(AFP) As dawn broke Tuesday over the Channel, a small black dot on the horizon slowly morphed into an increasingly familiar sight: a dinghy overloaded with people desperate to reach Britain.
Those aboard, all wearing orange life jackets and including at least one woman and a child, were among dozens to attempt the crossing overnight as several days of bad weather receded.
“This year, every calm day it’s been pandemonium,” said Matt Coker, the skipper of “Portia,” [an] 11-metre (36-foot) boat chartered by AFP to see the situation in the Straits of Dover up close.
Coker, 40, is from a family of sailors and has 22 years’ experience sailing across the world’s busiest shipping lane.
