Part 2

During these early hours of the morning, one begins to feel the strain of a long watch - I had been motoring and sailing continuously since 0830 the previous day - so I was not surprised to find myself startled time and time again as my head fell forward and woke me repeatedly from momentary sleep. Later, however, after I had enjoyed the sight of dawn and sunrise,this feeling passed and I was able to sail, alert and active for the remainder of that day.

An hour or so after dawn at 0730 hours there was a sharp change of wind and conditions. For about an hour it blew from N.N.W Force 7 and I had to bring down the main. 1 sailed for a thus under the fores'l and mizen, but a little later I reefed the mails'l and brought down the mizen as the wind settled to Force 6 from N. It was hard, brisk sailing for the rest of that day and I sailed inshore to avoid getting too wet in the seas that were beginning to mount off shore.

Dungeness was passed about 1700 hours and I began to think I would be in Dover soon after dark. The wind died however and for two hours or more I made little headway off Folkestone. When I did reach Dover I had to fight a strong West-going stream with insufficient wind, and I eventually picked up a mooring in the outer harbour at exactly midnight.

I slept well that night, for I had been actually underway without a break for twenty-seven-and-a-half hours. In total my last sleep had been more than thirty hours before.

To my intense chagrin, when I awoke later that morning, I found the wind had again swung round to the East. It remained strong in the East for the next six days. At last on the 22nd, after poking my nose out of Dover harbour once or twice to find conditions impossible for getting clear past the South Goodwins, I could contain my impatience no longer; I got under way at 0930 hours. On getting outside I found there was just enough "Southing" in the wind to allow me to slip through into the North Sea.

What a joy it was, on clearing the South Goodwins, to "square away" and find a fresh wind on the beam for a few hours.

Again I indulged in undue optimism! As it turned out. It seemed that Easterly winds had become a permanent weather characteristic for Northern Europe and Britain. Rather like the "Trade-winds." Just in case this proved not to be so, I decided to get Northward as far, and as quickly as possible.

It should be mentioned here, for the benefit of those readers who like a fully detailed account of cruises, that my log-book and charts were lost later under somewhat harrowing circumstances, therefore most of what follows is from memory.