Peace Camp

At last some sunshine!

We had the small matter of fouled propeller to attend to, thanks to Glenn of Newhaven Scuba, who dived down to free the weed and fishing line.
We made another mud sliding exit from the berth to head to Cuckmere Haven. Unfortunately the black smoke which we had interpreted as a symptom of fouled prop hadn't gone, but the engine sounded ok, and after a bit of consultation on the Visitor's Berth, we decided to go for it.
No wind, but light engine seemed to provide no problem.

Another yacht was anchored in the Bay, but they didn't know about the events in the field behind the Coastguards' Cottages.
Peace Camp Cuckmere Haven

We crept as close to the beach as we could because we didn't want a long row into the shore in the middle of the night.

Inflating the dinghy in the cockpit

Lanch the dinghy

We watched the purple light darken and as the sun went down a strange glow showed on the hillside behind the cottages and trees, the Peace Camp was beginning. We tried to liase with Hanna and Rich by texting, we had formed a plan to meet them there, but intermittent network coverage meant that we missed their message. We decided that the best plan would be to go to bed and wake up before dawn to row with at least some light and enjoy the installation as the sun rose.

Approaching the strange glowing village

Morning mist flows down the valley

That dot in the sea is Mahaskah

We launched the dinghy in here and ran the rapids out to sea!

Rowing back to the boat

Ghostly in the mist

Newhaven Lifeboat Open Day

Bottom scrubbing

Nice pictures of Mahaskah's bottom

On the hard in Newhaven Marina

Propeller and old log wheel?

Rudder

What's this?

Waiting for the tide

Cuckmere Haven

Wednesday afternoon presented an opportunity for a quickie: fine weather, light wind from the South and East. I threw some food together, and we set off.

Out of Newhaven Harbour by 5pm, sailing gently along in a southerly direction. 

The winch handle went over board at one point, that was a bit of drama. We recovered it relatively easily, being thankful that all the conditions were benign.

Then we turned north to Cuckmere Haven. We anchored in 6 metres just off the mouth of the Cuckmere, and had our supper, the sun went down behind the cliffs just as the last mouthful was chewed, so I pulled up the anchor and we motored back into the setting sun.

A lovely way to spend an evening.

Tomahawk Owners Association Rally

The TOA were meeting at The Folly, on the Medina, Isle of Wight, for a Saturday evening dinner, and we were planning a trip to Bembridge, so there was a possibility of meeting them, if not with our boat, at least in person.

The favourable tide from Newhaven started at 04.00. We got up at 3.30am Saturday morning to begin our day and coincided with Ruby and Alex finishing their Friday night!
All stores and bedding loaded on, we set off as the sun rose above the eastern arm of the harbour.

With the wind from the North East we streamed away towards Brighton.
By the time we had got level with Shoreham, the wind had changed to East and we were experimenting with sailing on a dead run. Somehow, we find this quite a challenge, is it the boat or or poor seamanship?

By Littlehampton, we had been going for 6 hours and were now expecting to meet the tide against us, should we go through the Looe Channel or the long way round the Owers beacon?

The right answer, in retrospect, would have been; neither. A better plan would have been to pull in somewhere, Littlehampton if we could have got there a bit earlier, or Shoreham, and wait for the tide to change again.
Anyway, we chose to put on the engine and peel off south west towards the Owers.

This is because getting round Selsey Bill has to be done with careful consideration. The tide flows in an easterly diection from low water to high, and westerly from high to low. There are many rocks and sand banks in the outfall from the cliff and they extend in a south and south eastly direction about 4 miles as far as  the Owers beacon, which is the point at which you can turn into the Solent.
Water gets choppy over shallow water, and it gets choppy if the wind is blowing against the flow of the tide, so we had double choppy and little speed.
At one point we did get a wave over the stern which was a bit of a shock, but eventually we rounded the beacon and headed for smoother water, John went for a sleep.

I adjusted the sails to give us movement, rather than direction, so the grey smudge on the horizon that was our destination swung to the port bow and we cracked along at over 6 knots.
2 hours later the Sussex coast came into focus and I tried to identify Chichester Harbour. Thinking to surprise John, I called him up to take the tiller, and went to look at the chart. it was me that got the surprise.
we were exactly at the start of the Looe Channel, we had done a long detour and were where we would have been 3hours ago if we hadn't gone south! The easterly tidal flow had made sure that our progress, although pointing North west, had been almost precisely north.

Anyway, by then the tide was changing to be more favourable again and John swept down to the Nab Tower and round it to Bembridge Harbour.

By 6.00pm we were berthed, and had a cup of tea, and had called a taxi to take us to Newport.

The Folly was packed, (when is it not?) but we found our compatriots and had an enjoyable and informative meal with Peter, Gordon, Ian and Bill. Later we were introduced to Jacob, Bill's grandson who had been competing in an  Athletics tournament, and we thought of him again this weekend because he also had been picked to take part in the Jubilee pageant aboard Gypsy Moth IV.

