Wednesday June 8

Today: June 8, 2011

Calais, France.

We decided to start our trip for today about 08:00, just in time to catch the tidal stream South.
The weather forecast spoke about a South-East wind force 4-5.

We left the harbor with one reef in the mainsail and no reef in the Genua.
However it showed soon, that we and the weatherforecast had been to optimistic.
At the sea, between the coast and the Shipping Lane the wind turned out to be at least 6Bf
and not 5 with wind gusts to 32 knots.
Wave heights were 3 meter, some even reached at least 4 meter.

So we reduced sail to the maximum, but still we made no progress.

Half way Gravelines (The French version of Fukushima nucleair plant) we decided to ask the
help of our motor in order to get anywhere.

After hours of stamping and bouncing in the heigh waves we gave our destination up and set
for Calais harbor.

In the meantime Cees lost his favourite cap and just before the harbor entrance channel the mainsail started to tear.
So, tomorrow the reserve mainsail will be used.

The Marina of Calais has no decent internet fascility which means we have to send this blog a bit later.

We will keep you informed.
Cees, Sam, Andrej and Dima.