When these doors open at 0425 am on Sat Oct 12, 2019, our world cruise begins by leaving the Netherlands into the Westerschelde and heading for Dunkerque in Northern France. It is not the best part of the year to sail South through the English Channel and we know we have to negotiate the weather windows between the Autumn depressions with their strong prevailing South-Westerlies until we are in Spain.
We had been waiting in Vlissingen for favourable conditions for almost a week, and now had 24 hours of light winds on the nose, so we could finally depart, although we would be motoring 95 NM all the way. We arrived 13.30 same day. Most important; we had left!
With Two B safely moored in Port du Grand Large we explored the vicinity of the port. The Dunkirk lighthouse is with a focal hight of 60 meters the highest in France. It is visible for over 26 NM.
In June 1940, some 340,000 Belgian, British and French troops were evacuated from the East pier and beaches by a fleet of over 800 vessels ranging from war ships and fishing boats to pleasure craft, yachts and lifeboats. Churchill hailed their rescue as a “miracle of deliverance”.
The museum about this largest war evacuation in history is housed in Bastion 32, one of the French coastal defences build in 1874, and the French – Anglo headquarters for Operation Dynamo.
As a mechanical engineer Frits was particularly intrigued by this 24 Cylinder aircraft engine.
The Hawker planes were successful in ground attacks. The powerful engines enabled a high payload of bombs, heavy machine guns and even anti-tank rockets. It was the Hawker planes that caused heavy losses to the German Panzers when the allies moved North in a (failed) attempt to cross the river Rhine near Arnhem, Netherlands. See movie; A Bridge too far.
Tour du Leughenaer initially served as the Lighthouse for Dunkerque.
Dunkerque is a large industrial city with a huge industrial port. That, and our desire to get to warmer climes quickly, made for a short but pleasant stay.