After weeks of north easterly winds (guess which direction we wanted to go in) A small window of opportunity arose of a weak northerly that would allow us to motorsail from France towards the Channel Islands. Boats that had arrived recently were bringing tales of woe from the major French ports . Due to the escalating costs of fuel the French fishermen had chucked a wobbly and decided to blockade most of the major harbours. Things were getting nasty with boats being damaged and rammed, riots and an outbreak of Dunkirk spirit from the yachties trapped behind enemy lines.
With the VHF radio announcing ‘maydays’ seemingly every 5 minutes (due to boats being rammed trying to exit Cherbourg) we set off towards Guernsey. At 60 miles this was to be our longest passage to date. Halfway across with everything going well the engine emitted a splutter and then ground to a halt. This wasn’t terribly encouraging as we did not have enough wind to sail so Chris disappeared into the bilges clutching a spanner. After a heart stopping two hours of getting the engine going and then it stopping again whilst we drifted inexorably towards the rock and wreck strewn coast of South Western Guernsey. Finally, he re-emerged having mended a n air leak into the fuel suction pipe with a piece of blu-tak. As long as the engine got bled (taking the air bubbles out) every 15 minutes we seemed to be ok. It was a long long day. At 10pm with children screaming and the sun setting we limped into St Peters Port and scraped over the sill into the marina with minutes to spare. The marina here is only accessible for about 4 hours a day due to the extreme (8m) tidal range.
The visitors marina is right in the heart of town – great showers, good shops and most importantly free wi-fi. We spent a week enjoying the sights of Guernsey and visiting castles, museums and going for bus rides around the island. The weather was glorious and we even got to make friends with another boat with children. Chris fixed the engine properly and we were ready to go again.
We decided to go for the harbour and have a go at drying out again. At high tide we nosed our way in between the power boats, interisland ferries and small children paddling lilos about but couldn't work out how to tie ourselves up. Eventually we gave up and picked up a mooring buoy outside whilst Steph took the dinghy into the harbour to gain some local knowledge. Apparently the way to do it is to trail a kedge anchor behind you to snag a chain on the ground and then throw out your anchor at the front to moor fore and aft. This was a bit nerve wracking and not helped by the queue of ferry passengers all watching. As the water slowly ebbed away we settled onto the sand/mud bottom. After years of deep keeled yachts it was a revelation to be able to step off the back of the boat, walk over to the anchor and then to rearrange it satisfactorily by hand. Brilliant!
Besides spending all our time on the beach digging sandcastles, we used this time to upgrade the standard fixed propeller to a plastic 'Kiwi-prop' feathering propeller, which promised better sailing performance due to less drag, plus less galvanic corrosion risk (always a good thing with an aluminium hull). The standard prop proved too hard to pull off, but the island's ever friendly owners, Adrian and Penny, sent round their resident marine engineer to help us. He appeared one Sunday morning on a quad bike. After a quick blast with an oxy-acetyline torch, off popped the prop. (We sail faster now, motoring is a little noisier but just as good)
The island is very well set up with a webcam on the beach. Our families were able to see us playing on the sand and keep an eye on what we were up to. Shades of 1984, but for Grandparents missing the Grandkids it was a nice opportunity to keep in touch.
After several glorious days, we reluctantly returned to St Peters Port due to low food supplies but planned to return...
However, the weather gods had other ideas for us.
It became apparent that after 5 weeks of north easterly winds, things were changing and a South Easterly was forecast which would allow us to head for the South coast of England. We decided to take the opportunity and go for it.
