Passage: Portsmouth to Dover

 

Dover was our final port in England before our much-anticipated crossing to mainland Europe and the two big boat festivals. I had very much enjoyed our visit to nearby Ramsgate last summer so was curious to see how this town would work out. We had read that it was a much bigger commercial port, and also had a historic castle to explore. 

Screenshot of my weather app showing near hurricane-force winds to the north.

Our departure from Portsmouth was delayed by a day due to this very nasty weather system. Glad we waited, now we have blue skies and good sailing winds. This particular sail is the "velacho;" the foreward top sail. We're all given a line drawing of the ship to memorize that has the names of ship parts in English and Spanish; many of these words are far to obscure for google translate! And I can understand basic maritime commands like "make that line fast;" "turn the ship 10 degrees to starboard;" or "look out for the fishing boat there." Other than that, though, my command of the language is more basic, insufficient for the kind of conversations that help pass the time on the midnight watch. Sometimes my confusion about words can be pretty funny: "goleta" is the word for a schooner, and "galleta" is the word for a cookie. So guess who was trying to explain the beautiful vessel Adventurer, but told a shipmate that we represented a 48-foot cookie at a maritime festival in June before coming to the Galeon? 

My view of the "velacho;" from the quarterdeck. 

These channel markings don’t show numbers on them, they have names. This particular one is “Horse Elbow.” I want to know the story behind it. Also, red and green sides of the channel are reversed compared to the way they are in the US (just like driving on the left). Messes with my brain!

I see France off the starboard rail and England off the port rail, so we must be approaching Dover. Pic is Jaye being interviewed for a series about the range of ships that come into the port. Interviews when one is sleep deprived are always interesting.

Coming into Dover: view of the famous white cliffs. They really blaze in the morning sunlight.

Fire boat displaying for our welcome.

Crew members readying the "defensas" (fenders). They're huge, heavy, and effective. 

Closer view of the fire boat.

Dover Castle on the hill -- our planned destination for our first day off. We work all weekends, and it's actually kind of nice that therefore our days off tend to be weekdays where tourist attractions like this one are less crowded.

A map of smoke from Canadian wildfires, that made it all the way to England!