2005 Part 1: UK's South
coast.
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Eastbourne to
Brighton (29th
March, 17.5 miles)
Over the winter
Sovereign Harbour at
Eastbourne has been home
to Paul & Mo on
Ti-Gitu,
Sune & Emmy on
Karma and Phil &
Rose on Touch Wood,
and over the next few
weeks they leave for
their own summer cruises
but only Mithril
is going West this week.
We fuelled up, filtering
the whole 250 litres
through the Baja filter
as this season we'll
take no chances on
foreign bodies in the
diesel. It took ages.
Then, with some sadness,
we passed through the
second biggest marina
lock in Europe and out
to sea; the sailing
season had begun.
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The passage.
Visibility was about
half-a-mile even though
we had a Nor-Easterly F5
wind blowing. We
unfurled the genoa and
set off down wind at a
great rate of knots soon
arriving at Beachy Head.
We could hear the fog
horn but it was not
until we ventured close
inshore that Janet saw
the light house; our
arrival at the headland
had been arranged to be
at slack water to give
us smooth passage. Then
with the tide starting
its push westwards we
progressively turned to
starboard until the wind
was on the beam,
allowing us to reach all
the way to Brighton. A
cracking start to the
season.
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Osborne Bay (31st
March, 46 miles)
The passage. We
left Brighton at 0930
with the tide against
us, just as it would be
for the next 4 hours, so
that we would arrive in
the Solent during
daylight. Visibility was
maybe one mile but there
was absolutely no wind
and the sea was like a
mirror. We carried full
main sail so as to
improve our visibility
to others and cracked on
the engine. The hours
ticked by slowly but
eventually we arrived at
Selsey Bill and, as the
tide as now with us, we
decided to go through
the Looe Channel.
Whilst down below, just
as we were passing the
Looe channel buoys,
there was a loud and
seemingly random
clicking noise and this
puzzled me. Then Janet
let out a cry and said
we had a very large
bottlenose dolphin just
off our stern. I grabbed
the camera and raced on
deck and saw a huge
dolphin right alongside
the cockpit, naturally
the camera batteries
were flat so no piccies.
It swam alongside for
about 3 minutes,
alternating sides
regularly. Occasionally
it would disappear but
its loud clicking told
us it was near and when
Janet shouted it would
reappear. Amazing
really.
We entered the Solent
passing "No Mans Land
Fort" at about 1600 and
decided to anchor in
Osborne Bay, close to
the shore below Queen
Victoria's Isle of Wight
residence. The tidal
calculations were
tricky, secondary ports
and queer Solent tidal
curves, but we anchored
cautiously and dug the
anchor in well. There
was still no wind.
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Motoring in the Fog
A Bavaria 42 with crew
from the UKSA were in
Brighton at the same
time as us and similarly
were returning to the
Solent. One of the crew,
Mark Prince, took
this shot as they
motored passed Mithril.
He later emailed the
file to us.
Thanks Mark.
Newtown Creek
(1st & 2nd April, 9
miles)
Sat in Osborne Bay
during the morning it
was quite weird
listening to ships
traveling up the Solent
into Southampton but not
being able to see any of
them. We listened on the
local traffic channel
and had our active radar
reflector doing its
thing so hopefully they
could see us. Being in
only a couple of metres
of water meant that only
small vessels came near
us.
The passage. With
the wind Easterly and
only F2 (a tail wind) it
would be a slow sail to
Newtown Creek and, as
the fog was making
visibility only about
50m, we decided to await
the tide turning and
hope the sun would drive
away the fog.
At 1400 we up-anchored
and with full genoa
sailed cautiously up
towards Cowes.
Visibility was still the
same but we had the sun
starting to shine dimly
above us so maybe the
fog would disappear.
Just off Cowes we lost
our bottle, I mean
common sense prevailed,
and we decided to follow
a depth contour into
Cowes as we dare not
cross the estuary in the
current visibility. Then
quite suddenly the fog
cleared in front of us
and so we turned for
Newtown Creek, now about
5 miles away. More
worrying over tidal
calculations showed the
depth to be OK so in we
went and picked up a
buoy.
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Newton Creek is owned
and managed by the
National Trust, it is a
beautiful spot and well
worth a visit, but not
at weekends during the
season as its bedlam. We
arrived at the end of
the Easter week and
picked up the last
available buoy but there
must have been another
25 boats anchored by
dusk. Cost was £12.50
per night.
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Weymouth (3rd
April, 36 miles)
The passage. We
set off from Newtown
Creek at 0630 aiming to
get the most out of the
tide. The wind was light
but we hoisted full main
and motored towards the
Needles off the Western
end of the Isle of
Wight. As we neared the
Needles the wind rose to
about F4 from the South,
perfect for the passage.
With full sail we
reached out past the
rocks off St Albans Head
and then turned for
Weymouth. The passage
was a delight and the
wind remained until we
were about 3 miles from
the harbour. We motored
in and tied up on the
town quay at about 1300.
A fast and relaxed sail.
We spent a week in
Weymouth; cycling round
Portland, taking the
coastal bus to Lyme
Regis and neighboring
Abbotsbury and walking a
15 mile section of the
coastal path along
Chesil Beach but best of
all was our first day
treat. On arriving we
decided we would pig-out
on fish and chips from
the harbour side chippy.
Wonderful, and Janet
should know, she was
born in Guiseley the
home of the famous Harry
Ramsden and the famous
fish and chip shop.
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Looking down onto
Chesil Beach
Here we have stopped for
a rest, the wind is near
gale force and we are
looking down from the
coastal path onto Chesil
Beach and one of the
inland lakes created
behind the beach. At the
right-hand end of the
lake is Abbotsbury a
small town with a
swannery having about
2000 resident swans
during the breeding
season.
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Dartmouth (11th
April, 46 miles)
The passage. We
left Weymouth at midday
aiming to be at Portland
Bill 30 mins before HW
Dover. There was little
wind so we motored to
the Bill and found the
tide already running
West. Maybe next time
we'll be there 60 mins
before HW Dover. We went
close in along the
inshore route and then
straight across Lyme
Bay, 45 miles to
Dartmouth. It was all
pretty boring and the NW
F2 wind made it blooming
cold.
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Dartmouth's Orient
Express
As Saturday was Janet's
birthday I offered to
take her on the Orient
Express and dine her
royally. Naturally she
accepted and so it was
that we took the
Dartmouth to Paignton
steam train for lunch
and a day out in
Paignton. Paignton is
quite a nice town once
you see beyond the
stalls selling
kiss-me-quick hats and
the likes.
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We could see no point in
paying to have permanent
access to the shore if
it cost an extra £8 per
night so we moored mid
river and dinghy'd
ashore when necessary
and it worked quite well
except for power
consumption from the
battery. We had a wind
powered generator but we
rarely had wind, we had
a solar panel but most
days were overcast so
the battery state was a
concern and I didn't
like to run the engine
just to charge it.
Biggest consumer was the
central heating but we
needed it as many nights
were down to 2 degrees C
and even the days were
only 11 or 12 degrees C
that week.
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