Channel Islands!

(Warning: long post ahead) So we made it to the Channel Islands. Tuesday 29th, we left Chichester Hbr on the high tide, fuelled up, then headed west to Yarmouth for a quick overnighter before the crossing.

The trip through the Solent was uneventful - sunshine, plenty of sails and the steady drone of our engines propelling us to another new harbour.

Day #2 - After a 01:30 start, we blasted our way down through the Needles and cracked on with the Channel crossing as the sun rose behind us. Part way out, we ran into our first big shipping. I was feeling terrible at this stage due to a combination of a rolling swell and plenty of diesel fumes, so the Garmin autopilot took charge of things and Lauren kept me fed & watered.

And after an 18hr crossing (including a minor diversion through the glass-calm Alderney Race at 10kts), we arrived and tied up in Beaucette. Beaucette is an old quarry that some bright spark had the idea of blowing a hole in to allow boats to enter, and thus turning a disused hole in the ground into a rather profitable enterprise.

Day #3 - Beaucete. We needed to stretch our legs so took a quick bus trip around Guernsey and having missed our bus stop on the return leg, had a fantastic beach side stroll back to the marina. Sandy beaches - you can't beat 'em.

Here's the entrance to Beaucette marina at high water. It's about 20ft wide and accessible +/- 3 hrs of high tide.

Day #4 - Part of the reason we'd visited the Channel Islands was to collect some packages. They arrived today after our epic mission the day before to locate Guernsey Post's head office - a watermaker from Trinidad, SSB from the UK, SSB aerial from the US but no mast steps from Germany.... more on that later. 

Day #5 - Having collected our packages, it was time to go exploring around St Peter Port.

First up was the German Occupation museum - a private museum displaying items from the German occupation of the Channel Islands during the second world war.

 

Much of the island near St Peter Port is rather countryside France..

After the museum, we'd seen signs for a hill climb earlier in the day so made our way back into town.

 

The view of Havelet Bay (St Peter Port) was worth a photo or two as well. That's Castle Cornet in the background.

 
And St Peter Port looking across Havelet Bay.

Day #6 - Castle Cornet. Originally built to defend St Peter Port, then used by the Germans, and now home to five museums. We went exploring.

The Germans had a habit of naming the concrete bunkers - honestly, it was amazing how perfectly the text was chiselled into the concrete.

On the walk back to Beaucette marina, we passed this place every day. The aptly named "Paradis" turned out to be the prison for slave workers during the second world war.

 

Day #7 - La Valette underground museum. It used to hold four large diesel tanks for the U-boats during the war, and has now been transformed into a huge collection of second world war memorabilia. Interestingly enough, three of the four diesel tanks are still in use around the island as storage tanks.... 70 years after being built.

On the walk back, we passed the tidal outdoor pools.

And with a cruise ship in town (and all those disembarked passengers), we beat a hasty retreat back to the marina.

 

Day #8 - Herm Island. The plan was to take the big boat out there but with a ferry being only £12 return and our boat secure in a good marina, we chose the easier option and hopped the ferry. Herm is a holiday type island with a couple of hotels, nice outdoor pub / bar and yet more sandy beaches.....

So with an afternoon off, we headed off on a cliff walk around the island.

The beaches were amazing - we haven't seen a sandy beach in the UK for some time - and there were numerous boats anchored close to the beach.

Back to the marina that night, the show boaters were in town.

Day #8 - Sark is the other island near Guernsey. Again, it was easier to get the ferry across than take the big boat, so we jumped on at lunch time and headed over.

Sark is an interesting island..... no cars (only a few tractors and horses) and has a very... community type feel to it.

We went for another stroll around the island .

There are various anchorages around the island but unlike Herm, these seemed to have quite a pronounced roll affecting all the boats there.

The real reason for our cliff walk was to take a photo of the bridge leading to Little Sark (south of the island). It's a thin causeway that has a sheer drop either side.

 

Sark has a number of small harbours as well, built out of stone against the natural bays.

 

And this is how the locals transport all the ferry-delivered goods up the hill to the town.

Day #9 - Time to leave Guernsey and start the trip back, stopping over in Alderney first. The morning of departure, our fourth package arrived having accidentally been sent to Iceland first, rather than the Channel Islands. DHL strikes again.

 

The marina moved us to the fuel pontoon as space was so tight, then we made a northerly departure for the 25nm trip north.

 

Unfortunately though the weather had other ideas so we made an easterly turn to catch the Alderney Race back to Cherbourg instead. As a result, we finally managed to get some motor sailling in.

Part way to Cherbourg, we heard a "pop" and closer inspection revealed the choppy seas in the Alderney Race had over-pressured the starboard engine, which resulted in it spraying oil around the engine bay. It still ran tho, so we whacked the cap back on and kept plugging away to Cherbourg. These engines are causing us some trouble - the whole reason we bought two new engines was to have trouble free motoring - but we'll see what they say when the engineer comes out. Again.

Cherbourg. We grabbed a berth on the waiting pontoon (not connected to the main pontoons) and now needing to check-in, decided we'd make some use of the kayaks and head into town.

The Cherbourg markets were amazing - fresh produce, cooked meats, cheeses, etc - very unexpected and quite the experience.

After our stroll around town it was time to head back to the waiting pontoon. We'd made a decision to head back to the UK on Friday morning as the tail end of Hurricane Bertha was due to hit late Saturday / early Sunday so the boat was prepped and we got an early night.

Before leaving, I grabbed this pic - all during our stay at Beaucette, we'd heard slapping noises on the bottom of the hull and couldn't work out what it was. A couple of days in, we'd seen fish swimming around but couldn't put the two together. Anyway, it turns out the mullet were popping the weed off the bottom of the hull, but being a steel hull, that noise was amplified into a slapping noise. Weird.

A number of boats arrived on that last night - this one was well over 60ft and being single handed.

Classic boats.....

..... and fishing boats heading out.

Day #11 - time to head back. We knew the last day would be purely motoring due to the complete lack of wind, but I'd never have thought the Channel could be glass smooth.

More tanker dodging on the way back.

And after 9 hours, the Isle of Wight came into view.

Of course, the UK decided an easy homecoming wasn't in order so just west of the Isle of Wight, and with three hours to run, an un-forecast storm whacked us with 20kts of wind and a mile of visibility. Ho hum.

Having steamed through that bit of weather, we finally arrived back in the UK around 21:00. Now, remember how I mentioned the starboard engine had sprayed a bit of oil around? Well, we knew the port engine had a drip but after 18 hours of motoring, were a bit surprised at just how big a drip that was. See the black area beneath the engine? That's not a shadow.... and it's about 2" deep.

Anyways, 11 days later, we'd motored / motor sailed 244nm, collected our packages, and given the boat a good test. We have a list of things that worked and some that didn't, so with our summer cruise done, it's now time to get all those parts fitted and crack on with preparations for the Big Trip......