It rained most of the night (of course) and a leak (of course) with the water pooling along MY side of the bed (naturally). The rain stopped by the time we woke up but not the wind. If fact, it felt worse. We both agreed that it was a good call to cancel Eastbourne for today and re-calculate our next few days.
While there was no sunshine, I was happy with no rain. We decided the leave boat jobs for today – except find the leak and patch it. As we are likely to be in Brighton for today and tomorrow, we decided to explore. We left the bedding to dry with open portholes and we put on our walking gear (not actual walking gear … standard flip flops and shorts for Patrick) and we wandered over to find the bus station and, a few minutes later, we were ready to be tourists. We started at Brighton Pier, iconic tourist sight. We were able to look over the water and we agreed that staying in the marina was definitely the best thing to do – it was wild out there. After about half an hour on the pier we were ready for coffee. I mean, we were really ready for a beer, but even we thought it was too soon. We made our way to The Lanes, which is a popular area in Brighton. A small area of tiny streets all lined with independent shops. We spotted a huge crowd with cameras and could hear music, so naturally curious (nosy) we made our way there. It turned out to the band The Specials, one of Patrick’s favourite bands. How special. What a treat. We found a cute tea shop and had scones and tea – delicious and worth postponing the beer. Then more wandering around, there are some beautiful buildings and architecture. Also, Brighton is much hillier than I thought it was and I am definitely more unfit than I thought too. Finally a we had that much needed beer in a cute pub and after a few hours we grabbed a takeaway lunch and enjoyed it in the gardens of the Royal Pavilion. It is an impressive building, built in an architectural style seen in India, with beautiful domes and minarets. According to history, it was built in late 1700s as a seaside retreat for King George IV. According to the historian, Patrick Mckenna, King George entertained way to many single ladies here and so Queen Victoria decided that Osborne House should be the royal seaside retreat – on the Isle of Wight. So the Pavilion was sold to the city of Brighton and no more parties for King George! (*disclaimer – none of this is fact verified).
We caught a bus back to the marina and stopped in at the Brighton Marina Sailing Club to check it out and have a quick drink and then back to the boat. Fortunately with no rain, plenty of wind and some sunshine, the bedding had dried. A quick shower and then we planned our next few days. We use Navionics app as a way to plan routes as it gives us all the information we would need. We will stay in Brighton tomorrow and head to Eastbourne on Tuesday. The tides will work for us midday and there is no strong wind predicted (yay). We planned only one night in Eastbourne and then onto Dover.
