Selsey Bill

[Oldfellah]

Travelling From the East late on Saturday in a light W wind I was surprised to find the wind increased and sea's really churned up once I had passed the Owers. With just a novice crew ( his first trip out) I had a rough few hours with plenty of water shipped and my prop almost out of the water at times. This is the second time I have been knocked about here in recent years and wondered if this is a regular occurrence in this area or I was just unlucky.

 

[Lucky Duck]

There was a brisk sea breeze in that neck of the woods earlier in the afternoon so it was probably the leftover 'chop' from that along with that it does get a little bit 'bumpy' at times there - particularly with wind against tide.

 

[Seajet]

Ask Moby2 here, he has spent a lifetime off Selsey inc on inshore and offshore lifeboats and knows every inch, he has a healthy respect for the area.

 

[rotrax]

Dangerous place, inside or outside the Owers.

Lived there during the summer on Grandmother's smallholding. The village would turn out when the lifeboat maroon went off.

Caught my first sea fish off the lifeboat slipway when I was 8. A small Red Gurnard.

I remember the Thames Barges with their sails brailed up sheltering from Westerlies from time to time, and waiting out foul tides. The Vamps would zoom overhead on their way to the firing range. We would hear their guns and then see them come back. Exiting days for a kid.

 

[Seajet]

Rotrax,

did you see anything of the World Air Speed Record flights along there in Meteors then Hunter ?

Neville Dukes' special red Hunter with pointy nose and afterburner WB188 is in Tangmere museum.

 

[Habebty]

There are two places I have sailed that seem to have an intangible creepiness to them.
One is Orfordness, and the other is the Owers. Just something about the the way the sea moves even when calm. Curiously don’t get that feeling in the Looe Channel.
About 17 years ago at Orfordness, I witnessed St Elmos fire in the rig, and the batteries sudden flatten!! The area is a reputed UFO hotspot not that I believe that stuff.
When going outside the Owers, watching the tide slowly swirl round the shoals just seems to add to an air of dark foreboding, not rational I know, but there you go

 

[rotrax]

Rotrax,

did you see anything of the World Air Speed Record flights along there in Meteors then Hunter ?

Neville Dukes' special red Hunter with pointy nose and afterburner WB188 is in Tangmere museum.

I was just a kid getting up to kid things-bird nesting, rabbiting, crabbing, building dens and the like.

If I did, I dont remember. Dad, ex RAF, used to get quite excited from time to time at the planes going by. He stayed in London during the week, coming to Selsey at weekends.

I certainly remember the morning after the paper boy had delivered Dad reading out that the Fairy Delta 2 had broken the speed record.

 

[Seajet]

A Dunsfold colleague, the late Dennis Warren was head of Design Liaison with us, he had been on the Fairey Delta 2 record ' Faster Than The Sun ' run, first aircraft to sustain 1000mph - there's a book of that title I gave to Dennis, he didn't know of it and was more than chuffed.

He had Westerly Pageant No.1 ' L Gee ' as in Laurent Giles.

 

[Seajet]

There are two places I have sailed that seem to have an intangible creepiness to them.
One is Orfordness, and the other is the Owers. Just something about the the way the sea moves even when calm. Curiously don’t get that feeling in the Looe Channel.
About 17 years ago at Orfordness, I witnessed St Elmos fire in the rig, and the batteries sudden flatten!! The area is a reputed UFO hotspot not that I believe that stuff.
When going outside the Owers, watching the tide slowly swirl round the shoals just seems to add to an air of dark foreboding, not rational I know, but there you go

I always find Portland Bill and Alderney send shivers down my spine even on a calm sunny day.

 

[Iliade]

I always find Portland Bill and Alderney send shivers down my spine even on a calm sunny day.

How about the western coast of Bryher? Here be kelp(ies)...

 

[wombat88]

Having lived in Selsey I have sworn to never turn left when leaving Chichester.

 

[wombat88]

...having said that I feel the same about the Menai Straits.

 

[[2068]]

If it’s wind against tide, I usually head due South for a fair distance out of Chichester Harbour before turning left.
I did try the channel, but had to slow down and got thrown around.
The channel is fine in moderate conditions with a favourable tide.

The other issue is the pot markers - easy to spot in flat conditions, not so easy in a swell.

 

[PilotWolf]

Always found the Mixon pole to be unnerving.

Beachy Head overfalls can be 'exciting' in wind over tide..

W.

 

[neilf39]

Went West through the Looe channel on the Sunday morning an hour or so after HW (neaps) so with the tide (~1kn) and into a 13kn-20kn NW wind. So wind against tide. It was a veritable washing machine going through. Not so bad that the bows got buried, but everything was on the floor by the end of it as the wave patterns were so random. Built up slowly from the Mixon and the worst point was just after Street for about 2nm. Glad it was neaps. Wouldn't want to do it in much livelier conditions.

 

[Greenheart]

...going outside the Owers, watching the tide slowly swirl round the shoals just seems to add to an air of dark foreboding, not rational I know, but there you go

Isn't there a Roman site on the bottom, thereabouts? I read somewhere (possibly here) that at extremely low tides, the tower of some ancient church was once visible.

 

[Habebty]

Isn't there a Roman site on the bottom, thereabouts? I read somewhere (possibly here) that at extremely low tides, the tower of some ancient church was once visible.

View attachment 78146

Not heard that one, but have always wondered what caused the “hole” just off he Mixon?

 

[Benny257]

Not heard that one, but have always wondered what caused the “hole” just off he Mixon?
View attachment 78147

https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/GeositesMixonHole

The Mixon was shoreline in Roman times and was a settlement there, possibly until about the 10th century. Spooky.

 

[Seajet]

I've always thought ' the hole ' must have been a quarry...I'm told by diver friends it's dangerous as the current flows down into it, and can pin one down until the oxygen runs out.

May be mixing old tales though Dan, there's a legend that Vikings raided Bosham and made off with the church bell, presumably had a nautical mishap as it's said the bell can be heard tolling underwater.

 

[MOBY2]

Selsey can be not a nice place in the wrong conditions, combination of shoal ground (you can be in 2ft. of water 6 miles off) strong currents and there is a lot of each of Selsey. especially as mentioned when wind against tide, when you get West of the Looe buoys it can get very lumpy as unlike the Solent no Isle of Wight to stop the momentum of sea.
We once found 3 anglers adrift, they were being searched for west of Poole, had no comms, days before mobile phones, they had a fast boat, had told no-one of their plans, it was foggy and they couldn't understand why one minute it was calm and the next quite choppy seas, they had basically been drifting up and down the Looe Channel for 2 days, when we found them the old man on board was on his knees, hands raised to the heavens thanking god, it was then I guessed they may have been out there for some time, got them aboard, checked them over, notified coastguard and towed them back to Selsey.
These days with better more affordable navigation equipment and better forecasts not so many boats come to grief around those shores thank fully.