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.
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| 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.
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| 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 as well as carrying several other designations and is a protected area. It boasts colonies of grey and harbour seals, fourteen yacht clubs and about five million birds (or so it seems)! They believe about 55,000 birds visit or reside in the Harbour during the year. It's a bird watchers' paradise.
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| Chinook enjoying being at anchor |
Sadly, it was time for Deborah to leave us so we all loaded into the dinghy and pootled across to Hayling Island where Deb could catch public transport back to London. It had the salty, faded feel of a beachside resort not quite yet open for the season. And a fun fact - windsurfing was invented on Hayling Island!
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The beach known as The Hinge
and part of the storm protection barriers to prevent the dunes from erosion |
We paddled ashore on our SUPs (and even managed to stay dry) to the white sandy beaches of West Wittering. Yes, you read correctly, the beach here is sandy! According to Wikipedia, it is considered to be one of the best swimming beaches in the UK. No need here for a yoga mat to protect you from the pebbles! If not for the wind and the chilly temperatures, we could have been tempted to sunbathe.
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The tides here are quite substantial and expose wide, sandy beaches -
and leave the odd navigation marker high and dry! |
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Jon and the The Cream Mary, a new venture cruising the waters off East Head.
We're sure they'll do a roaring trade once the daily temperature increases! |
The weather was not cooperating with us heading north to Sweden. We had some rather stubborn northerly/north easterly winds that were both chilly and blowing from exactly the direction we were heading. We had some short weather windows in which to make short jumps. We could have motored from Chichester to Eastbourne in a lull and then spent at least three days in Eastbourne.
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| The colours show the wind speed. Yellow is +20 kn (40km/hr) - bang on the nose! |
Enjoying being at anchor, we opted to wait for another window that would take us through the Dover Strait. It also gave us the opportunity to explore around Itchenor and Chichester, conveniently linked by a bike path.
We moved down the channel to give us better access to the dinghy dock. We did not fancy the idea of dragging the dinghy across the wide mudflats at low tide.
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| A mute swan nesting on the canal bank, her partner was standing guard on the bike path. |
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| The English countryside was showing off. Marvellous weather! |
The ride into Chichester was glorious. It is a very pretty area with explosions of purple from the lilacs and wisteria adorning the cottages and fences along the way. The first few lines of My Country by Dorothea MacKellar kept running through my head:
The love of field and coppice
Of green and shaded lanes
Of ordered woods and gardens...
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| Eventually, the countryside yielded to the little CITY of Chichester. We headed for the spire, hoping it would be at the centre of things. |
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Finding a town/city map is a great starting point of exploring a place. Next, we look for a tourist information centre. Found one!
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| We are happy to note a growing trend for cities to have some historical information and possibly artefacts of the city located at the tourist information centre. This was the case in Chichester, so we spent more than an hour learning about the different settlements (such as the Roman town of originally noted as Noviomagus Regorium in AD 43) that have existed where Chichester is now. |
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| The Market Cross |
We had a lovely wander around the town. It was market day so there was lots of wonderful cheeses, vegetables, meats and baked goods up for grabs. A huge loaf of sourdough somehow found its way into our bag! We wondered through fabulous bookshops and hit the pub for fish 'n chips ... washed down with a beer for lunch.
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... and weren't we excited when we discovered that the city wall that the English had constructed was largely still in tact and that we could walk around and on it!
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With interpretive signs! In English!!
How easy! |
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| Walking along the ramparts of the old wall afforded a raised view ... |
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| ... sometimes down into the spring gardens backing onto the wall. |
By now, you've probably noticed the big spire that appears in many of our photos - it does dominate this little city of only 30,000 residents. The cathedral was supposed to be a big deal and conveniently, our bikes were locked up outside of it, so we decided to have a look inside.
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| Chichester Cathedral |
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| History upon history - the cathedral was built in what was once the Roman city of Noviomagus Reginorum, on the site of a public building that had an intricate mosaic floor. They have installed a glass panel to allow visitors to see what lies beneath it. |
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Effigies of Richard and Eleanor from 1370s holding hands.
The dog at Eleanor's feet represents loyalty, fidelity and companionship
while Richard's lion represents courage, strength, power and justice! |
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| Chichester Cathedral |
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| A bit of roadside maintenance |
Back at our bikes, we found Kate's front tyre dead flat. Investigations showed a tiny piece of glass lodged in the tyre. Fortunately, we carry a full repair kit and a battery powered pump so were back up and running in no time.
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| Along the bike path and back to Chinook we pedal - a day well spent. |
We popped by the supermarket on our way back and added two boxes of groceries to the dinghy's payload!
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| Two bikes, two bags, two boxes of groceries and two people... |
We have the luxury of a very loose schedule and have made the most of having to wait out some unfavourable winds. We can now comfortably say we have been into and had a good look around Chichester ... from the top of the city* wall.
* Chichester is a city by virtue of having a cathedral.
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