I have always seen this trip as being made up of three “legs”, the west coast, the east coast and the south coast. We were now on the home leg and the advantage of finishing in Penzance is that every mile after Dover is truly a mile closer to home. After sorting ourselves out and radioing through to harbour control we were on our way to Eastbourne shortly after 9am.

The going was to be good for the first part of the day up to midday when the tide would turn against us. On leaving the harbour it was nice to see the Trinity House Ship “Patricia” sitting at her berth. After leaving us behind in Whitby we had finally caught her up! The important part of the day was to get around Dungeness Point preferably before the tide turned. Then we would have to push against the softer tide in the bay up towards Eastbourne.

The winds increased once clear of the high cliffs of Dover until we had the forecast force four from the north. With wind and tide on our side we were soon making seven knots along the twenty-mile track to Dungeness. The visibility was by now reducing and we were only just keeping sight of the coast. It was pleasing to note that shipping traffic beyond Folkestone was not a problem. All the large ships were concentrated in the traffic separation zone. Apart from some early rain things were going well. Shortly after midday we were abeam of Dungeness Power station and over halfway towards our goal for the day. The only other small vessel on the water was a coastguard RIB that overtook us shortly after the headland.

They seemed to be on their way to the Solent at about twenty knots, which would take them only a few hours – cheating really! The waves had been building but it was now smooth in the lee of the headland. Even with the tide against us on the smooth surface we were making good ground speed. Things were going so well that Brighton was not looking like too much of a stretch for the day beyond Eastbourne. It did not take us long to change course slightly to round Beachy Head. First however, we needed to get around the Royal Sovereign lighthouse slightly further to the south. The lighthouse is a short tower mounted on the side of a single legged platform – a strange sight from a distance. After watching it approach for an hour or so, by the time we had arrived at the lighthouse the tide was again in our favour.

Now rounding up to make for Beachy Head we were racing along at eight knots. As the sun was setting we approached the cliffs of Beachy Head. As we soon found, we were too close, with the wind dieing in the shadow of the cliff. Once we moved out of the lee it was clear that the wind had disappeared all along the coast, which made us feel a bit better for our mistake. With only fifteen miles to go to our destination we motor sailed parallel to the coast, with the sun starting to set.

In our first sign that we were making it closer to home Brighton was a port that both Dad and I had been to previously. Unfortunately for me it was five years ago and for dad it was twenty. This was not a problem as there are few, if any, dangers to worry about along this coast. That is, as long as you keep off the beach! We had a flat sea and the lights of Brighton give a backdrop to the likely location of the marina. The only challenge was making out the marina lights against the thousands of others. We simply ended up following the fifteen-meter contour up the coast until we could see the marina breakwater. This we located as the area of seafront without town lights! In fact we saw the masts of the yachts in the marina before we could make out any of the marina navigation light.

We slowly remove the sails and quietly motored through the gap in the breakwater. It was only when we were ten meters from the main marina navigation light that I finally identified it – its stated range is 10 miles! We soon found a berth on the visitor’s pontoon and went off to explore the newly developed marina village.