Dunkerque !

Yesterday was more of the same. Grey cold windy with a late arrival at dunkerque and of course no shops open on Sunday so I’m having to develop a liking for black coffee.

However on waiting to leave Calais we gave listening to ch17 a go. I suspect that Monsieur le Port Control recognised the boat name from the day before, judging by his deadpan responses and that kept us hanging around for a little longer than seemed necessary, but after a little wait we escaped, managing to avoid any large ship interactions.

We had to leave Calais at high tide to get over the marina sill which of course meant foul tide most the way to dunkerque. Close hauled and doing 6kn with up to 25kn winds over the deck – very wet and bouncy – but over the ground around 3.5kn 😱 So a long slow cold journey and everything got wet. Especially me. Lynn sensibly retired below for much of the passage. Also a reefing line got jammed but I managed to work around it without venturing up to the mast. A bit bouncy for that sort of thing.

Worth avoiding Calais in future I think unless you’re headed west.

So a rest and drying everything off day today. It’s windy and sunny so it shouldn’t take long.