weekend plans

Looking at what to do this weekend.... we are thinking of heading down towards Burnham.... its about 35 Miles, but tides aren't perfect for the outward trip... it'll mean an early start of around 04h30.... but its a lot more attractive for the return with a optimum departure at 09h00........ at least an 04h30 start means that we'll get the afternoon in Burnham.... its a nice simple passage, one little dog leg through a channel between sandbanks at the end of the journey, but otherwise pretty straightforward... Burnham itself looks very easy to enter, although I've never been in there...... We are also thinking long and hard about what we should do with a our week off in August.... its 9 days, and ideally we would like to cross the channel... I'm a little hesitatant as we have a very old liferaft that hasn't been serviced since god knows when.... and I wouldn't want to trust it..... affording a new one before then is out of the question... so either a very benign weather forecast might tempt us, or we stick to the UK side of the channel for this year, and buy a new liferaft over the winter.... Plenty to keep us occupied in the UK, perhaps a trip down to Eastbourne/Brighton? However, a crossing from Ramsgate or Dover to Dunkirk could be quite good fun....and then work our way up to Flushing, and staright back to Harwich... its possible... We'll see......