Haslar Marina to Brighton

Lovely morning with a new crew member aboard. Steve has joned us for the second half of the cruise as Ben and Lisa have had to return to work. Steve's a cook by trade so we are looking forward to some finesse in the cuisine department now he's on board. Rocket fuel coffee is now on offer so ne excuses about falling asleep. So far ZIGZU has been exemplary at sea. She can be a bit of a handful at close quarters however and needs a firm will and firm handling to keep here on course. She does not go to port when going astern, no not for love nor money. As we leave Haslar we are well outside the traffic seperation zone but a large cargo vessel sails very close to the port hand buoys and we are very near to being pulled in by her wake. We have to pull well away from her as she steams past us. Thoughts of the Ouzo pass through my head. We then have a lovely sail all the way to Brighton. The entrance to Brighton Marina is a bit rough as the sea bounces back off the piers ready to pull us in if we were not ready for them. We negotiate the entrance safely however and are given a berth for the night. Very pleasant Marina with good showers. They did seem to be rolling about though, didn't think the shower block was floating? Meet Chris here and we go out for dinner. Chris has driven all the way down to spend the night with us bless her. It's love and it's great. Found out that the Furuno chart plotter runs out at Dover and try to get another chart for the East Coast. I am told the plotter we have is now out of date, eight years old. Well no one does charts for it any more. Neither Navionics or Furuno. Shows a lot for the life expectancyof these things. You have to buy a new Unit, what a surprise. Anyone having a secondhand chart card please contact me. Please... Good old Brighton. Great place for real ale but we have to go in the morning.