Cross-channel travellers were stranded when their ferry ran aground yesterday in force eight gusts.

Passengers on the Sardinia Vera were given free meals as a tug was summoned to refloat the vessel from a sandbank less than a mile from Newhaven harbour.

The attempt was abandoned when the rope got caught in a prop. Two hours after getting stuck, the captain managed to refloat the ferry.

Environment Agency teams around Sussex were on full alert as gale-force winds and some of the highest tides of the year battered the coastline.

Traders on Brighton's seafront, armed with brooms and brollies, battled to keep the floodwater at bay as 30ft waves breached the seawall between the piers.

Seafront officers used loud hailers to warn wave-watchers, some of whom had clambered along groynes to experience the full force of the storm, to keep back from the sea.

Flood warnings were in place along the Sussex coast.

Flood agencies were last night preparing for rising river levels with rain forecast for the weekend. Winds of up to 90mph were also predicted The storms forced Rutherfords nightclub on Worthing Pier to close last night.

At Selsey, near Chichester, bulldozers worked between the tides to build up the shingle bank which protects the West Sands area of the town and a large holiday caravan park.

In East Sussex, watches were in place on the Rivers Cuckmere, Ouse and Uck as agency officials predicted up to 12mm of rainfall during the next seven days. Inland, there were flood warnings on the River Arun, and the River Ouse around Lewes.

The coastal strip from Newhaven to Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, and Beachy Head to Hastings was on alert last night with Pevensey Bay and Norman's Bay, which have homes close to the sea, most at risk.

In Crawley, The Broadway was closed for 90 minutes as fire crews battled to secure a 30ft by 15ft sign which had blown off the side of department store T J Hughes.