Tuesday 20th August 2019 - Burnham to Ramsgate

So Patrick finished work on Friday and travelled down to join us bringing along cousin Oliver. Oliver hasn't been brought up in this sailing, travelling life but was keen to "go abroad" this summer and was particularly excited about the prospect of visiting Dunkirk as he is a real WW2 history buff. After a 1/2 hour delay on the Leeds - Kings Cross train meaning a missed connection they eventually joined us in the Royal Burnham Yacht Club at about 9:30pm where the kids and I were celebrating a weeks dinghy sailing at the Cadet Week Prizegiving. We had all had a busy but fun week and I had found an old sailing friend managing the bar whom I hadn't seen for about 15 years. It was so lovely to see her again and she happily saved some food for the boys which was greatly appreciated.

We spent the next few days making final preparations to Laurin while waiting for a weather window to leave on our summer cruise, whilst still finding time for cinema visits, milkshakes and a trip to Maldon Combined Military Services Museum for the boys and a girlie shopping trip for the girls. Apparently the Museum was a hidden gem and Patrick couldn't believe we hadn't been before.









Finally we had a good weather forecast and we left at the top of the tide at 4am Tuesday morning. We had allowed the kids to stay up late on electronics while Patrick and I got an early night. This would hopefully mean that the kids slept later as the wave forecast was a little more lumpy than we deem comfortable... as a general rule of thumb we want the period in seconds to be at least double the wave height in feet. It was good to be on passage again and Patrick and I enjoyed some child free time watching the sun rise alongside the wind turbines which many dislike but I think are kind of beautiful in their own way.

It wasn't too long before more heads surfaced and after crossing the SW sunk we put some sails up and enjoyed a lovely if a little bumpy sail all the way to Ramsgate, filling up with white diesel to avoid any issues with red in Oostende, and berthing in time for lunch. The guy operating the pump couldn't believe the 120 litres we fit in our tank and Oliver's eyes watered at us spending £180 on fuel!

A couple of nights previously our friend Dan had dropped by and whilst eating his "smelly cheese" and drinking wine he told us that you could now visit the WW2 tunnels in Ramsgate. We were delighted to be in time to make the last guided tour so after a hot dog lunch I booked us in. We all enjoyed some down time and a shower before heading out to explore at about 3pm. First stop was the arcades which had seen us make Ramsgate our first stop on our "Big Adventure". Interestingly this time it didn't hold quite the same appeal and we were soon on our way to the tunnels, however we were pleased to spot at least one Dunkirk "Little Ship" on the way.

We have been reading My Story - Hero at Dunkirk by Vince Cross and  through this had we become aware of the tunnels which Dan had subsequently told us of. During our "Big Adventure" we realised the value of "Living Books" as a means of bringing a topic alive for kids prior to visiting historic sites. We had really enjoyed reading stories of soldiers at the D-Day landings and I hoped to bring Dunkirk to Life for them in the same way. The trip to the Ramsgate tunnels was the icing on the cake.

First up we explored the museum at the entrance to the old railway tunnel at the entrance to the deep shelter tunnels. AJ enjoyed hiding from  bombs in a Morrison Shelter whilst Esme was enthralled by the "old fashioned" telephone being very proud that she "knew how it worked".

We then met our fantastic volunteer guide, Mick, who showed us a short film before making sure our hard hats fitted and starting our tour. A brief history of the rail system into Ramsgate was followed by a hour or so walking through the deep shelter tunnels. The tunnels were designed by designed by Richard Dangar Brimmel and brought to life by "Mad Mayor" Arthur Bloomfield Courtney (ABC) Kempe. They were designed to hold up to 60,000 people and no resident of central Ramsgate was ever more than 5 minutes from an entrance. In the WW1 28 bombs dropped by the Germans caused 28 deaths. During WW2 over 500 bombs dropped on 24th August 1940 resulted in just 31 deaths, a testament to the success of the tunnels.

Towards the end of the tour we were shown a partial reconstruction of "Tunnel Town", an area of the old railway tunnel which was used to house families whose houses had rendered uninhabitable by bombs and had no friends or family able to take them in. Over a period of time these makeshift homes were improved by scavenging anything they could from their bombed out houses, with barbers setting up shop down below as well as musical performances being arranged. In fact at least 2 babies have "Ramsgate Tunnel Town" as their place of birth on their birth certificates.

We finished our long day with a trip to Pizza Express courtesey of Mr Tesco as none of us could face cooking or the cleaning up after. It already seems that Laurin is now destined to be a vehicle not just for adventuring but also for learning, another hidden benefit of our time as liveaboards and home educators!