marinalifeonline.co.uk » History – Marina

Royal Sovereign: Preventing Accidents off Eastbourne

Jon Martin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:12:05 +0000

As you walk along the Eastbourne seafront and look out to sea, you might notice an odd looking shape on the horizon, a shape looking something like a large cross.

In fact, that cross is a very important safety feature for any of the marine users navigating this part of the English Channel for its the Sovereign Light Tower.

Around about that point on the sea bed there’s a sand bank and at low tide it can be as shallow as about 2.5-3 meters. That’s been a hazard to shipping over the years and has seen many ships run aground.

In olden days, to prevent this happening, there was an actual ship called the Royal Sovereign that had a lighthouse on it and was anchored on the bank to prevent ships running aground.

In modern times, the boat has been replaced by a more formal structure, which consists of a tower sticking into the sea bed with a helicopter platform and a lighthouse on top of it.

If you get a chance take one of the boat tours out there, it’s certainly well worth a look.

Abramovich Visits Eastbourne…

Jon Martin — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:56:44 +0000

For the past few days the big motor yacht has been moored in the relatively safe waters outside of Eastbourne’s Sovereign Marina.

With a lot more Russians moving to the harbour the rumour mill has been going into overdrive about every mega-rich oil baron and his comrade.

Apparently this vessel was too big to fit into the marina so it moored where the tide wouldn’t cause it to run aground, unlike the sailboat in my earlier post this month ;-)

Turn Left for the Locks, or Right for… Oh ! …

Jon Martin — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:03:19 +0000

Just as car registrations now take place twice a year, it was felt that only having one official fools day in April meant that we didn’t have sufficient opportunity to do silly things!

For the past few days, the following sailing boat hasn’t moved (even when the tide has meant it could do). I don’t know whether the owner’s are just trying to save a few euros, or whether they may have experienced technical problems, but it’s made a different view from the promenade and always brings a smile to my face ;-)