Finally the Westerlys are coming together, with a S coast and E coast fleet meeting at Sovereign Harbour, Eastbourne. This is a huge, completely artificial harbour surrounded by hectares of apartments, an Asda and a selection of shops. The harbour itself is run by Premier Marinas who gave us an excellent berth on the "dogleg", a main walkway quite close to the exit. We're behind a Westerly Konsort Duo which also has a disabled crew member, although she can walk a little further than Sam.
The passage from Dover was very bright, very hot and considerably lacking in wind. Once we rounded Dungeness we were truly in the South, IMHO. We locked in around 3pm on Wednesday along with loads of other Westerlys and enjoyed a few drinks on the beach with the assembled crews in the early evening - just as well we didn't stay too late, as the heavens opened and it has been either raining or very wet and muggy ever since.
In stowing the sail I put my foot on the spray hood, breaking an evidently fragile connection. Thursday saw us tracking down a possible replacement fitting. It turns out that Sea Screw Ltd, a specialist seller of marine fittings, is just a couple of miles away. So I ordered replacement fittings and collected them on my run on Friday. They aren't perfect but I have bodged them into place somehow. I didn't run as far as Eastbourne itself, which was looking misty and slightly more distant than I had hoped.
On the Thursday evening we got together again for a socially distanced barbecue on the beach. The crews were divided into those who had Cobb barbecues, and those who didn't but were fascinated by them. Our relatively new grill plate earned its keep by delivering perfectly grilled burgers which actually tasted barbecued. It also delivered well grilled sausages, but we were already quite full by the time they were done and despite being Asda's finest they were a bit slimy.
Having purchased expensive gas (£37!) and expensive diesel from the marina we locked out on Saturday morning to head to Brighton.
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| Broken connection |
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| Aluminium connector from Sea Screw |
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| Fixed hood |
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