• Date: 27 april 2025
• Time: 0800 BT (UTC)
• Position: 47 49 1 N 008 40 7 W
• Course: 090 COG
• Speed: 5 SOG
• Wind: S 3 bft

Channel fever.

As long as sailors cross the ocean and are heading home it is a known phenomenom, Channel fever. An exact location for it is not known, but it is there. Sometimes hundred miles before and sometimes as late as halfway the channel. Does it really exist?

‘ Shall we turn around’  and ‘ what is the first thing you do when you get home’? are all of the sudden a topic of conversation, as well as the mentioning of relatives in stories and conversations. Some already secretly start packing bags (and tell). Some are exited and even slightly worried at the same time. Some are more silent, some are more exuberant.

This morning crawling out of my hatch I was thinking: ‘ The smell in the air is different. Or is it just imagination?

Facts are that we still have some miles to go, winds will shift not always in our favour and seas may be calm or not.

There will be more traffic around us, the VHF radio will crackle a lot more and the nightsky will show the loom of shoreside lights.

The calming oceanswell will slowly be replaced by tidal waters seastate. The colour of the water changes. More birds. We even may see land….

Channel fever yes or no?

Arian