Small Boat to Chichester - Day 4

Over a point of bloody awful over chilled keg Speckled Hen (yep, really. Words fall me) last night, we'd discussed plans and given the forecast strong winds for the latter part of the week decided to put in a long day and make Chichester Harbour if possible.

So with an early start being the order of the day, I was up after just five hours sleep for a shower then Mark and I got sorted out and just made it for the six-o-clock locking (the locks out of the marina operating on the half hour).

As soon as we were clear, the sails were up and the engine off. The weather was, for once, much as forecast. Grey overcast, F4 from the NW, occasional rain and one or two very brief glimpses of the sun.

Rounding Beachy Head the view was quite something. It did not disappoint! The chalk cliffs are stunning even on a grey day.

The wind died on us for a while but we had determined to run the engine only if totally unavoidable so we jilled about and sure enough the breeze kicked back in.

Ahead of us lay a 41 mile leg pretty well exactly due West to Selsey Bill. With the wind in the North West, we were just able to make the heading close hauled.

Apart from a few quiet spells and the odd lull the relieve the excitement, we screamed past Newhaven, Brighton and Bognor, although we were too far offshore to see whether Bognor was buggered as per the instructions of King George!

The long haul gave me a chance to tweak the sail trim, I'd rearranged the tack lashing yesterday to pull the tack closer to the mast and that plus a few slight tweaks on the outhaul and downhaul sorted the main nicely.

A bit of a heave on the genoa halyard and some fiddling with the sheet lead adjustment did the same for the headsail and for once I could sit back happy with the set of the sails.

I should think I was happy given that, apart from during the aforementioned lulls, we were logging over 5 knots and hitting close to 6 in the gusts. Add a fair tide to the equation and we were shaping up to make a truly spectacular passage.

For a spell when it was particularly gusty, I sat playing the mainsheet like a dinghy sailor, easing the sheet in the gusts to keep her on her toes and on course. Rik had a go at this later to when we had another bought of bluster from the wind gods.

We had some further excitement when the ship we'd passed at anchor off Eastbourne came up astern. From the AIS app on my phone, we were able to discover that she was the Sospan Dai - Deloitte the Welsh sounding name a Belgian dredger - and that she would pass us to port at 8 knots.

The excitement increased when she called us, at least we think it was it's although she called "sailing vessel on my port now"given that there was no other vessel in sight, and did she'd be changing course to 135 in one hour. I tried calling them back for clarification but received no reply.

The hand bearing compass confirmed to changing bearing (just good practice on this occasion) and we kept a close eye on her until sure enough, an hour later, she turned around and went the other way. The penny dropped that we were on the edge of a dredging area and she was running lanes sucking sand and gravel from the sea bed

We continued on our merry way! All good things must come to an end though. The lost time when the wind died earlier in the day now came back to haunt us as the tide turned foul with us still nearly four miles short of the Street buoy at the far end of the Looe.

We'd have to fight our way through this narrow passage between shoals with an increasing adverse current of up to 2 knots. And now the wind dropped!

Our log speed dropped from over 5 knots to under 3 knots and refused to go up again. Our SoG (speed over the ground) dropped from over 6 knots to less than 2 knots and our ETA inside the harbour was the early hours of the morning!

In desperation, we even tried the new cruising chute. After a brief hiatus when I realised I was trying to hoist it sideways, we got it set, said "wow, that's cool" with a silly grin and then the wind died altogether.

Oh well, now we could practice getting it down again! Mark tripped the tack and then ran the halyard out whilst I hauled in the sheet and bundled the sail into the corner of the cockpit. With the bag on the bridge deck it proved easy to put away too.

It was time to resort to the last resort and fire up the noise machine. It was quite interesting to approach a surf line from the wrong side, as it were! Once clear of the shoals we shaped a course to the North West towards the West Pole beacon.

The breeze now kicked back in from the North and we had just enough angle on it to make setting the genoa sheeted hard in and pinning the main across worthwhile. It gave us an extra knot of speed and, just as importantly, allowed a reduction in engine revs from "bloody noisy" to merely "noisy".

I dug out the motoring cone and hoisted it to the starboard spreader for the form of the thing. It's been lurking in the cockpit locker for two years and never been used so it was about time it was.

That didn't last and soon enough the breeze headed us and the genoa started to flog ago away it went. We kept the main up as steadying sail until just short of the channel and then dropped it before turning at the mark.

Motoring in, we tried to call Sparkes Marina on VHF 80 but there was no reply. Dropped onto the inner visitors pontoon and went walkabout and found the night dockmaster and sorted out an overnight stay.

A quick sort out on board and we tried to the Piranah Bar on site for a most excellent meal. It was so good we even had pudding!

55 miles in less than 13 hours at an average speed of over 4.3 knots. Not bad for a little boat! The new sails were worth the cost, we'd never have done it with the old rags.

Only minor niggle it's the return of the damp carpet problem. It's salt water and it seems to happen when we are pitching significantly.

I reckon it's what finds its way down the chain pipe and through the fore hatch accumulating under the inaccessible heads floor and leaking aft when the bow pitches up.

The worry, though, is that it's getting in through the equally inaccessible sink drain which has the potential to have serious consequences. Investigations will commence when we have an otherwise idle half hour.

For the next few days we'll explore the delights of Chichester Harbour before turning our thoughts to the return trip.