Pure white, marbled with green, the sheer square face of Beachy Head glints in the afternoon sun. Towering above the toy-town lighthouse at its foot.
By mid-morning the wind had dropped to fourteen knots. With the tide not far off the turn. An exceptionally small neap.
Stargazer sailed from Brighton. None the worse for her bruising, harbour mouth, berth of the past four days. Her shredded ensign, above, and a sizeable residual swell, below, the only reminders of the big blow.
Snowy cliffs slip by. Undercut by the sea; crowned by emerald downland.
Turning tawny, as Stargazer nears Newhaven.
A coaster steams out of the entrance.
Ahead, the view is dominated by Beachy Head. Which Stargazer is bearing down upon at seven knots, on the tide. Her skipper perched on the coachroof. Wielding a mole wrench. Having noticed that one of three allen bolts, which anchor the rod-kicker to the boom, has inexplicably unscrewed itself.
Access for an allen key is blocked by the loaded vang. Hence resort to the wrench. Stargazer has brought the light abeam, by the time the task is completed and a gybe is required.
Stargazer skips toward the glittering golden dome atop Eastbourne pier. The tide maintaining our speed, as the breeze is slowly blanketed by the tall chalk bluff.
An open lock awaits Stargazer at Sovereign Harbour.
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