Traject: Oostende (B)- Ramsgate – Dunkerque (Fr)

Blog van 2012 – 08 – 15

Traject: Oostende (B)- Ramsgate – Dunkerque (Fr)

Crew: Skipper Cees

Sam Krikken

The Thursday morning brought us fine bright weather. It was warm and we could feel some wind too. Oostende Radio brought us the forecast and promised a South wind, later veering to West.

So, everything looked very promising for the crossing of the channel.

As the crossing would take at least 15 hours we decided to start our journey from 12:00 AM, leaving us time for some shopping and cleaning of the boat.

Unfortunately there is no possibility to bunker diesel in Oostende.

When we left the harbour at 12:30 we very quickly understood that the weather forecast is only a forecast. The wind had already veered in North West and that was our direction too.

As we should stay on the sea also the whole night, this wind from the opposite direction was not a good omen.

Furthermore another key factor was the new moon which was set or tonight. That meant there would be no light what so ever during the night crossing.

After some hours fighting against the elements, we had only managed to leave some 10 miles behind us in the direction of Ramsgate. That fact, together with the facts that we had not been able to buy diesel and the new moon, we decided to give up the destination Ramsgate for today and set for Dunkerque.

There we arrived at 20:00 hours. The harbour Grand Large is well known to us.

Sam cooked us a fabulous meal (fantasy sauce for the paste) and we could fill our water tank and spray the boat with clean water.

We will keep you updated.