Passage Plan Advice from Chi to Gosport!

Zagato

Zagato

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Just wanted to see what time you thought the ideal time to dept Chichester would be considering it looks like fighting the tide at least one end. My Peter Bruce book hasn't arrived yet and alamnac etc is on the boat :rolleyes:

I have the family with me this time so want to get it right but last time I left one hour before HT @ Chi and fought the tide going into Gosport when I arrived roughly 2 hours later. With HT tide at roughly 11.20 at Chi I think I will do the same.
 
Surely the important tidal gate is Portsmouth entrance and your calcs should be based on that. Max ebb flow is HW +3 and ebb starting at HW+1 with HW today at 10:26.
 
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Unless depth over Chi Bar is critical you could leave Chi on the last of the ebb, and enter Pompey on the early flood. Stay close to Hampshire, go through the gap in the submarine barrier, and you'll stay out of the stronger east-going that'll be further out towards the deeper water.
 
Giblets said:
Surely the important tidal gate is Portsmouth entrance and your calcs should be based on that. Max ebb flow is HW +3 with HW today at 10:26.
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On a small boat the tidal gate at Chichester is equally important. A small boat finds it very hard to enter/leave against the tide once the tidal height is low enough to reduce the width across the entrance to a narrow channel. The tide then has a much narrower entrance/exit so the rate often exceeds many small boats capabilities to fight the tide.
 
Talulah said:
On a small boat the tidal gate at Chichester is equally important. A small boat finds it very hard to enter/leave against the tide once the tidal height is low enough to reduce the width across the entrance to a narrow channel. The tide then has a much narrower entrance/exit so the rate often exceeds many small boats capabilities to fight the tide.
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A very fair comment but the OP was talking about leaving around HW Chi so the "narrow channel" bit may not apply.
 
Hi Zagato,

in case you have a laptop onbard;

we've all driven to the boat without the keys, or scraped ashore from a drying mooring only to find the car keys are on the boat !

The tide starts going West 1.5 hours before HW Chichester.

The course to the Dolpin passage through the submarine barrier is 270 magnetic, beware of the line of lobster pots, dark blue plastic cans considerately placed directly on this line by some joker.
 
I keep the boat keys in the car, also the brass bung for the tender which I take home as a security measure; top tip, the red top from a WD40 can is just the right holder for the bung so I can see I've got it with me at a glance.

The advantage of having an old car is one can araldite such things on !
 
Blimey, one mention on the Internet that the famous Live Magic will be at East Head and everyone shows up! Think I saw Chris arrive as I motored past to an apparently secret location around the corner where there are three boats including myself :)
 
No need to use screwdrivers to start the engine, I left the keys on board :o

I left an hour before HT tide at Chi entrance and left Gosport 4 hours before HT on the return leg. Cutting the tides at either end at various times doesn't seem to be a problem, you see many doing it and my boat seems to have the oomph! I realise the advantage of getting any tidal flow especialyl if there is no wind.

The Solent Tidal Stream book by Peter Bruce arrived in the post and is much better than the Reeds Almanac diagrams, much more detailed with explanations to get a better idea of what's going on. I'll do photocopies for home also.
 
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lustyd said:
Blimey, one mention on the Internet that the famous Live Magic will be at East Head and everyone shows up! Think I saw Chris arrive as I motored past to an apparently secret location around the corner where there are three boats including myself :)
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Not me Dave, I was on my mooring but would have come down to play - need to learn how to access my text messages :rolleyes:

What time did you leave Haslar, we crossed with no wind leaving at 7.30AM but the wind blew up whilst on the mooring at midday...
 
Zagato said:
Not me Dave, I was on my mooring but would have come down to play - need to learn how to access my text messages :rolleyes:

What time did you leave Haslar, we crossed with no wind leaving at 7.30AM but the wind blew up whilst on the mooring at midday...
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I think I left around 8.30 and motored back. The wind picked up at West Pole but it was from the north so motored all the way to Emsworth. Don't underestimate the tides, this weekend was very weak flows. If you get a spring at the right time of day you'd have trouble getting out of Gosport! The time of day make quite a difference to flow rate due to the angle of the sun - this is the reason for the little table in the almanac with times and differences :)
 
timmygobang said:
Thanks Zagato for this post. I'm yet to venture out, but once work has been completed (end of July) I'll be doing my first trip from Birdham Pool to Royal Clarence :)
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Have fun. Timing your trips to the loo is equally as important as the timing of your tides at Royal Clarence... the shower block is a looong way away :eek:
 
lustyd said:
I think I left around 8.30 and motored back. The wind picked up at West Pole but it was from the north so motored all the way to Emsworth. Don't underestimate the tides, this weekend was very weak flows. If you get a spring at the right time of day you'd have trouble getting out of Gosport! The time of day make quite a difference to flow rate due to the angle of the sun - this is the reason for the little table in the almanac with times and differences :)
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I did this a couple of weeks ago when my passage plan to Cowes went out of the window through seasickness and dived into Gosport mid spring tide - no problem. Also left for Bembridge mid tide full flow to catch the right tide there and it was fine, the optional 20 Yanmar with a 3 blade prop is definitely worth having over the 10 Yanmar in a Crabber 24 :D I still havn't had it at full whack yet.

I think sometimes you can over think all this, which anchor, which GPS, which shroud material etc etc. I recently sailed with a lovely old guy who has years of professional skippering experience especialy abroad. He has now downsized to a lovely little Shrimper which he bombs about in with a big grin on his face. He is so relaxed about it all, couldn't remember the name of Bar Beacon, only had 1979 charts but who cares he knew what he was doing, knew the waters well and if you ground... so what everyone does, you'll get off again. He reminded me that sailing was meant to be fun :D He also showed me where to catch a couple of sneaky eddies ;) Always good to know when you are in a race with a particularly quick Cape Cutter :D
 
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