With our new passage plan worked out and marked on chart and plotter, I rose at 0530, showered, filled the thermos flasks and prepared for departure. We were out of the harbour by 0700, into hazy sun with early mist obscuring the horizons. Once we had cleared the offshore shoals we turned onto our course for the North Sunk marker, the first of several which would have us skirt closely by the various complex traffic lanes in the southern North Sea, avoiding all the sandbanks of the Thames Estuary by going outside them. Most of the course, from 0730 to 1400, would be virtually due south, and of course that meant we were pointing head to what wind there was (in fact less than 5k at the start and about 14 at the end) so another day's motoring. The good news is that the planned tidal calculations worked out perfectly, and we were doing over 8k with up to 3k of helpful tide until almost 1500, and the sea state was smooth. Because of the way the very busy shipping lanes in and out of London, Harwich and Felixstowe work, we had to keep very careful watch with a combination of radar and Mark One Eyeball, but in fact there was amazingly little traffic around throughout. We passed between huge wind farms, including the London Array, still under construction, which is over 8miles square and our local one off Thanet, a mere 6 miles.  We settled into our most common positions for this type of passage, with Cate in the pilot seat watching the horizon and radar while making large advances in her complicated Gansey knitting patterns, and I stretched out in the cockpit in the warm sun, finishing my current reading book, with interruptions for the hourly chart plots. By 1600 we had more wind on the bow, and quite a bumpy sea, with up to 2k tide against us,  and the last few hours, as is  often the case, seemed endless. At 1900 we were approaching the fairway to Ramsgate harbour, staying on the south side as instructed by Port Control, with a flotilla of small motor vessels charging in ahead of us. We were inside the marina by 2000, and slotted into a rather tight berth next to a Dutch yacht. Our berth for the night cost £26, and we also noted later that the washing machines were £5 and drying £3, all  of which struck us as ripoff level, and must come as a shock to the many visitors from Holland who make this their first port of call when cruising to the UK.  As we climbed the steep ramp to the harbour, we marvelled at the cavernous sides of the harbour walls at low water Springs, like being in a huge amphitheatre. We went for a beer to our sailing neighbours, the Royal Temple Yacht Club, of which I am an honorary member since my Commodoreship at RCPYC, and had a nice Thai meal at the restaurant below the club. We called our respective children at home to announce our arrival: tomorrow is homecoming time.