By the afternoon of 29 August the English fleet was off Dungeness. The king was sitting on the deck of his ship, with his knights and nobles, listening to his minstrels playing German airs, and to the singing of young John Chandos. At 4.00 pm they sighted de la Cerda's force moving towards them with an easterly wind behind. The Castilians had become scattered and the English targeted their main body of approximately twenty-four. When the look-out in the tops reported the enemy in sight, the king and his company drank to one another's health, the trumpet was sounded, and the whole line stood out. There being no effective naval artillery at the time, battles at sea consisted of grappling with and boarding enemy vessels. In order that the Castilians not sweep past them on the wind, the English also ran before the wind, but with shortened sails so as to allow themselves to be overtaken. There seems to have been an hour before fighting commenced.