Date: 12-07-07     Time: 20:00 UTC      Position: 51:07.19N  001:19.34E   Name: Dover 

Vi tok bussen inn til Brighton i går kveld. Det dreier seg om en ganske så stor by med et stort utvalg av butikker, restauranter, underholdning og hotell. Byen var full av feriefolk - mange ungdom fra hele verden som tydeligvis er på språkskole her. Vi kom i prat med to norske 15-åringer. Rønnaug var her på språkreise for hele 30 år siden - hun kjente igjen kun noen få plasser i byen. Vi spiste på en av mange kinesiske restauranter - og valgte tydeligvis bra siden 90% av gjestene var kinesere.

 

Turen til Dover startet i litt tåkete forhold med duskregn. Siden sikten ikke var så bra valgte vi ikke å krysse over kanalen i dag, men å drøye kryssingen til i morgen. Med så mye trafikk er det fint å ha litt bra sikt. Brisen var derimot passelig for turen. To småhval kom innom oss for å hilse, men latere enn delfinene, disse orket ikke vårt tempo og snart forsvant bak oss. Slør de første timene til Beachy Head, så var det bare å spri ut genoaen og lense langs kysten til Dover. For å utnytte strømmen best mulig drog vi ikke før halv-ti som skulle gi oss tre timer med motstrøm, og resten av turen i medstrøm. Det virket som om vi hadde motstrøm hele turen. Vi krysset null-meridianen tidlig på turen som markerte vår retur til den østlige halvkulen - se dagens bilde.

 

We took the bus into Brighton in the evening - they run every ten minutes - and got at least an impression of this large town. The place was full of foreign young people who were clearly attending language school. We even had a brief chat with two Norwegian 15 year olds. Rønnaug was also here in Brighton thirty years ago to perfect her English. We chose to eat at a Chinese restaurant - as 90% of the guests were Chinese this was clearly a good place to eat.

 

The 65 mile trip to Dover began in rather foggy conditions with a light drizzle falling. As visibility was poor we decided to postpone crossing over the shipping lanes to France until tomorrow. With so much traffic it is a good idea to be able to see well when crossing the lanes. The wind was however very good for the trip - a reach as far as Beachy Head then we poled out the headsail and ran all the way to Dover. In order to get the best out of the current, we left at nine thirty - taking three hours of bad current first, but then getting the rest of the trip with a favourable one. In reality it seemed that we had the current against us all day. We had the breif company of two small whales - lazyer than their cousins the dolphins, these didn't want to keep up our tempo and soon dissappeared behind us. We crossed the Greenwich Meridian early on the trip, marking our return to the eastern hemisphere - see today's picture.