English Channel Shakedown Cruise
South Coast, Scilly Isles, Channel Isles
This short video has some images of our summer shake down cruise. This was before we thought of having a You Tube Channel so sorry for the lack of moving pictures.
The ports and anchorages button will have information on the best places to drop anchor or tie up. These spots will be clearly marked on the map below.
Our experience of sailing the area and of things to see and do are on the other two buttons.
We covered the whole South Coast from Eastbourne to the Scilly's on this cruise as well as the Channel Isles. Basically I think things just get better the further West you go!
From Eastbourne to the Solent the coast is a bit uninteresting to be honest. Your anchoring opportunities are very few. Marinas are sparse in the East but nothing's beyond a day sail.
Eastbourne was our home marina for two years. It is handy as it has a 50 ton travel lift, a trading estate with Asda supermarket, a cinema (closing summer 2019), excellent restaurants, including Thai and Indian but it lacks a good chandlers. There is a small one but rarely open.
Travelling West, a long day would get you into the Solent but easier to stop off at Brighton. The marina is basically built in a shopping centre. So, shops & restaurants galore but the marina is truly horrible. No lock though so at least you can get out quick! Don't believe their claims of 2 meters depth at low water. We've ground to a halt in the mud many times.
The Solent has more marinas than you can shake a boat hook at. All are over-priced but most are well set up. We like the Premier Marina in Chichester as it's very pretty and there's a good pub - Crown and Anchor - which is a pleasant 20 minute walk away or a trip up river in the dingy.
There are many good marinas in the Solent though, mostly on the mainland and of course Cowes on the island. Just be aware of the biggest sailing week in the UK, Cowes Week, at the beginning of August. The place gets rammed, rafted 6 deep on the quays, so either get down and get partying or avoid like the plague!
There's enough shelter around that you can usually find somewhere to anchor in the Solent but be aware there's shipping 24 hours and you can easily end up being tipped out of your bunk at midnight with the wash these monster ships can muster. N.B. the background picture on this page and the one on the About Us page is us anchored off the Needles (the West point of the Isle of Wight. ) This is NOT a place to overnight! We dropped the anchor as we wanted a swim and a fish but the anchor was just sitting on the bottom; it's solid chalk! There are rivers you can duck into, the Beaulieu river which is lovely and has mooring buoys near the mouth and walk ashore pontoons further up. We usually anchor but you may still get charged. It's a private river.
Opposite Beaulieu is out favourite anchoring spot Newtown Creek. We have to be a bit careful with our 2 meter draft as there's limited places with the depth for us and it gets really busy in Summer.
You will see from the video that West of the Solent things just get, well, more summer holiday like. You know, fish and chips and a stick of rock English summer holiday as a kid type experience. It's lovely, actually, when the sun shines!
From here on, anchoring becomes a much better prospect. Lots of bays and rivers. Helford's one of my favourites (this is all marked on the map below) and don't miss anchoring off St Micheal's Mount. Can't guarantee the fireworks, I think they just do that when we come! But it's a nice stop-over anyway.
The Scilly's are fabulous, but settled weather only. You only have to visit the display of figureheads of all the wrecks at Tresco to see how brutal this place can be. In good weather it's a delight. If you have really settled weather go to the outlying islands to the North.
The Channel Islands are a great sailing playground. Lots of anchoring opportunities, Islands are great as you can nip around to the leeward side, but beware in the Channel Islands as the extreme tides and terrain set up some viscous chops which seem to be able to work their way into what you think will be a sheltered cove and rock you out of bed.
For Guernsey I would recommend Beaucette in preference to St Peters Port. In Jersey, Town Marina is a happening place and very nice, but can get really crowded. You can't book in advance here they will just try and shoehorn you in. If you have a big boat (16 meters +) I would call anyway as they may put you in Elizabeth marina next door which is normally for the locals and is much less busy. Do beware of the freaky eddy that rips through as the water gets close to the sill.
Sailing wise the challenges on this cruise are the tides and the shipping. Inland shipping isn't an issue except slotting though the very busy Solent. It's the East side from Portsmouth that's the real issue, the Western side is quieter.
Crossing the channel does involve the shipping lanes. If you've got AIS, though, this is not the bottom clenching ordeal it used to be!
Tides are sizable and worth a knot or two of way in open water so you will want to plan to travel with the tide if you're day sailing. As the tide ebbs Westward this means you will be arriving at low tide going West, high tide going East. So plan carefully. ( The French side can be challenging going West as many ports can't be entered at low tide.)
Prevailing winds are solid Westerlies, Easterlies are rare so add this to your initial planning .
Okay, I know this should be a sailing picture on the sailing page, but it's a very good pub next to Chichester Marina, the Crown and Anchor, so worth inclusion!
We had limited time for this cruise so sightseeing opportunities weren’t what they could have been.
There are too many places of interest along the South Coast to list. The places we chose to stop at were sometimes just down to weather and not always because we had something we wanted to see or do.
As far as sightseeing from the boat goes you have got some lovely river estuaries to explore. My favourite is probably Salcombe. The chalk cliffs to the East are very scenic too, and all along there are really pretty seaside villages.
Highlights for us for things ashore were Dartmouth where it rained for the entire 3 days we were there, but it was still lovely. Just a really nice river with loads of interest. Explore in the dingy or by foot. There are many river ferries too.
The best bit of the trip, though, was definitely the Scilly Isles. We walked across most of the islands, all fascinating. The garden at Tresco is a must do and the white sand beaches look tropical until you step into the freezing cold water!
The Channel Islands are equally fascinating, if not quite as beautiful. We spent some time in Guernsey and Sark and would have liked to have stayed longer. We did spend a week in Jersey and had a good explore on bikes as well as on foot. Be warned Jersey is more hilly that you might expect and is hard work on a bike.
The Channel Islands were occupied by the Germans in the second world war and there is a very moving holocaust museum in St Helier. There are also some great castles around the coast line from various past skirmishes with the French.
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