David Piper our Skipper was a little concerned that with the low light it may make it difficult to see any lobster pot marker bouys. Not great to get a rope around the prop. Thankfully none came into our path but several seals popped up to see us.
As we proceeded along the north Kent coast past Herne Bay and Margate the tide was rapidly dropping. Beaches began to rise to our left with the coastline to the right.
For some unknown reason the depth gauge was intermittent so it was essential to stay on Davids plotted route to avoid grounding. The scenery was stunning with huge wind farms and WWII forts off the port bow in.
At North Foreland we turned onto a southerly heading towards Calais. This turn is roughly half way from Queenborough. Goodwin sand were very clear on the right and the East Goodwin Lightship could be seen in the distance.
The Channel in this narrow area has a Traffic Separation System to keep commercial traffic in opposite directions separate. We did have one occasion where we were on a conflicting course with a container ship. We elected to slow let it pass and go astern. Thankfully its wake was fairly flat as we passed astern. The remainder of the cruise was uneventful and with an average speed over the water of 8 kts we arrived outside Calais in a little over 8 hours.
