The English Channel Crossing

There is something special about leaving the harbor. You leave the safe land behind you and head out for the unknown, not sure what you will see. You aren´t sure if the weather will be good or bad, if the waves will be higher than you or just small bumps on a glowing surface. If the dolphins will guide you home or if you will stand there in the rain hoping your shift will end soon so you can go to bed.

Today we left Cherbourg to continue our voyage towards Rotterdam. At 10.15 our pilot came onboard and we got ready to leave the harbor. Everyone walked to their positions and we slowly but surely left the dock and did a U-turn in the tight marina. We had docked all the way in, almost inside the city center. There was a bridge and two big doors that created a dam so we wasn´t affected by the 11-meter tide difference blocking our way. We waited for the bridge to open up so we could get out to the open sea. When we passed through the small gap where the bridge used to be we got photographed from both left and right by the people waiting for their turn to walk across. Not long after we left Cherbourg behind us and started are second last leg across the English Channel towards the Netherlands.

We got the sun with us today but sadly the wind is blowing right in our faces so we will have to travel by motor all the way. Because we probably won´t use the sails on this leg we spent our watch fixing them so they looked nice and representative. The night watch was spent cleaning main deck and eating quesadillas.

There is still a couple days left of this leg so we will have to see what awaits us. At the moment we are passing through a high traffic zone so there are many other boats passing us left and right. Hopefully we´ll se some dolphins or other marine life but I don´t think they are hanging around here by all the large ships. But as always when you’re at sea, you´ll have to wait and see because nothing is certain.

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