We spent a couple of days in Newtown Creek – ‘in’ being the crucial term here as the crew spent most of it either swimming or messing about in the dinghy.
On Saturday we had a pleasant sail eastwards to Chichester Harbour. It was Cowes Week and as we passed Cowes we were in the midst of numerous racing fleets. There were many craft to see.
Once in Chichester Harbour we anchored under East Head and on Sunday dried out on the sandy beach for the day. Thus Antipole became a de luxe beach hut, providing food and refuge between exploring the beach and sand dunes and swimming.
On Sunday evening, after we had refloated, we ran under genoa up to Itchenor, where we took on water for the first time in 5 days and deposited waste. We anchored off Itchenor in increasingly strong winds.
On Monday we dinghied ashore to explore the village and have a pub lunch. The wind, meanwhile, was up to force 6-7, and we got thoroughly soaked in spray as Grandpa ferried everyone back to the boat.
On Tuesday it was time for the crew to leave us, so in the morning we moved back to East Head and beached the boat once more for the arrival of Sarah with Theo, Ruby & Lola, and Pam & James with Archie. Antipole became a beach café in which adults sat drinking tea while watching over children in sand and water.
Now it is Tuesday evening, the crew have departed and it is strangely quiet on board. We just need to sail back west to complete the handover of Santana. Unfortunately we have strong westerlies to overcome.
We have thoroughly enjoyed having the crew on board, and they seem to have enjoyed the experience too.
That’s the news for now
Tony & Ynskje
x
It was amazing that 13 people could enjoy a buffet lunch in this beach cafe! We had such a lovely day on the beach and the girls really enjoyed the trip, they haven’t stopped talking about it. Theo, Ruby and Lola can’t wait until it is their turn… Thank you both, so much.
Lots of love from Sarah, Molly, Maisie, Theo, Ruby and Lola.