In a sea full of baloons

Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Sun 22 Jul 2012 07:29
You might wonder where they all go, baloons that kids get at the fairground or from a wedding. They disappear up in the sky never to be seen again...
Unless you sail the North sea.
The sea of baloons. Every day, everywhere can we see ballons on the water, chased by the wind. Colored ones and the foil ones. Very strange. (No Anna and Martin we haven't found your baloons yet)
The day before yesterday we came to Dover after crossing the channel. Almost no wind made it necessary to motor most of the time. It is boring but better to come across than have to stay and wait for another gale. Crossing from Sceveningen to Dover was 130nM. Being a pleasure craft in these waters feels like being an ant crossing a busy street with humans. When you get close to a shipping lane you have to be very careful when to cross. For once during early morning it was all empty and calm. I took the chance to cross one shipping lane a tiny angle against the given direction, just a little and imidiately Salsa was called upon by the Coast Guard! Talk about being in controlled waters. In Dover it felt like coming home, it is not that we love that town, it is rather shabby but last year we where forced to stay for more than a week due to gales.
So we just had our first meal on English soil. Bought food in the wellknown store and went off with the tide. This time it is a high pressure over us so for the first time this summer we where sailing with the wind, with the sun on a sea that looked like the Med. Blue greenish. The four of us where sitting on the aft deck, having afternoon coffee, the autopilot was steering its course past the cliffs of Dover (they are enormous white cliffs with a thin layer of grass on top), Ellinor and I looked at each other and both felt that THIS was what it all was about.
Later in the afternoon it was just great, adults reading or working on something, the children playing. Salsa making progress with a good 8 knots wind from behind.
This night we just layed on anchor close to RYE. The sea is flat and calm.


Staffan Ehde
Xpdition
+46733150761
Kill your darlings,
before they kill you.