Gone are the cloudless skies and summer zephyrs of our arrival.
For three days a gale has roared and raged beneath low frowning clouds. Gusts, of forty knots, send the dinghy flying, airborne on its painter, like a kite.
Overnight Stargazer’s ensign and staff are carried away, unheard and unseen, by wind and tide. Any sound they made, as they disappeared overboard, lost amid the tear of the wind and the grind of the anchor chain.
I lash our, well travelled, old ensign to the backstay and bring the dinghy into the cockpit.
The ensign, I note, actually flies more cleanly and gives a clearer view aft, than when it was on a flagstaff.
Order is restored. I go below to catch up on news. UK ports are receiving visiting boats from July 4th. Better still, the UK’s quarantine for European visitors is tipped to be dropped from the 6th. France and the Netherlands are likely to reciprocate. Our cruise proper is on!
I begin to passage plan. The tides work for a departure, southbound, mid to end of next week. It is too late in the season for a foray north to the Baltic this year. There is plenty of time, though, to explore the historic Normandy ports en route to our favourite Breton anchorages and harbours.
The forecasts vary in their opinions on when our gale will end. Some say that it will continue unabated, for a fourth day, tomorrow. Others that it will blow out during the course of tomorrow morning. In time for us to catch the tide for the Blackwater.
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