This summer’s main event is to attend the NL OGA 20th anniversary rally in the centre of The Netherlands.

The first leg was a night departure from Gosport, to Eastbourne. After a couple of days visiting my parents, this was followed by a passage to Dover in the company of my father. At Dover, I was joined by my friend Ben, ready for the Channel crossing itself.

We slipped our lines just after 5am and were cleared by VTS through the Eastern entrance. We motored to SW Goodwin and then turned towards France and crossed into the shipping lanes. AIS makes it much easier to judge when to cross.

By the time we had cleared both lanes, the tide had turned against us. The wind was dead astern and we made good boat speed along the French coast but our speed over the ground slowed to just below 3kt at worst. Eventually the tide turned back in our favour, so the last 15M of coastline passed at 5-6kt and we gratefully entered the river leading up to Nieuwpoort harbour about 13 hours after leaving Dover.