The Strait of Dover, Kent, England, and the Pas de Calais, France, were observed under clear skies as the Challenger's orbit carried the crew toward the North Sea. Several cross-channel ferries plying between Dover, Boulogne, and Calais were producing visible wakes, as were coastal freighters entering the North Sea and the English Channel. The tide was ebbing from the North Sea, carrying a plume of sediment from the Thames estuary toward the Dover coast and the famous Dungeness headland. At the same time, the tide was rising along.the French coast, carrying muddy water into the southern North Sea. On the inner part of the northeast tip of Kent, the 5,000-meter crash strip built by the British Royal Engineers to accommodate crippled British and American bombers in World War II stood out among the rolling pastures.

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