50:47.51N 00:19.55E Wednesday 1^st June, today’s song is ‘The sun has got his hat on, hip hip hooray …’ – it does indeed appear to be the beginning of Summer so up at 0530 to a glorious morning.  Dover harbour is a stately and majestic harbour to exit - firstly, it has two entrances so we entered by the east entrance and left by the west, which felt quite special but, also, the port controllers are very polite and formal.  So, to my radio call-up I got the response ‘Yacht Juniper, this is Dover Port Control, good morning Ma’am’ so we felt we had a good send off as we passed by the huge stone harbour walls – I really can’t emphasise enough how tiny Juniper feels in such places.

Anyway, out to sea with a building wind just off the nose (story of this trip so far), but with such a beautiful day we decided we would sail it anyway and accept the longer passage time.  I keep hearing people talk about a ‘cracking sail’ and this is probably a good description – sunshine all the way, very little shipping  and glorious coastline.  Just out of Dover we sailed over the channel tunnel, no visible sign of course but weird to think of what was underneath us.   Onwards to Dungeness and the wind continued to grow so by the afternoon we’d gone from full sails to reefed main, then reduced headsail and then second reef in the main as the wind started to gust   Lots of seabirds too, with a group of gannets treating us to a dazzling display of fishing by suddenly folding their wings and divebombing the water. 

Finally to East Sussex and Eastbourne – entrance is through a lock and, at low water, the bubbling mass of water is incredible to watch as it pours in to bring the boats up to marina level.  Tied up by 8 o’clock, just in time to repair to the pub to reflect on a good day over a pint and a meal - Juniper has done us proud.

Photos:  Crew (with legs). Sails in the sunshine.  Juniper in Eastbourne lock.