18 June 2008
Hilary's Blog - 18 June 2008
The sail from Eastbourne to Brighton turned out to take longer than expected! Pointing high into the wind, we left Eastbourne at 12:30pm and made for Beachy Head and the lobster pot fields. It blew a nice gentle force 3-ish, almost directly from the heading I needed to take, so I tacked back and forth for a while, watching my speed over ground on my Raymarine kit sit at around 5 knots, which could have been better given that we had the tide with us, albeit a neaps tide, but was still not bad given the wind angle.
We have been extremely lucky to have Glenn Gilbert, our website guru, sailing his Contessa 32 alongside us. The Contessa is another beautiful boat, also designed by the Rogers family. I know that Simon Rogers will be pleased to know that his little Arty points higher and faster than his father's classic design! Today we have said goodbye to Glenn as he has to go back to work, and Sean has gone along to Newhaven as crew for him.
I altered course just off Beachy head to go towards Newhaven and Brighton. The views along the cliffs are just spectacular and I always feel particularly priviledged when I get to look back at our islands from the sea. Lunch included both carrot sticks - one of my favourite healthy treats - and chocolate, probably my other favorite, but rather less healthy, snack! The sun was shining, no one was getting wet and even the RIB crew had time to put their feet up occasionally.
Just before Newhaven life got suddenly tougher, but a whole heap more fun! The wind picked up to a 4-5 and the sea state changed dramatically. I watched my boat speed drop and soon after Newhaven called up "SUB" (the official name for our RIB) on the radio and requested that a passenger come onboard "Me Too" in order to put in a reef. It turned out to be a good decision as white horses began to appear around us and the wind built to a 5-6. I got the opportunity to put advice on how to deal with big waves (relative to the size of your boat, of course) without getting soaked and, to my amazement, it actually worked. My eternal thanks go to Darren and Brian for their invaluable advice as I stayed almost completely dry, only getting two waves in the face!
I love this kind of sailing as it is challenging and exciting. I actually sail better when the conditions get tougher as I stop thinking so hard about what I'm doing and revert to my instincts. Eventually the wind dropped a little and the waves became longer, although just as high, which made them easier to deal with. I managed to dodge all the lobster pots again and stayed dry until I was taken into tow behind our RIB just outside Brighton Marina, at which point I was soaked as I was unable to control the angle at which the Arty hit the waves.
We arrived in Brighton an hour and a half later than we had expected, at around 7pm. The Lions clubs here had put on a reception for us, so Helen stripped me of my wet clothes and replaced them with dry versions. I left the team to put the boat to bed whilst I went to be sociable, hair still dripping. The Lions very graciously waited for the whole team to arrive and then fed us huge amounts of delicious food and drink whilst making us all feel incredibly welcome. The whole team would like to thank them for their generosity.
Today has been a "rest day" as the wind and sea state mean that it just isn't feasible to sail to Chichester. It was lovely to wake up under our own power this morning, rather than having alarms going off all over the van, and we treated ourselves to a cooked breakfast in a cafe down the road. Mike is setting up the hoisting system on my seat as we will need to lift me from the boat in the "pod" in some of the harbours we will use in the next few days. Toby is fixing the jib boom on "Me Too" and the rest of the team is busy getting washing and shopping done, not to mention filling up the gas and water tanks in the vans.
Everyone seems to be incredibly busy as there is always plenty to do around camp and the boats, as any sailor will tell you. We are hoping that the Force 8 wind will blow through this evening and that the sea state will have lessened enough for us to make the sail to Chichester tomorrow.
Page last updated on 22 June 2008 at 17:13