Progress slowed at Ramsgate

Leaving Ipswich on a blustery Saturday morning we sailed the 10 miles down the River Orwell to Harwich and moored at Halfpenny Pier, just inside the edge of the harbour.  During the afternoon strong wind and rain blew in for a few hours making the short exposed pier rather bumpy.

Harwich, Halfpenny Pier

These conditions were forecast followed by a reasonable Sunday and storms into the start of the next week.  The conditions did improve during the evening so we set our alarm clock for 4:30am to catch the best of the tide for crossing the Thames Estuary.  This is a fairly difficult stretch of water with shipping lanes, strong tides and shifting sand banks.  We had set our course to follow a recommended route, through the Medusa Channel, down Black Deep and through Fishermans Gat Channel south of Long Sand an then almost due south to Ramsgate.  I’m glad to say conditions were pretty good, the first 90 minutes or so were a bit scary in pitch dark but once dawn broke shipping was light and visibility to spot the channel markers was good.  We only had to keep clear of two large container ships, the second of which created a massive wake which we ploughed through bows first.  We passed some massive wind farms, a common sight on our East Coast passage; the weather was pretty good and we were tied up in Ramsgate harbour by mid-afternoon in the blazing sunshine.

Wild and windy Ramsgate Harbour

Unfortunately the next day the predicted gales started with high winds and heavy rain which have kept us in port all week.  The weather improved on Tuesday allowing us a pleasant walk along the coast to Broadstairs, still very high winds but it stayed dry, warm and sunny.

Broadstairs Beach

The rain and gale force winds then retuned and Bathia has been staining against her mooring lines and rocking around as the swell surges into the harbour for most of this week.  Today, Friday, the conditions have improved and the weekend weather is set to be a little better hopefully allowing us to get back on the move as we enter out last week of the trip.  Just a couple more stops until we return to our starting point in Portsmouth.