First sailing was for 0930, to allow some recovery for a planned social the previous evening. Which was very clever planning indeed as it turned out. Much needed. I hadnt been a real boy among real people for a while, so headed out determined to enjoy all that Brighton has to offer. Well, not all. a) there is much that would kill me and b) I only actually had a four or five hour window to enjoy. I have discovered an Italian restaurant which makes great cocktails. I always find a large long island iced tea a great way to start an evening... which somehow ended up with jaegers, and an embarrassing moment later, when chatting to a new friend, I managed to dump a whole pint all over the bar she was working in.... TAXI!!! And a slight headache on waking up. However, riding a center console at 30 knots is one of the best hangover cures in the world. Come try it sometime...

On board, I had frequent flyer Gary, and Magnus, on holiday visiting family. And I was quite terrified, as once again there was a stiff NE wind. For about 500 meters outside the marina, and then we hit some nice calm. However, we were on the strongest part of the ebb tide, so we went and looked for bass first. On the outer rocks, again I could not find a significant shoal, I was scratching my head, until I spotted the dive rib. A little too much disturbance for that delicate mark. so we moved on. Still too much tide for plaice, so we went inshore onto the rough ground.

Here, we had reasonable success. I would not say it was on fire, but enough action, from bass, to keep things interesting. No monsters either, but this was balanced out by some quality wrasse. And then, with an hour to go, I noticed the speed of the tide had suddenly dropped. The plaice trigger. We headed out to the plaice bank, and happily, this time the fish were quite happy to feed. Again, not on fire, but good enough to keep the interest and, more importantly the smiles.