A Personal Guide to The Ports of the Channel

Nicholas Hill

portsmouth

Portsmouth is worth a visit simply for its history and its naval connections. The wreck of the Tudor ship Mary Rose is on display, and one of the first iron clads, HMS Warrior, has been restored as a museum ship. There are four large marinas and plenty of moorings belonging to various clubs.

Three of the marinas are close to the entrance on the Gosport side, and the fourth is up the top of the harbour at Portchester - about an hour's motor from the entrance. There are no moorings in Portsmouth itself, apart from Gunwaharf Quay, which is not available for casual visitors. A ferry runs between Gosport and Portsmouth every 15 minutes. On the Portsmouth side is the main line railway station for Waterloo.

Normally pleasure boats keep to the Gosport side of the harbour, and permission is required from QHM to cross over (VHF Channel 11). It is also a good idea to give a wide berth to naval vessels - MoD Police boats patrol the harbour 24 hours a day.

Portsmouth and its approaches are very busy. There are car ferries and FastCats over to the Isle of Wight, pilot boats, hovercraft, assorted excursion boats, cross Channel ferries and naval vessels! In addition, with four large marinas and hundreds of moorings, there are an awful lot of pleasure boats - and all of these have to go through an entrance which is not much more than a couple of hundred yards wide. In addition, very strong tidal currents run through the entrance. The ebb can be fierce about three hours after HW.

finding it

With its new Spinnaker Tower, nowadays Portsmouth is easy enough to spot from several miles away!

From the west:

Head for Gilkicker (photo below) - at a distance, this can look deceptively like a large ship. You can cut along quite close in to the shoreline. It is shallow, but unless it's Low Water Springs, most boats should clear this without a problem. If in doubt, you can go further south before turning along the Swashway.

To find the Swashway, you need to line up the Southsea War Memorial with the large building behind (see photos). The old transit used to be the Memorial with a church spire, but the spire is now hidden behind the building (if you can see the spire, you are probably off!).

From the east:

You have a choice between going round through the forts or going through the gap in the submarine barrier. Do NOT try just heading between the fort and the land. You may get away with it at high water, but at low water, you can see the concrete blocks which run between the shore and the fort. There is also an inshore gap which is useful if the tide is foul.

From the south:

Pass Fort to starboard and then head towards towards Spit Sand Fort.

getting in

There have been one or two recent changes to the harbour - in particular, two new red posts (see photos), one just outside the harbour, and one replacing Ballast Buoy inside. These MUST be left to port irrespective of the direction you are heading.

If coming along close to the shore, leave the red post outside to port, and then turn through ninety degrees as soon as you can.

If coming along the swashway or from the forts, you must keep out of the channel due to the busy ferry traffic, but hug the red bouys close: beware Hamiton Bank as you approach the entrance.

Small craft must keep close in to the port side of the entrance then head to the second red post, just after Haslar marina, again leaving it to port..

Once through the entrance and past the post, keep to the west side of the harbour: there are lots of cross channel ferries as well as the Gosport/Portsmouth ferry.