Small Boat to Chichester - Day 9

At last the weather has become a little more spring like. A relatively short hop today from Brighton to Eastbourne to position ourselves for either a visit to Rye or the long leg to Dover

We left Brighton at 7:15 and within 15 minutes, as soon as we were clear of the breakwater, we had the sails up and the engine off.

Although there was still a bit of a chill inn the air, we had a cracking sail reaching beautifully at over 5 knots. This is a point of sailing that had been frustrating with the old sails as I could never get them to drive. The only problem with the new sails is the face ache I've got from wearing a stupid grin as they drive like the devil!

After a touch of the headland doldrums around Beachy Head, we came hard on the wind as it stiffened to a solid F4 gusting 5 and veered into the North West. In one gust we logged a scarcely believable 6.5 knots. With a couple of knots of fair tide our VMG was sitting at a spectacular 7 to 8 knots for long periods

Arriving in short order off Eastbourne it was tempting to press on eastwards but good sense prevailed and we tacked up to the harbour entrance before dropping the sails and motoring into the lock.

One of our best sails yet and in sunshine too!

The afternoon was spent on fueling up, stocking up from the supermarket on site, showering etc.before Rik and I walked into Eastbourne inn search of fish and chips and a decent pint. Both were duly procured and it was a pleasant walk along the sea front too

Tomorrow we has planned to head for Rye but we've been forced to have a rethink. The forecast is for onshore winds which are not good for entering the harbour plus it's very spring tides which means a flow rate of up to 5 knots on the flood

Brigantia will only do just over 5 knots flat out and we'd have to go in on the flood, turn and stem the tide if we wanted to get up into the town (and there's little point going into Rye if you don't).

So that's out and it's back to Dover tomorrow!