A day of rest

Today has been a day of rest. We've wandered around Boulogne, taken a taxi to the hypermarche, and generally wasted time.... David and Helen very kindly took the kids for ice creams for an hour, so we were able to really relax for a while.... The afternoon was a pleasant combination of a light lunch, a couple of really good bottles of wine, and a long afternoon nap (2 hours!) on the foredeck in the glorious sunshine (temp reached 26deg).... I could really take to the crusing life! This evening, we wandered back into town over the bridge, and followed the all important tradition by eating out on Moules et Frites.... lovely..... Back to the boat by 21h00.... completely knackered..... We've decided to head for Calais tommorrow..... its a nice easy passage, plus makes the return leg back to Ramsgate much easier.... so its a very nice civilised start tommorrow of about midday to catch the easterly tide, and then about 4 hours down to Calais in time for high water..... It doesn't look like there will be a lot of wind, so it might be a bit less than 4 hours if we end up motoring with a supporting tide... could be as little as 2 and a 1/2.... One concern... the pilot refers to the lock being open between 1 1/2 to 2 hours before HW, and 1/2 to 1 hour after, so we need to time it right.......otherwise its a long haul of a further 20nm onto Dunkerque