Sailing in the UK (Part 1)

By 2019 I had been looking for a while, to find a way, to go sailing in the UK. I needed the tidal miles, and also craved the experience. I had a bunch of contacts from my days with the chandlery that I was friends with on Facebook. One of them, Tim Bishop, seemed to be getting in a lot of sailing on his Hallberg Rassy 36, so I thought I would contact him to see if there was any chance of joining for a cruise. 

As it turned out, Tim was Commodore of the Hallberg Rassy Owners Association at the time and they were organising their annual Summer Cruise Rally. It was to begin from Havant for us, where the boat was moored, specifically Northney Marina, and the 15 or so other boats would join us from various parts of the South. 

I flew in to Gatwick and made my way by train to Havant. I had not been to the UK for 23 years. I had also never been to England in May, at least not as an adult. 

As I got on the plane in Corfu, it was pouring with rain. As we crossed the Channel , the clouds and rain where left behind and England was spread out under our wings in full, sunny glory, a patchwork quilt of greens and yellows and darker greens... criss crossed with blue and grey from rivers and roads. 

Tim and I met at the station. Something had come up nd we were going to have to delay our departure. Tim had kindly arranged for me to go on another boat, so as not to lose time on the water, but I decided to wait so we could go together on his HR 36 a couple of days later. I had friends to catch up with in England so this was my opportunity.

We drove first to Birdham Marina, apparently the oldest proper marina in the UK. It was also my first close up experience of a marina affected by tides. Just not in the way I expected. Birdham is a closed basin, served by a lock. So when the tide is low, you can be sat in your boat, looking over a wall at the water and mud 4-5 meters lower down outside, while you are still floating happily away. There I met one of the other crews, with whom we would be sailing in company with over the next couple of weeks. 

 

Bird's eye view of Birdham Marina, not my pic, found on the net

Looking out to the low tide from the boat floating inside

After that we went to Northney Marina, on Hayling Island. This was a proper, tidal marina which actually went up and down with tide, pontoons, boats and all, two times a day.

 

There was a long bridge/platform joining the pontoons to the land which would sometimes be almost level and other times steeply inclined downwards, depending on the time and tide. 

Northney Marina pontoon

 I had a couple of days here free, the aft cabin was mine, so I proceeded to explore the area. Snapping away as usual. 

Northney Marina

Power Cat

Boats, boats, boats!

Cornish Crabbers

There is something about classics. Heart skips a beat...

Another surprise was how early the sun came up. I woke to sunshine thinking it must be late and it was bloody five o clock in the morning. !!

The quiet and stillness were a good opportunity to catch reflections in the water.

 Surrounding the marina and Hayling Island were wide mudflats and tidal areas where it occasionally dries. That woud be the green bits on a chart for those who know... 

Portsmouth and Spinnaker Tower seen in the distance

What looks like some kind of blockade left over from the war

Beautiful little wooden classic.

A passage way in the blocks, and boats drying out

Seabird looking for worms

Another eerie reflection, my little ghost ships

Marvellously clear moon

The West Pole Beacon.

Havant and Nortney Marina are part of Chichester Harbour. A wonderful area famous amongst other things for its top level dinghy racing. There are 14 dinvhy sailing clubs in that are alone which explains why we saw so many of them as we were leaving a few days later. 

In the next installment, I take atrip to the Isle of Wight and catch up with friends. Also I get a tour of the Bembridge lifeboat... 

Not the place to stand in an emergency