When it’s good, it’s good. Chichester – Brighton

Another incident packed trip. It was a bit of a last minute decision to do the Chichester – Brighton run, given the distance to travel over two days, but the weather forecast was too good to miss, plus the chance of meeting up with friends we haven’t seen for ages.

I set the clocks for some ungodly hour and of course overslept. In a mild panic we hooked up and set off. Khamsin seemed to be towing a bit heavy, but I put it down to a full fuel load etc (I know it is a good idea to check after a couple of miles but I was running later than I intended). Some 10 miles down the road approaching the Dartford Bridge a car pulled alongside and the passenger shouted ‘Your trailer wheels are on fire!’ Cue to pull over, sure enough smoke billowed from the wheels, hot grease was splattered everywhere, the brakes were locked solid. Abort mission, pull onto A13 to go home, pull into lay-by to cool off. Time for tea, then I see the brake cable’s taut (reason later). Slacken cable, push a bit of grease back, phone long suffering Neil and decide to carry on to Chichester some 100 miles away, foolish, but there is always the AA.

Arrive at Chichester about the same time as Maverick, Tony has had overheating problems as well. Launch, long wait to lock out, kept rest of fleet waiting and feel guilty (can you imagine Martin, I’ve kept Rafiki waiting?) and head out to catch up with the Eastlands brigade. The weather is superb, sea state calm. Have a great run with the only problem being Okada springing a leaky tube and settling lower and lower. Rafiki and Snave Too go back to assist. Get going again and head for Brighton Marina to be led to our berths by Paul waving majestically (as befits el presidento) on Pendragon. This turns out to be the backdoor corner that has no cleats fitted yet, but we all get sorted out and the sun is still shining!

Head out for evening meal, plenty going on.

Sunday morning dawns hot and bright – two days of sun in England. Alistair and me head off to get fuel, a fair distance but 86p a litre. We fuel up and sit in the sun while various crews stir, then it is head back to Chichester. Weather and sea state still superb. Great sight with 11 boats in line at 25 knots , well worth all the hassle just to see that. Quite a few nervous fishermen wondering what’s happening around them. Off Chichester the armada split, with the Eastlands Massive heading home while the rest of us anchored up to await a suitable time to lock back into Chichester. When eventually we headed for the lock it was on the tail end of a long line of other craft trying to do the same. There followed an hour or so of gearbox crunching as we tried to hold station I an ever decreasing channel. Eventually we got in to recover the boats, just floating them onto the trailers. Larimar, Snave Too and Okada headed for home, Maverick was being left until Tony sorts out the overheating problem on his tow vehicle. We were just about to leave when White Shark turned up, could not leave with a Pathfinder boat still in the water. After a bit of a struggle, he too was trailered and we headed for home, tired but happy, still in brilliant sunshine.

Just glad we decided to carry on after brake problem. This, incidentally, was caused when I fitted a new damper piston to the towing head. This is anchored to an L bracket which I fitted the wrong was round. This in turn snagged the lever that applies the brakes to come on, but not release after. Sorted now with no apparent damage to bearings etc.

All in all, a great weekend.

Boats attending: Rafiki, Abraxis, Larimar, Brinsmead, Khamsin, Snave Too, Mavrick, Zena, Carribean Blue, Pendragon, Okada.

Chris Grieve

Khamsin

p.s Thanks David Luetchford for winding me up when heading down the Channel to Chichester with the shout ‘Oi, watch your wake!’

p.p.s Thanks to Neil and Karen for organising.