Last Friday we took the 12 noon lock out of sovereign and headed to Brighton for a few days. We had a good sail to beachy head and even thought we might be able to sail all the way to Brighton, but as is always the way the wind died after beachy and went southeast, so on with the engine. We were berthed in the visitor’s area and it was quite quiet when we arrived. The office had been contacted by premier Eastbourne and were expecting us so our fobs worked straight away – very efficient as was the lady on the radio who gave us our berthing instructions.
First sighting from the sea this year!
We enjoyed a day out in Brighton town on Saturday and managed to avoid the Royal wedding although I did see a snatch of it on a tv in Spoons whilst having coffee and Meghan looked lovely. Took a bus in which did a very circumlocuted route in (is that the right word?!) and we saw parts of Brighton we’ve never seen before. Had a walk under the cliffs on sunday which was a beautiful day then watched the boats coming and going in the visitors area, quite entertaining with a few bumps here and there. Luckily our boat wasn’t involved.
Left on Monday morning about 8.15am, a good 2 hours before low tide to ensure we had enough water under the keels. For most of the journey home we listened into the coastguard on the VHF trying to help out an 8 metre fishing boat called Lady G, which apparently had an injured man on board and was also running out of fuel. They couldn’t give an accurate position and their radio wasn’t working very well! They relayed messages via a tanker in the shipping lanes which was where the coastguard thought they were and eventually they said they were one mile south of beachy head. Meantime the lifeboat from Eastbourne had gone haring off into the shipping lanes! We got a call from Solent coastguard to keep a look out for them and told them there was a boat answering the description under way towards sovereign harbour. Didn’t think it was them because it was moving, but it was, and they sent out the inshore lifeboat to tow them into harbour. When we arrived back the boat was tied up with a crowd of police and customs people round it. We noticed that the name on the back wasn’t Lady G but some other name and home port was Port Talbot – strange! Other excitement coming back was spotting a dolphin off beachy and three seals lolloping on the mud in the harbour!
Under cliff walk, marina in the heat haze ahead.