Kalessin of Orwell: Peace in Chichester

Finally on Wednesday we escaped Brighton and headed for Chichester Harbour. We had hoped to go to Birdham Pool which is said to be full of character, but it is up a tiny creek which really wouldn't give us access until about 9.30pm. So slightly reluctantly we opted for Chichester Marina instead, which is right next door but has a dredged channel, giving us more options. It's also the place where we first got Sam on to a boat after his stroke, on Rob and Jo Pudney's Storm.

There are four tidal constraints on the route from Brighton to Chichester and not being familiar with the area it's difficult to juggle priorities. We had to leave Brighton with enough water in the entrance, given the current dredging. We needed a fair tide for as much of the route as possible and especially either a fair tide or slack water at the Looe Channel, which is the narrow route passing close to Selsey Bill. We needed enough water to get over the bar at the entrance to Chichester Harbour, which has somewhere between 0.8 and 1.5m over it depending on when it was last dredged. And we needed enough water to get into Chichester Marina up their channel, which has less than 1m of depth at low water.

After some debate we followed a suggestion from Gill, the rally organiser, leaving Brighton at HW, about 1030. This gave us time to sail gently most of the way to the Looe Channel, catch the last of the fair tide there, continue to sail slowly with just the foresail and not much tidal current to the harbour entrance, and then creep over the bar rather slowly at only an hour after low water. Still, there was 1m of tide even at low and we never saw less than 1.5m under the keel. I think David held his breath all the way in but there was no problem. Then we continued gently up through the harbour and locked into Chichester Marina about 1900. As one last challenge our berth was extremely tight but once we had straightened the boat we had just enough room for fenders on both sides.

And what a lovely spot this is, despite the vast number of boats in the marina and the very distant roar of a couple of A roads. Much more our kind of place than Brighton. Unfortunately we had a wobbly and narrow finger pontoon so there was no chance to get Sam off (there's a "boat show" at the marina over the weekend which restricts the options for berthing), but at least he could see trees and hear birds from the cockpit. I enjoyed a walk to Birdham Pool, which I can see might have been a major challenge for access for Sam as well as Kalessin, and on the Friday a slow and slightly muddy run along the towpath of the Chichester canal (disused) which was full of wildlife and nesting birds.

On Thursday Rob and Jo came down to say hello. Jo has early onset Alzheimer's, which must be the cruellest disease there is, but she managed to get on board and seemed delighted to be there and to see us. We were certainly delighted to see both of them, Rob's kindness in 2013 is a major reason we are still sailing now, and it seems a long time since we met up in Piriac. They haven't sailed since 2019 but they have been up in small aircraft and Rob is taking flying lessons. Onwards and upwards....