Eastbourne to Brighton 26th May 2017

This would only be a short hop today. As it was Bank Holiday Weekend, we had already booked in for three nights as we felt things would be busy anywhere.

Again, passage planning, I was aware of not only the tides around Beachy Head, but also the fact that we couldn't enter Brighton either two hours before or two hours after high water. We plumped for the 10.30 lock, incase there was a delay in locking out. At this point I must say the marina had radioed everyone to say that there was a dredger dredging and to follow his instructions. So far so good!

For some reason there was only one lock operational so there had been some delays with the previous lock, there were five boats in our lock. When we came out of the lock, what greeted us but the dredger slap bang across the entrance! Cue, five yachts having to jill around in a very confined space with limited depth. One of the yachts radioed the marina office who didn't know and told them to contact the dredger direct. he informed us he was working on a buoy and would be about five minutes. Well lets just say it was an Irish five minutes.

This is what met us as we came out of the lock. The dredger completely blocked the exit.

We weren't  the only boat.

Eventually the dredger came on again and said there was 2 metres of water behind him and if any one wanted to go behind he would turn his engines off. A Southerly said they would, as they have a lifting keel this shouldn't be a problem. I quickly hailed them and asked them to radio their depth as they went through, we draw 1.7m so didn't want to go aground. Although we didn't catch the exact depth the words okay were in the transmission, so we went through, in the event it was 4 metres.

The back view of the dredger as we passed behind. 

Today's journey made up for the trip from Dover, the sun was shining and we were going along at 5 knots under sail. Beachy Head close up was amazing. We could see Hawke in the distance catching up with us. As a motor sailor he cruises at 10 knots. As they went by I took a picture as it is very rare to get a picture of your boat out at sea. They had returned the compliment and as we met up at Brighton we exchanged photos.

The white speck is Rascal.

More views of Beachy Head

As we approached Brighton we could hear it was chaoso at the marina as boats were coming in thick and fast and queing left right and centre for the lock. We entered the harbour and I remember our friend Mike Pickles described it as a washing machine and he was right, just as we entered the wind struck up and it was very confused waters. The marina gave me the choice of rafting up on pontoons near the entrance or going through the lock. Guess which option I choose. Luckily by the time we arrived the queue at the lock had died down. We were escorted to our berth by a harbour boat and he was on the pontoon to take our ropes. We were moored next to Hawke and they also helped with the ropes.

The lock at Brighton. Beyond this it is a 2.4m depth.

Rascal in her first berth at Brighton.

Typical of Premier Marinas, they build a 'village ' around the marina. So once again there was an ASDA and lots of eating places. We caught the bus into Brighton, which was very busy. Once again we enjoyed the walk back along the front. There were also lots of pleasant walks at night, I feel I ought to do my daily step count as at the moment it is always around the 2000 mark. As we were in an off shoot to the marina we were not controlled by the fobs, we came in and out of a large metal gate which was a bit out of the way. After our evening walk on the second night we got back to discover it had been padlocked! John was all for jumping over wall near the pub - me walls - I think not. Luckily I had the marina number on my phone. They were very apologetic - security had noticed it wasn't locked. They forgot they had boats moored there so told them to lock it. Luckily they came back to let us in very quickly.

Entrance to the marina at low water.

Definitely not a lot of water.

Harbour - again low water

THese pictures just show why you don't enter or leave 2 hours either side of low water.

After two nights, I had to do my passage planning and was undecided whether to leave at six the following morning or two hours after high tide. We asked if we could move berth as the lock doesn't operate until  8 am. They very kindly found us a berth on pontoon 11. Although it was okay for one nigh, I wouldn't have fancied it for all three. It was a pontoon of high drama, first of all on our evening walk we spotted a yacht grounded in the entrance to the harbour. I cant emphasis how in every pilot book it says so not enter two hours before or after high water. It turned out that these were resident berth holders so they really should haven known. Later on a yacht rafted on the opposite side of the pontoon decided to leave. I'm not sure if it was the tide or the wind but he didn't make it off and slid backwards with a loud thud and dragged all the way down the side of a very large motor launch and then down the yacht behind him. He eventually got off but was chased by the owner of the motor lunch in his tender. I'm glad we were tucked up inside.


Sailing Information
The total journey time from leaving our mooring to mooring up in Brighton was 5 hours, but from getting behind the dredger to entering Brighton Harbour was only 3 1/2 hours. 22.4 nautical miles.
£35.04 per night
Quite nice showers, but the floor gets very wet.
Wash £5 - didn't take advantage
ASDA near by
Frequent bus service into Brighton but a pleasant walk along the front.