There was still time for a brief browse of the assembled Tommies who were in the prime spot moored on the Folly pontoon.

Three Tomahawks rafted together.We were sorry Mahaskah wasn't there.

Dieppe Dash revised

That Thursday evening we attended the final Skipper's Briefing in Brighton Marina Yacht Club, it was exciting, all were discussing passage plans and rendez-vous waypoints, leaving times, and tides etc.
Back in Newhaven, we finished stowing the gear and then walked round to say goodnight to Gary, on Arctic Tern, in his Contessa 26, the only other small boat on the rally who was also leaving next morning from Newhaven.
He was moored on the visitors berth where the water stays deep, because with his fin keel, he wouldn't get out at low water 6am.As we walked back, we discussed the low water, and thought maybe it would be best to join him, thinking how stupid it would be if we couldn't get out at the start time because we were too silly to think about the mud.

"Switch on the nav lights, let's motor round"

Oh dear, we couldn't get the lights on, all five switches, including port cabin light were dead. John changed fuses, we wriggled the switches on and off, John investigated as far as his minimal knowledge of electrics would allow. It took us a cross and dismayed hour to realise that we couldn't set off across the Channel without Navigation Lights.

Next morning, I sadly broke the news to Gary and then we activated the Abandon Safe text to the organisers and sent the news to our friends and members of the Yacht Club.

Gutted.

The early start and light wind suggested a different destination, and we set off to by motor to Eastbourne, thinking that we could make Rye the following day.

Here is John programming the new GPS, part of the installation that we think knocked out the nav lights.

Eastbourne, Sovereign Harbour is a soulless place, but we managed to catch Nick Neter in his lunch break who popped over for a sandwich.
Nothing else to do on a chilly Friday but sit in the Yacht Club bar.

Next day the winds unfavourable for Rye, and Liverpool playing in the Cup Final, we set off back to Newhaven.

Entering the lock to exit  Sovreign Harbour

We had Force 4/5 winds on a run as far as Beachy Head, and then on the beam when we turned towards Newhaven. The sea state was slight, but we still stayed double reefed from caution (mine). Even so, we sped out of the harbour and watched the Eastbourne Coast slide by, the tide giving us at least a knot, maybe 1.5, but also pushing us into the shore, so that the waypoint I had set to avoid the outfalls of Beachy Head was missed, and I insisted in reaching it, so we turned south for a mile. This added a bit to our time.

Rounding the point was a strange experience; we could see by the GPS that we were making good speed, -over 5 knots- but the lighthouse stayed level with the starboard winch for ages, until John realised that we were pivoting round it, and the shoreline behind us and ahead was changing, although the nearest point of land apparently stayed still.

Wearing the harness

Approaching Cuckmere Haven

In Seaford Bay, I experimented with tacking singlehanded, against the tide to get a better line in towards Newhaven Harbour, this also lost some time, but was fun.

In all, the trip took 4 hours, but would have been much less had we been better navigators.

We jumped in the car and drove home for football and a comfy bed.

(Liverpool 1, Chelsea 2, wewuzrobbedblahblahblah)

Next morning, John decides to do a scientific exit from berth.

Slip the bow springs

 Let the boat swing out pivoting on the stern spring,

then slip the stern spring

Beautifully done.

We had a smashing sail to Shoreham by Sea, the winds remained constant at NE, force 4, a chilly Bank Holiday Sunday for everyone else.

Approaching Shoreham Harbour

"Lock In" with the fishermen

 Met friendly natives who suggested we use Yacht Club visitor's pontoon, instead of paying for an overnight berth at commercial LadyBee Marina. No facilities, but we walked into Shoreham where we had a mediocre meal at the Crown and Anchor, got the train back in the rain. Responding to frantic texts from Ruby in South America who needed to get a flight changed.

Shoreham chimney replaces the power station stack as a landmark.

The winds changed today to a more southerly direction, actually, they were SE, so we set off on a beat.

Optimistically at first, but by Brighton Marina, we had been sailing for 4 hours and still had done less than half the journey.

Engine on, and now against the tide. Not good news.

During the very last bit, we managed to get both sails up again , and with the help of the engine point close enough get 4 knots against the tide and get into Newhaven. The whole journey had taken more than 6 hours.

As soon as we berthed, the sun came out, beautiful warm afternoon, we collapsed into the cockpit for a well earned snooze.

Looking through the masts, we spotted one with a Dieppe Dash pennant next to the French courtesy flag. It was Gary, he had returned the previous day, his tale was of motoring all day Friday , rain in Dieppe on Saturday, and an exhausting beat home on Sunday, relieved by about 2 hours of good wind just this side of the Channel.

We felt a little bit glad to have missed it.