Venturing into the unknown......19/07/2010

We left Brighton at 5.30am this morning following a rather late night trying to get the most out of our time at Brighton. We awoke bleary eyed to a red sky, not the best prediction for the day and set back out to sea. It was still a bit choppy following the terrible winds from previous days but nothing to be worried about. I made some undrinkable tea - guess the water is very hard in Brighton - yuk! Then made coffee which we drank with the now traditional breakfast chocolate. It's a winner - honestly!
We followed the coastline, passing Brighton Pier, Shoreham, Worthing, Littlehampton and Bognor Regis. It was all lovely the colours of the morning sky made everything look extra nice.
We looked ahead of us and both decided that the land mass we could see must be Selsey Bill, considering the size of it. For some reason we both had it in our heads that Selsey Bill was rather large. We had been going for some time, making good speed. There was little in the way of traffic to watch so we just enjoyed the view. At some point near Bognor Regis Martyn turned to me and said " I don't know where we are..." "What do you mean? There's Selsey Bill in fron of us". I looked at the GPS and the paper chart, he was right. The large mass in front us wasn't Selsey Bill. Selsey Bill was the low land to our right... good job we're not sailing round the world! What we were looking at was the Isle of Wight! Neither of us expected it to be so big or so close to the mainland. You wouldn't believe we have travelled to the Isle of Wight almost every year for the last 12 years or more! You lose your sense of perception sometimes out at sea, we were heading in the right direction at least so there was no problem, just a surprise!
As we turned the corner things got a whole lot busier. We were among commercial traffic, alongside sailing boats, motor cruisers and fishing boats. We could see ferries in the distance but luckily for us we wouldn't be getting anywhere near them, not just yet anyway!
We arrived at the entrance to Chichester Channel and it was pretty busy for a Monday! Doesn't anyone work in this country anymore......(joke!)!? Trying to judge navigation around sailing boats is not always easy, they change their course and speed unexpectedly and it can be quite nerve racking trying to ensure that you don't upset them. This is not really an option for us as we seem to upset them just by our presence on a regular basis. Not all of them I must add, but a large percentage unfortunately.
Working our way up stream towards Itchenor was heavy going. We followed a sail boat doing around 3 knots and didn't feel comfortable to pass so stayed behind until he eventually pulled in somewhere. On arrival at Itchenor we came across a section where boats were moored up on buoys all through the channel, you had to try and pick the best route through. This was coupled with the local sailing schools and countless number of tiny children in sailing boats everywhere. It was terrifying for us, when you see two tiny children, around 5 or 6 years of age in a tiny plastic sailing boat heading right for 18 tonne of steel boat that you are in charge of, with nowhere else to go.......!
We all survived non the less and we located the visitor pontoon at the far end of Itchenor, it was lovely and empty! We moored up sorted out the harbour dues and mooring fees and finally settled down to some breakfast at 11.30am!
We had a surprise visitor too, Paul and Denise from Goole. Martyn used to work with Paul at Goole Boathouse so he was very happy to see them. The pontoon we are on is not linked to land but they arrived just as Martyn was on his way to the harbour office in his dingy. I believe a quick half at the pub with them was consumed before they headed back 'oop North!' Hope you had a good journey home - sorry I didn't get to say "Hi!".
So, Itchenor, never really heard of it before if I'm honest! It's somewhere near Chichester and it's actually quite lovely! We have no electric, no facility for water, no fancy toilet or shower block and no immediate neighbours. What we do have is sunshine, lots of food and enough alcohol just to get us through the night without entertainment. We also have each other for company and lots of boats to watch passing by. Things could be so much worse!