Off at last! Dover-Eastbourne Wed 16th May

Vega
Irving & Cate Benjamin
Wed 16 May 2012 19:00

Sovereign Harbour
Left home with enough extra baggage to sink let alone fill our little ship, and with Leigh's help loaded the lot.  Along with our new folding bikes and our provisions it's just as well we left the cat behind because there's definitely no room to swing one.
Left Wellington dock at 0950 - thanks to Leigh for the great pics - hoisted the main inside the outer harbour and set off to the SW motor-sailing with a 10knot wind on the nose, into what the forecast had promised would be light winds, decreasing during the day.  So much for weather forecasts: the wind steadily increased to 23k (on the nose of course), with a steep and unpleasant sea with a short fetch which slammed us down  regularly with a shuddering bang! Visits to the heads were interesting, with Cate defying gravity to head-butt the ceiling and then landing with a crunch on her coccyx! We eventually gave up with the sail (even dropping it was a bit of an adventure) and round about Bexhill-on-Sea we headed inshore for some lesser waves, dodging many lobster pots hidden by the swell.  So our pleasant 8 hour passage ended 10 hours later in Eastbourne.  Through the lock, manned 24/7, and into a quiet and sheltered berth (£24). After a pint in the Sovereign Harbour Yacht Club - a large modern bulding with a very busy lounge bar - we retiredd to Vega and dined on Cate's excellent casserole, brought in the pressure cooker: it will give us a good meal tomorrow too, when we arrive (hopefully) in Chichester after the next promised calm passage.

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