Day 1 of Journey to Crete: Crossing the Channel

The day finally arrived when we three Travel Airs took to the sky and headed for Belgium to meet up with Team Frog and Kiwi (Cedric and his wife Alexandra) with whom we would fly down eastern France towards the Riviera on our way to the rally's starting point on Island of Crete.

Tuesday October 25th, we took off from Shoreham a little sad to see our wonderful communities of Alfriston and Shoreham Field receding from view as we headed towards our crossing point over the English Channel.  We naturally picked the narrowest expanse of water to cross.  We wore our life vests and I had on my lap our neatly packed four man life raft --- "just in case".

Moments before takeoff from Shoreham, it poured.  Rosalind had come to see us off and we could see her standing outside the terminal surely wondering if we were going to be all right.  When the rain stopped, visibility in our direction of flight improved a little and we took off.  More people than Rosalind were gathered to wave as we climbed in formation and headed east.  It was a touching and wonderful sight.  Our planes had become a novelty there for two weeks and I'm sure our friends on the ground were all wishing us a safe journey.

We followed the coast east until we got to Lydd then turned south for the crossing. Nick said to me over our intercom system, "Okay, we're going to be out over water for 30 minutes."  I turned and looked back at him, gave him a thumbs up sign, patted the raft on my lap,  and calmly looked out at the afternoon light reflecting off patches of the Channel which to a large extent became obscured by the shadowy  overcast.  Our landfall target was near Calais.  The lure of history brought before me images of Hitler's high command generals quibbling about the landing site of the coming allied invasion and the consensus among them that surely it had to be Calais.  To the extent that these generals registered dismay at their huge error in judgment, I'm sure the people of Calais were relieved to not be the backdrop of such a violent drama played out in the pursuit of liberating Europe, and from our point of view, the region we were now approaching and would be flying over for the next few days.

It was a welcoming sight to spot the French coast after flying through light mist at 1000' staying clear of the clouds.  Sunshine and clearer skies washed over the entire landscape and I could start thinking about the 'vin et fromage' we would soon be enjoying at our destination in Charleroi, Belguim  -- home to our rally mates, Cedric and Alexandra.

Enroute to checkpoint at Lydd. The Channel is in the distance.

Looking over at Team Barnstormers when over the Channel.