Soverign Marina Eastbourne

Admittedly the Crouch is easily the most dull of all the East Coast rivers, but the trouble with Eastbourne/Brighton is that there are only three options - left, right, or straight across. Left is Dover (really?), right (and a long way right), is the Solent, which is basically full, and the last time we went straight across, Fecamp/Dieppe were completely packed with Dutchmen on their way to Brittany. Probably accounts for why an estimated 80% of the boats in Brighton never move.
 
Little Grebe said:
Also my east coast sailing was mostly from the Orwell, think you might be confusing me with somebody else?
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Thought I was still talking to Daydream Believer. Apologies.
If we come back to the East Coast, it'll probably be the Orwell. Lots more stuff to do round there and like the Crouch, proper deep water.

The nice thing about Eastbourne is that it's a Premier Marina. Means I can effectively move the boat to the Solent for a month in summer for free.

A big factor is travel to the boat. We live in Cambridge. From May there will be direct train services to Brighton. Would go there instead of Eastbourne but the shelter isn't great.
 
MountainGoat said:
... The nice thing about Eastbourne is that it's a Premier Marina. Means I can effectively move the boat to the Solent for a month in summer for free.

A big factor is travel to the boat. We live in Cambridge. From May there will be direct train services to Brighton. Would go there instead of Eastbourne but the shelter isn't great.
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Same thinking that led to us picking Eastbourne, we're in Saffron Walden so a similar journey.
 
I used to travel from about 15 miles north of Cambridge to Burnham YH (before that we had two years at Blackwater Marina), when we moved to the Orwell the travel time reduced by around half.

Assuming, of course, there wasn't an incident on the A14.

Edit: There is a direct train service from Cambridge to Ipswich although being single track around Cambridge it can suffer if things go wrong.
 
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Inlaws used to live in Burnham, so it made sense to keep the boat there. They're now moved away, hence us looking for pastures new. If we wanted to stay on the east coast it would have been Ipswich.
 
MountainGoat said:
Inlaws used to live in Burnham, so it made sense to keep the boat there. They're now moved away, hence us looking for pastures new. If we wanted to stay on the east coast it would have been Ipswich.
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Apologies for thread resurrection, but I'm curious as to how you are finding South Coast life. I draw 1.8m and am getting a bit tired of the limitations here on the E Coast. Lots of compensations and many things I like. But I am yearning for deeper, bluer water. So much nicer when you flush . . .
 
gdallas said:
Apologies for thread resurrection, but I'm curious as to how you are finding South Coast life. I draw 1.8m and am getting a bit tired of the limitations here on the E Coast. Lots of compensations and many things I like. But I am yearning for deeper, bluer water. So much nicer when you flush . . .
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Loving it. Lot more distance cruising, fewer secluded anchorages, but there's loads of variety, and you've got proper sea with interesting conditions and you can pick a point of sail and it's deep and there are cliffs and the solent isn't very far and the marinas have shops and restaurants instead of being muddy holes surrounded by swamp.

And everyone has AIS and you can listen to the French yelling at people for going the wrong way in the TSS on Muppet Radio and stuff.

Missing the friends we made at Burnham, but we've made new ones.
 
MountainGoat said:
Loving it. Lot more distance cruising, fewer secluded anchorages, but there's loads of variety, and you've got proper sea with interesting conditions and you can pick a point of sail and it's deep and there are cliffs and the solent isn't very far and the marinas have shops and restaurants instead of being muddy holes surrounded by swamp....
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That's all true, but there are few lovely laces for day sails.
 
Scala said:
That's all true, but there are few lovely laces for day sails.
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In Burnham the distance from BYH to Crouch North Cardinal is the distance from Sovereign Harbour to Beachy Head lighthouse.

Which puts it into perspective a bit. And the scenery there is utterly spectacular.

Brighton is 4 hours.

Cuckmere haven to anchor if the wind is right.

We did Chichester to Sovereign in 10 hours.

Or you can just go out into Pevensey bay and *sail*, because the water is properly deep and you can do what you want.

The thing I miss the most is my barbecues and swims up in the Roach anchorages. The English Channel is *cold*.
 
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