We weathered a choppy force 4 westerly with increasingly big following waves rounding Beachy Head on our short passage to neighbouring Eastbourne. Steering Distant Drummer down some of these proved quite a challenge.
Blustery Beachy Head
Beachy Head light house lies at the foot of a 500 foot cliff and is dwarfed by the scale of this chalk face. Gradually the sea conditions calmed down as we rounded the headland and altered course towards Eastbourne.
First mate on the wheel
Like Brighton, its marina lies to the east of the town and its entrance is equally tricky to pick out against the shoreline. Unlike Brighton, Eastbourne Marina is entered through a tidal lock governed by a traffic light system. As we approached we called up the lock keeper on our VHF radio but received no response. In desperation Robin then called the marina using a mobile phone and finally made contact. He was reluctant to approach the lock as it appeared to be displaying conflicting sets of lights both green and red. In fact Eastbourne Marina has two separate locks side by side and on this occasion one was open to us and the other closed. It is far too easy to lose the ability to think in such situations!
Eastbourne marina sea lock (easy when you know how)
During all this completely unnecessary panicking Robin’s ability to function logically was temporarily suspended while Nikki remained calm and held DD in neutral while admiring the seals who were basking on the mud nearby and no doubt finding our antics quite amusing.
Headless chicken
After a couple of minutes we were given the all clear to enter the lock, a very straight forward procedure, and before long we had entered the sanctuary of the inner marina and came alongside without further incident. It later transpired that the lock keeper could hear our VHF radio messages with perfect clarity; it was our receiving filter that had decided to malfunction. We elected to purchase a new hand-held radio to avoid any further embarrassment in future communications with harbour masters and marinas.
A trip to the movies to see ‘The Avengers Infinity War’ the following afternoon was a relaxing change from our life at sea. Other than one other couple we had the auditorium to ourselves. Eastbourne is a new marina and housing development combined with shops and restaurants. The only downside from our point of view was that it is situated quite a distance to the east of the town. It was still an enjoyable stop off and we both agreed that it would have been an interesting place to explore further.
Martello 68 Eastbourne seafront
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