Breezy in Brighton

 Its windy today in Brighton. Force 7 at least with spray coming over the harbour breakwater. We strolled round the town while hoping the weather will improve maybe tomorrow. The picture shows Allan admiring a shop in The Lanes area that only sells plastic bath ducks. There were lots of different types on display. This seems like an extreme form of specialisation, and we wondered about the business model and how many ducks they had to sell every day to cover their overheads. There were no customers in the shop when we passed it and we didnt feel we needed any more bath ducks.

Brighton

This morning in Yarmouth there was no wind at all, but the forecast still predicted a brisk SW wind later. So we manoevered out of the harbour with a helpful shove from the harbour masters launch and headed east. And indeed we did get a brisk SW wind later in the morning, and with a fair wind and a little tide we were doing 8 knots as we went through the Looe channel off Selsey Bill. 

We are now in Brighton for the night. The entrance to Brighton marina with even a moderate SW wind is always a bit of a challenge as the waves seem worse in the narrow harbour entrance than they are out at sea and there isnt space to get sails down in sheltered water. Anyway, with Allans help it all worked out ok.

Tim helped build this marina when he was a student, but its now beginning to look a bit tired. However as always there are plenty of exotic looking yachts in the marina, and lots of static houseboats that never move anywhere but apparently people buy as holiday cottages. Some are for sale at astonishing prices. It seemed to us that a boat that might actually go to sea would surely be much more fun.

Still in Yarmouth

Bonita is still in Yarmouth. Last week when the weather might have been reasonable for crossing the Channel I was busy at home and also had no crew. Today I have come down to the boat with Allan, who is most definitely an all- weather crew. However the forecast is not good, with strong SW winds over the next few days, which would be right on the nose. 

And its pretty windy even ashore in Yarmouth today. We keep getting messages from the Gaffers gathering at St Malo and I very much hoped we would be there with them. However a deadline is never a factor that should influence whether or not you decide to leave port. If there was no meeting at St Malo, I certainly wouldnt set out to cross the Channel into a head wind with the forecast we have today. So we will make a final decision when we see what the weather is like tomorrow morning and while I might go over on the ferry it looks likely Bonita will be staying in home waters.