Brighton marina was deserted at 07:00 when we left. It was strange to see such a vast expanse of boats and no people. It was Sunday morning though.

Our departure from the marina was far less dramatic than our arrival. The day before there had been a big swell off the harbour entrance and we rolled through it whilst passing between the pier heads.

As we motored out we saw the Brighton lifeboat and the RNLI launch. They were searching for a missing fisherman who had disappeared from his boat the night before. The boat had been found without him. We kept a sharp lookout as we left.

The wind picked up, just to a civilised F4, and we were able to sail for the first hour before resuming our normal 'motor-sailing' cruising mode. We were able to sail again as we neared the entrance to the Solent but foul tide meant that we could only sail on one tack.

The Solent was as busy as ever with yachts and big ships all vying for position in the channels. The coast guard was being constantly called on VHF by small boats which had either run aground of had run out of fuel. In Scotland all we heard on the VHF was the weather forecast!

We are now in Cowes Marina on the Isle of Wight, having come another 50 NM west, tied up alongside a number of classic wooden yachts (8m) who are racing this week.

Tomorrow is forecasted to be very windy (SW F7) so here we stay.

Passage Statistics

• Brighton to Cowes: 50nm / 10 hrs
• Sailed 4 hrs / Motor-sailed 6hrs
• Distance from start: 1818 NM
• Distance left to go back to Dartmouth: 100 NM

See a map of the whole journey plus a spreadsheet of the daily passage stats

 

 

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