Chichester Yacht Club Magazine September 2018 | Page 14

Far East Cruise, 16-22nd August - by Hazel Wright, Willow
This looked like the perfect cruise for us,
as we had long wanted to sail east to
Brighton and Eastbourne, so to be able
to do that in the company of other CYC
members looked just perfect. We were
not to be disappointed! Off of Rustington, we had the excitement
of being joined by a pod of bottle nosed
dolphins which leapt and dived all around
us. Sadly, they were not seen by all the
cruise members, which was a shame as
they are such a lovely sight.
We left a day early to sail to Gosport, as
the forecast for the 16th was pretty dire
and proved right on the day with really
heavy rain, which the other cruise
members stoically battled through to
arrive safely at the marina. We arrived outside Brighton Marina to
find the wind gusting to 18 knots, and
really huge waves.
The sun came out in the evening, to
enable us all to enjoy a drink outside the
Boat House café while we were given the
cruise details, and I somehow ended up
as deputy cruise leader!
A very early start on the 17th saw the
sun come up behind the Spinnaker
Tower on a very calm and almost
windless morning, so we proceeded
under engine.
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It was “rock and roll”, getting into the
marina, and proved difficult getting safely
into our berths in the gusting winds.
The marina was very busy, with several
large foreign flagged yachts coming in,
which were all rafted up in one small
area, effectively trapping some of our
members in their berths.
A pontoon party was held adjacent to
Coco, before members dispersed to
various marina restaurants.