) keep watching the horizon or (b) lay down. Emma seems to be completely unaffected and is quite happy to watch the iPad, well away from windows, eat, drink & carry on as normal! I just wish I could do that!

We reached Calais in the early afternoon and had to moor on a buoy in the harbour whilst we waited for the tide to be high enough for us to get into the harbour, which we were able to do within a couple of hours.

We then moored up and waved Andrew and Roy off as they walked back to the ferry port to catch a ferry home.

Roy & Andrew in Calais

At last! We were in France!