I really didn’t want to stay in Shephard’s Marina for too long. It’s not very peaceful and I thought it might be quite uncomfortable in strong northeasterlies despite the Cowes wave break. I hoped that we might be ok to get into Chichester Harbour on Wednesday as we’d have reasonable shelter from the wind in the approach. It turned out that we really didn’t.
We left Cowes at 0800 and made good speed with the tide, but by the time we crossed the Portsmouth channel it was starting to get very choppy with wind against tide and we were losing a lot of speed in the waves. The last five miles or so to the Chichester entrance is only 3-4m deep at low water, more with a rising tide, but I don’t know these waters well enough to know what’s safe. AIS showed no vessels in the patch we were about to cross. I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and phoned Haslar Marina to see if they had space for us. Then we turned and ran for safety, in the shallow small craft channel and past numerous ferries of all sizes.
Gosport is very convenient for all sorts of things including trains and shopping. We spent Wednesday afternoon having a late lunch at Wagamama and retail therapy at Gunwharf Quays. Thursday has been devoted to the Historic Dockyard and in a full day we managed Mary Rose, Victory, Warrior and Alliance. A superb gallop through naval history and a very worthwhile day. I’m glad we’re here although not at all sure when Kalessin can leave, if ever…
Distance run: 11 miles
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| Mary Rose |
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| HMS Victory |
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| HMS Warrior, which I enjoyed a lot more than Victory |
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| HMS Alliance (submarine) |
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