Down Channel 1

 

Stargazer reels in the gusts. Tugging at her lines. Eager to be under way. Aware that the tides have been fair these past three days, or more. Her ensign snaps and cracks impatiently on the backstay. This north east breeze is favourable, for a passage south. But it is gusting to thirty knots. Too strong for the beat out of the Medway and on to North Foreland; before we ease sheets for a broad reach Down Channel.

Today four hundred runners stream around the dock side boulevards, in the April sunshine. They are competing in the annual Chatham Maritime 10k Marathon. Pacing themselves to make the distance, as Stargazer and I must. We have the whole summer ahead of us, the time to pick our weather windows; however keen we may be for our cruise to begin.

On Stargazer's bulkhead, the barometer is already rising. The north east wind is forecast to ease, through the coming week. Tides will be neap. Reducing their accelerative assistance; but also alleviating depth anxieties, amongst the shoals of the north Kent coast. They favour mid morning departures and evening arrivals. Once we identify our weather window.