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[email protected]Yachting Monthly’s founder Herbert Reiach wrote in the first issue in 1906:
‘We shall be glad to receive the best logs and cruising
stories offered to us from all parts of the world’
110 years later, nothing’s changed! We’re still publishing your cruising storiesReaders’
CruisingStories58 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com MAY 2016Initially daunted by
singlehanding, Richard Hales
practiced for a year before
sailing solo from Gosport to
London and back againIt may be slightly morbid but,
after sailing for 20 years, my
favourite pastime at sea is
thinking about all the things
that could go wrong
and what I might do
about it. It’s a useful
discipline for all
skippers, but essential
when you go solo.
My very fi rst
solo sail was
almost laughably
unadventurous.
Leaving Royal Clarence Marina
in Gosport, I turned left for Port
Solent, then came back. It was a
sunny day with very light wind
and the voyage under engine and
genoa lasted two hours. BackSailing solo from Gosport
to London and back
then, as soon as I had departed
my marina berth singlehanded
I began to fear coming back
alongside later on. Just over a
year later, however, I took myself
off solo for the 460-mile voyage
from Gosport to St Katherine
Docks in the heart of London. The
idea of the trip had initially been
enormously daunting but was
now becoming real.
The fi rst leg was
a lovely day sail
from Portsmouth
to Eastbourne.
Log-keeping kept
me busy, but it
was otherwise
very peaceful and
I enjoyed having
some thinking time without any
distractions. Navigation chiefl y
involved avoiding the shoal off
Selsey Bill, fi nding the buoys at
Boulder Street before changing
course for Beachy Head andchecking that I’d got the tides
right. Arriving at Eastbourne was
slightly scary due to the need to
lock in to the marina – the fi rst
time I’d done it singlehanded.
The next day I sailed on
past the strangely fascinating
headland at Dungeness, through
the heavy traffi c off Dover, where
ferries come and go almost as
frequently as the trains in and
out of Waterloo station, arriving
eventually at Ramsgate. The
marina staff there were very
helpful with lines and there was
time to get out on my folding
bike to explore the coastal path
before fi nishing the day with a
pint to celebrate my successful
navigation of the Goodwin Sands.
Turning left and left again the
following day, I negotiated the
various sand banks to fi nd the Isle
of Grain. The industrial landscape
close to Garrison Point gives way
to a peaceful overnight anchorage
off the Medway in Stangate
Creek, where I sheltered from the
rain and re-checked my passage
plan for the big push up the
Thames the next morning.Planning for the Thames is
essential. St Katherine’s Dock has
a short opening window and the
tides on the river can be strong.
The free Tidal Thames Navigators
Club guide, published by the
Port of London Authority (www.
boatingonthethames.co.uk),
contains everything leisure sailors
need to know.
Waking at 0500 I embarked
upon a few hours of fairly
straightforward navigation.ALL PHOTOS: RICHARD HALE‘After six days
and 460
miles, I felt a
huge sense of
achievement’
The moment of
truth as I came
to leave GosportSugarwing rounds the white cliffs of
Dover. I was nearly out of the ChannelI got to enjoy an unusual view of
the Queen Elizabeth M25 bridge