Stargazer rides the long swell, sweeping through the Gull Stream, twenty four knots of breeze at her back. The sun has just broken through, sparkling on the foam flecked water. The recumbent arm of the South Foreland is draped across the horizon.
It has been a long hard beat, out of the Swale and on to North Foreland. Tack on tack up the channel.
Skimming the shoals, over to the Whitstable shore. Battling for our easting.
Then a shoulder down charge, along the north Kent coast. Short tacking through the Copperas channel. Stargazer's boards becoming progressively longer, as the waters deepen, beyond Herne Bay. The seas short and steep.
Until we gain the open sea. Round the North Foreland. Stargazer at last able to point her bows Down Channel. To ease her sheets, surf the swells.
Stargazer crosses the wake of Merlin, inbound for Ramsgate, making eight knots over the ground. Once past, I duck below, taking advantage of the eased motion, to brew soup and coffee.
Stargazer thunders down the Gull Stream. The deep water channel which bisects the Goodwin Sands. And funnels the force of the tide. On deck, I begin to ready lines and fenders. At this rate, we will soon arrive off Dover's eastern entrance.
"Dover Port Control, Stargazer, arriving from the north. Permission to enter harbour, please."
"Stargazer, I'm tracking you. Please make your best speed. . . . (The P&O Ferry). . . . Pride of Kent is about to come away. You have a green to enter."
Stargazer rockets through the harbour mouth, all sails drawing, making nine point two knots over the ground.
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