To Guernsey

The passage from Lezardrieux to Guernsey was pretty special. We’d worked out a departure time (10.00am local) to give us a strong ebb tide pushing us out of the estuary and then to windward, so that the close reach to leave Les Roches Douvres (a clump of nasty rocks with an impressive lighthouse) to starboard turned into an easy reach and we averaged 7 knots in a Force 5 NW.

Having passed the rocks, we eased off the wind further to set course for the SE tip of Guernsey, which quickly came into view in the bright sunshine. We had some further tidal assistance as we entered the southern end of the Russell Channel (between the east coast of Guernsey and Herm) so arrived in St Peter Port a good hour earlier than expected, just as the water was deep enough over the sill to allow us to enter Victoria Marina.

We had an excellent and really filling meal in the Nautique fish restaurant on the front. It’s in an old sailmaker’s loft as these photos show:





Wednesday was a lay-day; we had showers in the excellent marina facilities, a light bistro lunch, a glass of wine in the Royal Guernsey Yacht Club (view from their window below) and a bit of an exploration of the town.



The marina emptied of boats at high-water in the morning (the entrance sill that keeps the water in it means that you can only enter or leave for a couple of hours either side of high water) but by the afternoon there was a fresh gaggle of boats on the waiting pontoon in the outer marina waiting to come in. Apparently on Thursday there’s a rally of about 150 French boats arriving from Morlaix so it’s just as well that we’re leaving!



Tomorrow (Thursday) we’re planning to sail over to Sark to anchor there overnight and then sail back to Dartmouth on Friday. The forecast is for the wind to come from the north-east which will, we hope, be perfect for a good 70-mile passage.
By the way, today is Maunie’s 14th birthday so we raised a glass to her!