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Chichester Harbour - 50° 47' 28" N 00° 54' 34" W

By Kate and Sean -
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Despite being more upwind than we had anticipated, the sail across The Channel was happily uneventful.  The seas were slight, the wind very consistent and the current, while pushing us off course, kindly edged us around the Isle of Wight so we could sail straight into Chichester Harbour. Congratulations to Deborah on her first Channel crossing by yacht. We loved having you as part of the crew. Glorious and calm anchorage in Chichester Harbour We anchored off West Wittering with tidal flats, birds and salt marshes.  The anchorage was filled with boats and the beach with dog-walkers.  It must be Saturday!  It was a glorious evening and we toasted our safe arrival in the UK with some crémant in the cockpit.  Seeing as we had just come from France, we were able to find at least one bottle. Cleared into the UK, Deborah does the honours of raising the flag! The Harbour and its surrounding area is classified as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty ...
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The Next Eight Weeks (or so) - 50°47' 28" N 00°19' 34" E

By Kate and Sean -
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We keep being asked what's next and where will we be on (insert date).   We also have had the disappointment of, " We didn't know you were here, we were just down the road!"   So in an effort to keep our social life thriving, we will now post our plans each month during the summer. Sunday (3 May), we are leaving Eastbourne (UK) and sailing to Den Helder in The Netherlands.  This 200nm passage will take us through the Strait of Dover on spring tides (they run up to 3 knots) and into the North Sea. From Den Helder, we will wiggle our way across the shallow Waddensee before heading back out into the North Sea and along the West Frisian Islands to Cuxhaven at the mouth of the Elbe River. Our plan for the next eight weeks... We will zip through the Kiel Canal, into the Baltic Sea and work our way north up the east coast of Sweden into the Gulf of Bothnia.  Our turn-around point is dictated by Chinook's insurance limits, so we can go no further than 64°N!  We wil...
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Cherbourg - 49° 38' 43" N 01° 37' 13" W

By Kate and Sean -
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We left the lock in Eastbourne at 05:00 (that's 'am' for you non-nautical types), thinking we would be alone ... only to find we were one of four boats heading out. It's always a good indication that we have correctly read the tides and the weather. The breeze was light so we popped open the Code Zero - it's an awesome sail!  Our speed increased until the wind died and the sails were then up for display purposes only.  We furled the Code Zero and continued on using the iron sail.   The Prime Meridian We crossed the Prime Meridian and suddenly we are back in the Western Hemisphere! A little research and we discovered that the Prime Meridian is no longer the Greenwich Meridian. It was superseded in 1984 and The Prime Meridian is now managed by the very official sounding International Earth Rotation and Reference System Service (IERS).  The new Prime Meridian, or the IERS Reference Meridian (IRM), is about 100m east of the old meridian.   The main...
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