The forecast was for light winds in the morning and a strengthening to F4 in the afternoon. The high tide was one day short of the highest tide in the sequence, so we knew that the tide would be the dominant factor in where we went.

We had a notion to visit the Star PH north of Hayling Island, but only if we could overcome the incoming tide, otherwise we’d set sail for Dell Quay.

We launched at 10am into a busy harbour with little wind, and sailed to Cobnor Point, then spent 30 minutes convincing ourselves that the gentle pulses of wind were not going to get us over the flood tide, and while Simon had done the best against the flood he called it, and we scooped ourselves up and headed for Dell Quay in the light winds.

The sail was uneventful, a dead run through the moorings of Itchenor Chanel and a broad reach to Dell Quay where Stephen approached DQSC and they accommodated us on the terrace for a delicious lunch including panini and cake.

The sun came up, which was expected and important to us. We decided to follow our lunch with an ice cream at HISC, and began in light airs and full sun. The sea breeze kicked in while we were sailing in the Itchenor Channel and suddenly we had a good quality F4 from the SW to power us to Hayling Island. We all reefed afloat, and arrived fresh and alert on the beach at HISC for the promised icre cream and hit drinks.

By 5pm the sun was losing power, and we sailed with full sail to overcome the raging ebb around the Winner and past East Head, still in full sun. The whole day was excellent – light air sailing in the morning, some robust workout in the afternoon, sneaking back along the side in the evening – classic Chichester Harbour sailing.

This is Alan and Steph and Simon and Adri on Sunday afternoon.

Since we all had tents, and the forecast for Monday included rain, we packed up our dry tents and all headed home a day early. The site was sodden and muddy, and it will need some nice weather to dry out.