18th July Meridian Line 50:45.000N 000:00.000E
Whisper
Noel Dilly
Thu 18 Jul 2013 21:58
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"East Again !"
At 14:45 today, Thursday 18th July, we crossed
over the Meridian Line so are once again in the East of England!
We left Littlehampton at about 7:30am to catch the
tide and get over the bar. There was little wind so we motored until the
wind filled in. The weather forecast was for variable winds East or
North East force 2-3, occasionally 4. The winds were certainly
variable, from the NE or E but occasionally from the SE or some other
direction. At one time the wind direction changed and we tacked only
to discover ourselves on exactly the same course as we were
before! We are finding that sailing in coastal waters is quite hard and
not as relaxing as sailing the ocean. We endeavoured to spruce up our
tacking manouvres, which have certainly been neglected over the past 12 months
and have collected a few bumps and bruises in the process.
We arrived at Eastbourne 050:47.52N 000:19.66E
at around 6pm. We were not quite sure where we would end up as the
wind was so light early in the day. We had calculated that it
would take us 7hrs to reach Beachy Head, so were delighted when the wind filled
in and we were able to sail directly to Beachy Head and around the corner to
Eastbourne in far less time.
We are now tucked up in Sovereign Harbour
Marina. This vast marina is behind lock gates and whilst waiting
for the lock, we were allocated our berth. We were most surprised to find
that when we got to our allocated space it was already taken. Noel
took an executive decision to continue to the end of the line of
fingers and go alongside the main pontoon at the end. Having
tied up he went over to the marina office to enquire where we should now
go. Noel came back chuckling, as the Harbour Master was surprised that we
had got into this berth, but said that we can stay here as it will not get any
shallower. We checked the depth, it is reading 0.1 metres below our
keel!
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