Nelson said harbours rot boats and men and it
certainly felt like that to me. I had
been faffing around avoiding going sailing both for valid reasons explained
above but also due to my own anxiety. At
the start of every sailing season there is always a degree of nervousness and a
degree of relearning what you have forgotten over the winter but this year
perhaps daunted by the size of the sailing adventure ahead of me.
So, it was in with both feet that I awoke at 0500 on
Monday 9th May. I walked
Captain (the dog who would be accompanying me) along the pontoon and back
several times the levels of anxiety rising.
There were a number of jobs still to do, insert the log which tells you
the boat speed through the water, take the sail cover off, attach the main
halyard, turn on the instruments and sort the mooring lines out.
As I was departing I notices an old Hillyard, wooden
boat built in Littlehampton passed me. In the gloom as I prepare the boat.
But by 0538 I was ready to depart and undertake my
first sail of the year! The wind was
from the east, just the direction I wanted to travel. Unfortunately boats cannot sail directly into
the wind. You have to tack, or zig zag a
boat upwind.
I left Portsmouth harbour for a while and took a
route through the dolphins, a three legged structure that marked a gap in the
old wartime submarine barrier protecting Portsmouth. It was low water and spring tides meaning
there are higher high tides and lower low tides and to my concern there was very
little water under the keel. I had
sailed this route many times when I used to keep Poldeaux in Portsmouth harbour
and never notices so little water! I
gradually edged seaward and slowing the depth increased. I could see the boat that passed me out to
sea also eading east.
The wind was also stronger than I had hopped being a
good force 5 and sometimes force 6 and it was getting lumpy too. This did not please Captain as this was his
first sail since October last year. It
took him a long time to settle in his bed.
Eventually Boulder and Street buoys appeared that
mark a narrow channel south of Selsey Bill, but avoids going further south to
avoid the shallow water. The best time
to go through the Looe channel is slack water when the tide is on the turn, as
the water is smooth, but I was late, partly because I did not wish to get up at
some ungodly hour and also the boat jobs that needed doing before departure.
Consequently there were standing waves where the tide now running fast over the
shallows build uo into a rough patch of sea which throws the boat and its
occupants about. Not pleasant.
As I passed through the channel and said good bye to
Portsmouth and the Spinnaker Town in the grey stormy doom. That is the last time I will see that patch
of sea for a while.
As I mentioned before I departed I was feeling
distinctly nervous but when I thought about it now they had gone.
I could see the white roof of Butlins and the other
well known sights and landmarks of my home town Bognor Regis, it was 0930. Bognor passed to be replaced by
Littlehampton, my place of work for 35 years, it was 1045 and I thought of my
former colleagues sitting at their desks on a Monday morning!
Then came Rustington,, Worthing, Shoreham and
eventually the outline of Brighton appeared.
A number of south coast ports have been badly
effected this winter by the winter storms which has caused entrances to silt
up. Brighton was one of these, but I
would be arriving at around high water so this was not an issue for me.
Mooring was rather rushed as it is years since I
have been to Brighton and as it was my first mooring of the year I was very
rusty.
Luckily a member of staff was on hand to take my
lines along with a gentleman who later advised me he did sailed round the UK back in 2014 in his
Sadler 26. He was waiting for the
engineer to visit to fix his engine. I
had arrived at my first destination, 48 miles completed and it was 1405 a
voyage of 8 hours 23 minutes.
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