William's invasion force landing at Pevensey. A landing party disembarked to survey the area including William who fell on his face in the mud ( which was considered a bad omen ), but was quickly dismissed by him. It was seen that Pevensey was totally unsuitable to unload his ships being a flood plane and very marshy. It is now thought that only a small contingent of his force stayed on land and headed for Hastings. The rest stayed on their ships and sailed 20 km east to rendezvous with them there.