Cruising in Chichester harbour with RBYC
Purple Mist
Skipper: Kate Cope
Sun 12 May 2019 11:29
Chichester harbour holds some special memrories for me as it’s partly where my sailing story started.
Dad had a small 16ft open dingy , a Falmouth Bass boat, that he sailed in my home county of Derbyshire. I’d discovered Chichester harbour and thought it would be a great place to explore in the dingy so mum and dad came down for a long weekend. Whilst out in the dingy we decided we needed a boat that could get us to the Isle of Wight. That was the summer before the fateful September boat show where we went along to look at models and come away having bought the first Purple Mist - a sun odyssey 36i.
After last weekends shenanigans with a wrapped spinnaker it was relaxing to just be cruising so I brought along the comfy cushions ...purple of course.
Weather was perfect for our trip from Hamble , through the gap in the submarine barrier off Portsmouth and over the the entrance . Wind was northerly but we mostly sailed into the narrow harbour entrance.
The only downside of Chichester is there is no walk ashore so we raided the store cupboards of Azab supplies and I rustled up a bean curry for us all.
We were joined by the other boat from the Royal county of Berkshire Yacht club . This club is focused on really improving the members skills and they had been out practising boat handling under sail. www.therbyc.co.uk. It was RBYC that took my sailing skills from dayskipper to yachtmaster .
50:48.32N 00:51.60W