Chichester to Alderney

Mark King

Leaving early in the morning saw my first Chichester harbour seal! Needed to motor sail for first 5 hours with only 5kts of wind past Isle of Wight into the channel. Wind picked up in channel meaning could close reach crossing the channel when we could see french coast. As wind backed out us on beam reach (7kts) and with tide (2kts) near the Alderney races meant our speed over the ground was 8 or 9 kts. With increased boat speed arrived a little early in Alderney 3 hours before slack water. Dropped sails about 1nm out and as we motored into Braye harbour tide dropped. Picked up a mooring ball and called the water taxi to get to the pub.