Mahaskah's new home

Mahaskah in Newhaven Marina

Walking into the Marina that Monday afternoon to wait for John, (we hadn't moved from the Visitors' berth yet) I felt a surge of something: it was a small thing, and actually it was also quite a big thing- many years ago  I promised myself that I would one day walk into a Marina and go to my boat. Now here I was.
It is a dream come true.

Chichester Harbour to Newhaven, part 2

On a foggy early morning start we picked up Bill from Newhaven and Seaford Sailing Club and drove to Dell Quay.

John and Bill drove through Itchenor reach and out into the harbour while I made bacon sandwiches. We had the masinsail up, but for looks rather than because there was wind.

By the time we had got to West Pole Beacon, the tide was halfway to low, and we were slightly in advance of our schedule. This was no problem as the sea state was slight and the wind light and variable from the east.
We hoped to be able to find a bit of southerly wind to unroll the genoa.

The swell through the Looe Channel, because of its shallowness, set a rolling motion that didn't suit John's constitution, however, with Bill's help we made the acquaintance of a new crew member; we shall call him George:

intoducing George

George is an electronic auto pilot. His cheery red casing perfectly matches our "his 'n hers" oilskins, and his retro 70's styling works well with ours.

Here is George doing all the work while John catches some ZZZZs.

Nothing changed much for many hours, we saw some fishing boats off Littlehampton. When the flooding tide picked up, we found we were doing 5.9 knots over the ground, Bill and I ate a chicken stew I had brought with us.

The sun was going down as we were level with Brighton, and about an hour into the dark, John took the tiller and brought us safely into Newhaven Marina.

The journey had taken 10 hours motor sailing- boring, bit cold, but uneventful.
It would have been an entirely different experience without Bill, and without the auto pilot.

Dell Quay to Newhaven

The boatyard want to remove all the moorings for the winter, and we want to bring Mahaskah to Newhaven, so we have been waiting for optimal conditions, namely wind direction, to coincide with our availability.

We are now nearly at the end of November, and we have pushed our fortunes along a little by asking the wider sailing world for some support. Our slight lack of confidence in traversing the Looe Channel and sailing into unfamiliar water as the days have grown shorter, led me to send out a couple of emails, one to Newhaven Yacht Club and one to Arun Yacht Club, which is based in Littlehampton, and a phone call to our former RYA Day Skipper Instructor.
We have had a response from all quarters, which is lovely and reassuring.

We have had an eye on various weather websites, looking for a change in the Easterlies which seem to have prevailed since a large high pressure system has been sitting in Northern Europe for the last 3-4 weeks.

Tom Cunliffe author of The Channel Pilot, (and everyone else we talk to about it) says that we must be ready at the start of the Looe Channel (which is a safe passage through the wild outfalls south east of Selsey Bill) at low tide. This gives maximum opportunity for travelling east with the flooding tide.

So here's the theory: we can leave Dell Quay at 2.5 hours either side of high water, it takes about 2 hours to motor to Chichester Bar, ( but don't want to be around there when the water is low, and there's a swell as the shallow stuff can get a bit close to the boat). We don't really know how long it will take to be at the beginning of the Looe Channel, but if it takes 2 hours, we'll be there perfectly in time for the rendez-vous at low tide.

We want daylight at the beginning of the journey. Everyone tells us that Newhaven is the sweetest harbour on the South Coast to get into, by day or night.

Tomorrow, high tide is at 6.24, and low tide at 12.20, in addition it is Neaps, which means that the difference between high and low water is at it's lowest- (2.3 meters in Chichester Harbour), and this works in our favour in several ways. Easier to get out of Dell Quay; less of a risk of grounding on Chichester Bar and gentler tidal rips round Selsey Bill.

So far so good, and if only the wind were doing what the forecasts last Wednesday said it would be doing by today we'd be very happy. But at the moment we are looking at South, and South Easterly breezes of force 2-3. If this remains the case we will be motoring most of the way, but as BG, who will accompany us, said "better to go on a sunny day with little wind, than a wild, wet and cold one"

Stand by to read a report of what actually happens!