Brighton and Eastbourne

Pilsey to Brighton

The sea is shallow between Chichester and Selsey Bill. Wrecks are common place; some revealing parts of their twisted metallic remains at low water. Even on a beautifully calm and sunny spring morning they looked eerie and rather foreboding to us as we sailed south east towards the Bill. The almanac lists a variety of routes past this sandy headland some of which head close inshore. Tempting as it was with our shallow drafted vessel we decided that discretion was the better part of valour and circumnavigated a well trodden path further out to sea named the ‘Looe’.

The final feature of this natural hazard are the Owers banks, famously used to advantage by Sir Francis Drake during his initial skirmishes with the Spanish Armada in 1585 as it attempted to make way eastwards toward Calais. These days the helpfully positioned ‘Owers’ south cardinal buoy signposts a safe route to seaward. The remainder of our passage to Brighton was uneventful. The shoreline is equally uneventful until larger buildings and blocks of flats begin to emerge heralding the approach of Bognor Regis, Littlehampton and Worthing. The sea remains shallow through this part of the channel and we held off with our mackerel lines to avoid lobster pots.

Brighton

Brighton Marina is to the far east of the town and the entrance difficult to pick out from the sea as it is tucked in behind a hooked granite block breakwater. Even within a few hundred yards it still doesn’t reveal itself willingly and we were glad of our GPS plotter to guide us in. Once round the hook the entrance channel is concrete walled and any choppy sea state quickly subsides. We tied up on the visitor pontoon quite relieved as the breeze, such as there was, was gusting across the surface of the water making catamaran manoeuvring quite tricky. Our relief was short lived as we spotted a ‘No Mooring’ sign painted onto the dock next to Distant Drummer. After consultation with the Marina office we untied and redocked further along. Not really what you want to do after a longish day at sea.

Wrong 👎

Right 👍

A brisk walk along the seafront next morning took us into town and we spent a few hours exploring the lanes and the royal pavilion. Like many larger towns we noted the increasing number of homeless people and street hawkers. Some even brazen enough to disturb those sat outside coffee shops and bars with requests for money. We headed back on the bus which always gives great value views of any town particularly viewed from the top deck.

The Royal Pavilion

Mod or Brighton Rocker?

Eastbourne

We weathered a choppy force 4 westerly with increasingly big following waves rounding Beachy Head on our short passage to neighbouring Eastbourne. Steering Distant Drummer down some of these proved quite a challenge. 

A blustery Beachy Head

First Mate on the wheel

Beachy Head light house lies at the foot of a 500 foot cliff and is dwarfed by the scale of this chalk face. Gradually the sea conditions calmed down as we rounded the headland and altered course towards Eastbourne.

Like Brighton, its marina lies to the east of the town and its entrance is equally tricky to pick out against the shoreline. Unlike Brighton, Eastbourne Marina is entered through a tidal lock governed by a traffic light system. As we approached we called up the lock keeper on our VHF radio but received no response. In desperation Robin then called the marina using a mobile phone and finally made contact. He was reluctant to approach the lock as it appeared to be displaying conflicting sets of lights both green and red. In fact Eastbourne Marina has two separate locks side by side and on this occasion one was open to us and the other closed. It is far too easy to lose the ability to think in such situations!

Eastbourne lock...no drama.

Headless chicken

During all this completely unnecessary panicking Robin’s ability to function logically was temporarily suspended while Nikki remained calm and held DD in neutral while admiring the seals who were basking on the mud nearby and no doubt finding our antics quite amusing.

After a couple of minutes we were given the all clear to enter the lock, a very straight forward procedure, and before long we had entered the sanctuary of the inner marina and came alongside without further incident. It later transpired that the lock keeper could hear our VHF radio messages with perfect clarity; it was our receiving filter that had decided to malfunction. We elected to purchase a new hand-held radio to avoid any further embarrassment in future communications with harbour masters and marinas.

Not required

A trip to the movies to see ‘The Avengers Infinity War’ the following afternoon was a relaxing change from our life at sea. Other than one other couple we had the auditorium to ourselves. Eastbourne is a new marina and housing development combined with shops and restaurants. The only downside from our point of view was that it is situated quite a distance to the east of the town. It was still an enjoyable stop off and we both agreed that it would have been an interesting place to explore further.

Martello 68 Eastbourne seafront