The short version of our visit to Ramsgate, according to Kerenza:
Donkey derby
Read books all day
Met a parrot on the boat
Got drunk
Six in a diving bell
Group massage
The long version, starting from Southwold:
A gloriously sunny day in Southwold… those of us who had never been to Suffolk were very pleasantly surprised by this part of the world. The river and its rickety landing stages and personal sheds all along
the bank, with small gardens and bits of boats, contrasted greatly with the
pristine chocolate boxy town of Southwold itself. Great beer from Adnams too – but fantasies of
moving here were short lived when we noticed that even beach huts cost
£100,000.
We had arrived in Southwold on the high tide. As the tide fell in the river, Frangi
settled on the bottom. The promised clearance of at least a metre under the
keel turned out to be wrong, as we found out when Frangi started to heel over
to port – quite
alarming when not under 
way! Fortunately she didn’t go
over enough to hit the landing stages and soon righted herself as the tide
turned. A quick manoeuvre with ropes moved her down the pontoon to where the
harbourmaster told us there would be a deeper spot.
After a pleasant evening in the pub (what a surprise) we followed Clive’s first
rule of navigation by leaving at 8.30 and turning right. In contrast to yesterday, we had no wind whatsoever so we motoried down to Ramsgate (the reference above to donkeys will become clear
now- donkey equals engine in Paul-speak)… but as it was hot and sunny and it
was the first day in nearly 5 weeks when we have not gone under sail we could
hardly complain. We visited the principality of Sealand and waved to Prince
Michael, before continuing on Martin’s planned
route.
Just off Ramsgate we were visited by a parrot. He came and landed on the boom
and turned out to be very tame, sitting on Bob’s hand and eating muesli. He obviously
decided in the end that he didn’t want to be Frangi’s mascot for the rest of
the trip and flew off to visit a faster boat before heading back towards land.
We arrived in Ramsgate around 6pm and yes, you guessed… headed for the pub for a refreshing pint (or two) before
dinner. On the way back, Kerenza insisted we explored a diving bell outside the
museum - interesting as it was designed for one person – but we proved six
could fit. Returning to the boat we all sat out on deck on a balmy evening enjoying
the benefits of reciprocal shoulder massage whilst dinner cooked. Martin went
to bed with a big grin on his face, extolling the virtues of sailing
holidays...
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