Morgan Sailing Blog

Did an assisted delivery of a Seamaster 815 with the owner from Beaulieu to Eastbourne over 2 days from 19th to 21st June. Brian drove us down to Bucklers Hard in the van, to find out that the mast was not on the boat, as boatyard hands had gone home because they went out earlier that day to assist a boat in trouble and got wet?! However we slept onboard at the dock that night and they did come early in the morning at 06:00 to put the rig up. We eventually left the dock at around 09:25 after getting the sails bent on, with owner having to purchase a few bits that boat did not have. Bucklers Hard is a beautiful place and is steeped in nautical history, being used as a shipyard since the 16th century and some of it hasn't changed, good pub-grub was had, Brian departed back with van for Eastbourne. The Beaulieu River exit  was no problem despite being Low water springs, passage through Solent no problem to with the wind on the starboard quarter we sailed at 4-5 knots most of the time. Through the Forts and out close to the Nab channel, had a few problems with the newly installed roller-reefing, and as we went through the Looe channel the wind over tide kicked the sea-state up a bit, which made it a bit uncomfortable as a corkscrew motion was experienced with a following sea and wind from the quarter. As at times the genoa was getting blanketed by the sheeted out main, we turned on the engine and motored most of the way to Brighton, where we arrived at 21:00 and slept the night there after a beer (or few) and burger at Weatherspoon's.

After a shower and breakfast we took off again this time into a SSE breeze that took us all the way to Eastbourne , breeze died a bit off Beachy Head, but we arrived back at Sovereign Harbour around 14:00 and moored in owners berth.....job done!

 

Tuesday 15th April was an interesting one! The previous day I got a call from Eastbourne Boprough Council Tourism department, they wanted a boat to take a model and photographer out to take photos of Eastbourne seafront and Beachy Head from the sea for an upcoming London Underground poster campaign. We met on the public dock in the main harbour at 14:30, it was evident that the land forecast of a couple of knots of wind was not accurate, it was blowing 10-15 knots from the SSW and the wind was chill! When the model told us they were taking photos of her in a bikini, it raised the eyebrows! So all the entourage alighted and we went out, luckily the sun was shining in a clear blue sky and the sea was calm, unfortunately it was at low tide so we could not get as close to the Pier and Beachy Head as we would of wanted, but did our best and got a few shouts from the fishermen on the pier....as presumably we were too close! As the model got her clothes off, she must of been freezing....but she did really well and as soon as she came down from the deck was covered in blankets and wooly socks! We had a great time and hopefully Guy the photographer got some good shots, we arrived back in the locks at 18:00 and toook a few more photos of the harbour and finished at around 19:00. The photos will be shared and hope to use a few to put on the web-site....please note no tax-payers money was expended on providing our boat or services.

The SHBHA had organised a Boat Jumble for Sunday 6th April, although snow was forecast, the day dawned bright and sunny. I arrived at 09:00 and set up, Flo and Janet from Premier Marinas were setting-up a coffee and tea tent, which was much appreciated and in the end collected money for the Lifeboats, I heard they collected in the region of £100 in place of charging for the coffee. Although there were not many people that set-up a pitch and wanted to sell something, quite a few people came by and chatted and had a coffee, I ended up selling a few things, having cleared out my storage space! But, then a large black cloud started to loom large on the Northern horizon and by 11:00 it had started to snow......and by 11:30 it had started to snow harder....eventually spilling 4-5 inches for the whole day. My boat was out on charter on a course, the visibility in the snow must not of been great and the temperature hovering around freezing, they arrived back around 20:00, no doubt grateful to get back in and much richer for 5the experience.

The winds topped out at 36 knots on our instruments......sitting comfortably having some hot-cross buns and coffee on the berth in the Sovereign Harbour we span tall tales of our derring-do!!!! Happy Easter to all!!

I am glad someone eventually remembered to bring a camera!!!

 

We ventured out on Easter Friday like intrepid explorers, Michael, Meyrick and me. Michael's enthusiasm was infectious. Michael's story briefly is that after growing up as a river rat on the Medway with his father owning dinghies and then larger sailing boats, hadn't done much sailing since then, marriage and then kids having gotten in the way. So after a shorebased Day Skipper course with Morgan Sailing some crewing was offered.....but this morning seemed extreme...but he was up for it!!

 

We were headed for the Sussex Regatta in Shoreham, as we caught the 09:30 lock, White Rose slipped in behind us. The lock keeper at the harbour informed us that racing had been cancelled that day! As we went through the outer harbour we put in two reefs, just to make sure we were not over powered. Coming out from the harbour winds were not that bad, the forecast was for a NW 7-9, we were in the lee of the downs, but were getting some gusts of around 25 knots. As we approached the Head we could see up ahead breaking water white in the sunlight and thought oh..... as we got into it water was coming up over the deck house and drenching us....see photos and then the winds kicked in gusts of 30-35 knots! White Rose had taken a closer route into the cliffs, on reflection this would have been better as it was partially out of the wind. As the wind direction was NW'ly it would of taken us a lot more time than we had to make Shoreham, so the decision was made to turn round...there were a few relieved faces....had agreat sail back, surfing at 11 knots in the waves and broad reaching at 9 knots....all in all we were glad to get back in......our hands were frozen!