Over the bank holiday weekend the sarf east gang popped over the channel to Dunkirk for a beer.
Leaving Dover after a heavy fried breakfast the two pre war
sea riders manned by Daisy Duke (AKA Hannah Austin), Chris parker and myself in Chris's boat and Swifty, Swifty junior (Adam) and the Water Merlin (aka Neil Austin) headed out and across to South Goodwin before making the crossing over towards Calais, a quick left at Calais and we were in Dunkirk in no time at all, once birthed at the yacht club we found that Daniel (Top Bannana) was in the area and had decided to join us at Dunkirk.
After checking into the hotel we hit the town for food and beer, sadly Dunkirk seemed to close down fairly early so it was back to the hotel bar only to find that closed too
Sunday morning we met up with Daniel for a leisurely breakfast and wandered back down to the marina to pay up and head back across.
The run up from Dunkirk to Calais was pretty un eventful but once we turned out into the channel the sea lumped up quite considerable, heading back towards South Goodwin we made the decision to turn west and zig zag into the prevailing wind back into Dover.
The trip was great and a big thank you to Swifty and Chris P for organising, the sea riders although looking worn and tatty really lived up to there reputation as superb sea going boats, even to the extent that we ran head to wind in a force 3-4 without getting the slightest bit wet.
