Beaulieu River to Chichester Harbour

In this post we leave the Beaulieu River and head across The Solent to Chichester Harbour and Itchenor Reach.

The day started by slipping our lines at around 7am which meant that we would catch a favourable tide for the 26.8 nautical mile journey that we had to make. Due to this we averaged 8 knots over the ground (SOG) which was useful we had little wind and needed to motor sail.

Once we left the Beaulieu it was a case of dodging the commercial traffic - a container, harbour master, navy boats and lots of ferries. We made to Chichester entrance and the waypoint for the leading line in which is a tall red buoy called West Pole. The entrance to Chichester Harbour can get very narrow so we had to make sure that we had the tide pushing us in. 

Chichester Harbour is steeped in history and dates back as far as the Romans. In modern day times Chichester Harbour is home to over 10,000 boats and has a lot of dinghy sailing hotspots. 

Once we were in we followed the marked channel and made our way down the river to Itchenor Reach where we moored up on the visitors pontoon. This is a singular pontoon on the river which has no electricity or water connections and will require a dinghy to get to shore - although you can use the independent  Itchenor Ferry for short hops during the day. We used this to get to Bosham and would recommend. Call Andy on VHF 08 & he will come and pick you up. 

We stayed here for a few nights giving us time to explore on shore. We went on a beautiful coastal walk from Itchenor to West Wittering Beach which was around 10km and can be found on our cruising guide. If you fancy getting a bite to eat then we recommend taking the ferry across to Bosham and walking to Bosham Quay where you will find some great cafe offering takeaway treats to eat along the quay. 

Although we had some time to relax, the boat work never ends as Adam stripped the carburettor from our outboard hoping it would solve our issue of lack of power - that’s a story for another time as it’s currently still not resolved. 

This photo shows how close things got on the pontoon - the owner of the blue boat turned up in the early hours of the morning and single handedly managed to squeeze into this space in front of us. We didn’t know whether to be impressed or concerned but as the hours rolled on we found our patience stretched by the proximity of our fellow human. 

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