Eastbourne, squalls, and a view of France

We left our berth at 08-30, and cleared the harbour by 08-40, on a course to pass inside the Goodwin Sands. At 09-30 we got our first view of the French coast whilst making for Dover. From about 5 miles out, Dover looked pretty intimidating, with a whole stream of cross channel ferries coming in and out. A quick call to Dover port authority on the VHF intsructed us to stay 1NM off the entrance, and come across, which we did without incident.

Once past Dover the course took us close to Dungeness Head, with a good view of the old nuclear power station. It was at this point that we started to see some very dark shower clouds, and for most of the rest of the passage we were reefing and un-reefing regularly, with squalls hitting us at up to 40Kts.

 We made Sovereign Fairway buoy at 18-40, and were moored in the marina by 19-20. And, what a marina it was ! Sovereign Harbour is a whole complex of connected marinas, and small cuts into residential areas with private  moorings - very impressive.

 We had two nights in the marina to allow laundry, food shopping, and planning the next leg.