On Saturday 3rd June we are taking Grace from Brighton Marina to Sovereign Marina at Eastbourne. I have been working on the passage plans, it’s should take about 6.5 hours to cover almost 25 miles. High water at Brighton is at 0703 so we aim to leave between 1000 and 1100 which should give a minimum depth of about 2.5 m. This means that we will reach Eastbourne on a rising tide with high tide at 1940 to give us plenty of depth for our approach to the outer harbour.
My Passage Plan
Leaving Brighton on a bearing of 175 for approximately 2 nm. We will change on to a bearing of 110 for 17 nm. We will have a 1 knot tidal stream with us until about 1300 which will then be against us until about 1900. We should be on a broad reach in a F4 until about 1300. Sailing past Newhaven and Seaford we will come to the Seven Sister and then Birling Gap. We should get a fantastic view of these geological wonders.
Seven Sisters
Birling Gap looking towards the Severn Sisters
At Beachy Head we will change on to a heading of 030 for approximately 5 nm and avoiding the shoals off the cliff.
Beachy Head
Sailing past Eastbourne, we pick up the Marina entrance from the Martello Tower to the west side and then turn on to 260 at the safe water mark approximately 1 nm off shore. To make matters more interesting there is a large dredger in the entrance and the buoys removed…..such fun! Unusually the vhf Marina channel is on 17 rather than the usual 80!
but for the Grace 