Circumnavigator - Crossing Our Wake
Trip Start
Aug 01, 2008
1
148
150
Trip End
Dec 20, 2008
Where I stayed
MV Aenne Rickmers
Alderney, Channel Islands, United Kingdom
Thursday, December 18, 2008
English Channel (noon) N 50° 15.1' W 00° 21.4'
We turned ENE during the night and everything became calm, save for the ubiquitous vibrations. For some reason the air conditioning is off, so opening my window is necessary and for a change it works in improving the air.
I checked our position before breakfast. "An excellent place: Great Britain to port and Great Britain to starboard" the Chief Officer declared. (Not strictly accurate, with Alderney to starboard, but the sentiment is right.)
A little later, I worked out when we'd cross the line of my outbound course, and watched for it on the GPS: I completed "Round the World by Sea" at 08:41, at 49° 58.48' North and 01° 59.17' West
Waving from Aenne
. Looking at the plan display on my hand-held GPS, I noticed it showed exotic waypoints such as "Halterworth Lane": I was only 63nm from home. I marked Mile End on the chart - something for future crews to wonder about. Later I will be even closer, but it will take about three days to get there! The Port Agent replied to the email I asked the Captain to send - he thinks I should get ashore early enough to catch a train home, assuming we berth on schedule.
It stayed fine but grey, with visibility about three or four miles most of the day but improving later. As it went dark we entered the Dover Strait and could see Dover off to the left and various lights on the French coast to the right. At about 19:45 we anchored off the northeast corner of Kent.
