The adventure begins!!

After leaving Fox’s Marina, we were keen to get our adventures started.

Those of you following our posts will know that we have already sailed leisurely down to the South Coast, stopping off to spend time discovering new places (see posts from September/October 2020). So, this time we decided to use the trip south to develop our sailing skills further, sailing longer distances and including more overnight sails.

The first leg of the journey was from Ipswich to Eastbourne.

Using our almanac, pilot guides, charts (paper and electronic) and, of course, our weather forecast apps, we planned our passage. The distance would be around 100 nautical miles and take us about 20 hours.

We set off from Fox’s at 1145 and had a gentle motor down the River Stour to Harwich. The wind was slight and not in the right direction for us to sail. However, the tidal flow was with us and we made good speed. By 1pm we were passing the container ports at Felixstowe and heading out to sea.

The wind was south-easterly, blowing at Force 5 (17-21 knots) and this made for a great sail down Black Deep and past the wind farms.

By 8pm, still sailing, we were crossing the entrance to the Thames, keeping careful lookouts for large ships heading in and out of London. We reached North Foreland in time for the sun to go down.

We continued down the coast, past Ramsgate and towards Dover, tacking backwards and forwards to make the most of the wind. Martin took first night shift while I tried to get some sleep. No chance, the wind had picked up to Force 6 (22-27 knots) and the boat was rocking about and it was very noisy. On deck, Martin had a busy shift, watching out for buoys and cardinals and managing the sails when tacking single handed.

My shift was much calmer. The winds had dropped back down to Force 5 and I even managed to tack the boat a couple of times without waking Martin – I was very impressed! Soon, the sun had started to come up and things were going so well that I carried on, letting Martin sleep ’til 8am.

By this time, we were heading towards Dungeness. The tidal flow had turned and we were needing to motor sail to make head way. It was like this for several hours.

Eventually, we did manage to sail again. This was for the for the last couple of hours before arriving at Eastbourne at 3pm. Unfortunately our timing was not great. This was low tide and we were advised by the Marina to wait for an hour before coming in to the lock to ensure that we had enough water beneath us. We dropped anchor just outside the harbour entrance and had a well deserved cup of tea.

At 4.00pm the Marina radioed to say that there would be enough water for us to come in and by 4:30pm we were safely through the lock and berthed up in the marina.

Distance logged 142nm and time taken just under 29 hours.

We woke up to a beautiful day. The sun was shining in a bright blue sky. Wanting to ensure that we had the tidal flow with us down to the Needles, we set off at 10am and headed around the northern end of the Isle of Wight. As we approached Cowes, we were met by 100s of other boats. It was Cowes Week and we found ourselves right in the middle of several races! It was an interesting morning navigating our way through them all.

In spite of this, we made excellent time. The tidal flow helped us reach speeds of nearly 8 knots and by 1:30pm we had raced past Hurst Castle and were heading out to sea.

This set the tone for the rest of the day. Winds of Force 5 (17-21 knots), tidal flow with us and continued speeds of 8knots. Before we knew it, we were sailing pat the Lulworth firing range and heading towards Portland Harbour.

We arrived safely and dropped anchor at 7pm after 56 nm and 8 hours.

We were pleased with our trip and treated ourselves to a glass of wine (or two) to celebrate our success.