As has usually been the case with the long summer cruise, this year’s excursion to the Channel Islands actually involved several small groups, or individual crews doing their own thing, whilst meeting up when itineraries collided.

A Delayed Departure from Gosport

With the wind and tides conspiring against a weekend departure, most of us had a spare weekend in Gosport before a planned early departure on Monday morning. Another reason to linger was that Commodore Phil and Nick’s boat Kina Balu had lost her forestay coming home from the Lymington event (the glue with which the French manufacturer installed it no doubt having given way). Phil had been let down by the rigger, and had been trying unsuccessfully all week to get his mast up for the weekend! Fortunately, it turned out that there was a team of men to help on Monday morning, so Phil and Nick were able to get underway, fully erect, that evening.

On the first Saturday, therefore, a group of us went to the diving museum at Stokes Bay, and in the evening club members Jonathan and Steven hosted a larger club gathering on board their boat Solace at Royal Clarence Marina.

Come Sunday morning it transpired that one of our group had decided against continuing the trip and gone home early in the morning. That left Nick and me on Andromeda; we thought without company to make the crossing, until Phil reminded us that Eve and Ceol Na Mara were planning to depart from Yarmouth in the morning. We made a quick decision to leave Kina Balu waiting on her repairs, and set off for Yarmouth under power against a strong headwind, arriving at about 7.30pm. The crew of Ceol Na Mara came aboard Andromeda for drinks, and we were also joined by club member James Day, who lives on the island.

Racing the Tide Across to Alderney

Alarms at 03:30 and underway at 03:55, it was still dark, so we motored towards Hurst Point, and it was light by the time we were approaching The Needles. Once we were out of the rather rough water we started sailing. Unfortunately, the wind was stronger than forecast, and we were rather over-pressed, plus it was closer on the nose than expected. We ended up making a lot of leeway to the east, and were not even going to hit the Cherbourg peninsula. We realised just in time that we needed to start the engine and head directly for Alderney under power, to avoid the notorious tidal gateway of the Alderney Race closing.

We were doing up to 8kt with the strong tide with us, and so although it was unfortunate that it had been a long trip with only 50% sailing, we arrived at 6.30pm just before the tide was to turn against us. We saw Sea Walk and Eve already in the harbour when we arrived, but there were no available visitor’s buoys, so we anchored off the beach and cooked dinner on board.

Exploring Alderney

We awoke on Tuesday morning to find that Ceol Na Mara had arrived later in the evening fighting the tide, and Kina Balu had made the crossing overnight, so there was a respectable gathering on the first day of the holiday. Nick and I inflated the tender and rowed ashore, meeting Phil and Nick, and Peter and Etienne. We all walked up through the High Street; Peter and Etienne were going for a long walk across the island. Phil and Nick went for lunch, Nick and I had a drink near the harbour, then we all walked up to Fort Albert. Nick and I carried on to the German bunker at Bibette Head. We did some shopping on the way back at the little store by the harbour, including Alderney milk dispensed from a cooler into a proper, reusable glass bottle

On Wednesday, Nick and I walked along the railway track to ‘The Odeon’, a German ranging tower, which was fascinating, then back into town where we had a coffee at La Ville Hotel. On Thursday we walked up into town to hire electric bicycles at midday, which turned out to be more fun than we had imagined. We must have covered more than 95% of the roads on the island, each clocking up 20 miles. We started around the back of the airport, saw the famous Alderney gannet colony, and went across the causeway to Fort Clonque. Back across town through some different streets, and then anticlockwise the way we’d walked the previous day, and up to Chateau L’Etoc.

Crossing the Swinge to Guernsey

We were planning to depart for Guernsey on Friday, to shelter from the incoming weekend storms. In the morning we had coffee on board Eve with Ed and Yuksel before doing some last-minute pre-departure jobs, including engine checks. We set off at midday across the famously fearsome Swinge passage between Alderney and the Casquets rocks. It was a beautiful sail, lovely sunshine, and ideal wind conditions, not at all choppy even in the Swinge. We motor-sailed the last three miles, as we had turned almost directly into the wind, and took the sails down just before we reached the harbour at St Peter Port.

There was a big carnival going on ashore that evening, and the following day we walked along the High Street, back up along the promenade, and up to the model boating lake. Afterwards we watched the motor racing start line for the hill climb races taking place up Le Val des Terres, and then I walked up to the Victorian bathing pools. In the evening the Commodore arranged a dinner at The Boathouse restaurant with the whole S&CA group present, including club member and ex-Commodore David Browne and his partner Mark, who were also cruising the Channel Islands at the same time.

Day Trips to Sark and Herm

On Sunday, Nick and I did the island bus tour, including a stop at the Little Chapel and seeing various coastal features. It was very interesting, although perhaps a little heavy on the military side of things. We got up early on Monday, as Yuksel wanted to leave for Sark at 08:30 to catch the tide. We motored all the way across and anchored in Dixcart Bay at high water. Unfortunately, Ed and Yuksel did not come ashore, as it was quite choppy and Ed was not feeling well, so they headed back to Alderney. Nick and I had a lovely walk up through the valley from the bay, shaded with lovely, almost tropical vegetation. We spent the day on the island, with its tree-lined, unmade streets, and visited the Seigneurie gardens. We would have struggled to entertain ourselves for more than a day, and the noisy tractors in place of cars were rather annoying! We got back to the boat and found rocks sticking up all over the beach as the tide had receded, so I was very glad we hadn’t tried to beach the boat as I had at one point intended. We decided to motor back to Guernsey rather than spend the night at anchor.

The following day we took the public ferry to Herm, where we walked across the island via Manor Village, down through the Seagull campsite, and had coffee at Belvoir Bay. Our visit was only about three hours in total, but that was enough, as there was only so much to see. On Wednesday we departed back for Alderney at around 10am and had a fantastic sail all the way to Alderney harbour entrance via the Swinge. We moored next to Ceol Na Mara, and they joined us again for drinks later on. The wind was howling in the night, and it was quite bumpy even in the shelter of the harbour.

Weather-Bound, and the Voyage Home

On Thursday we were weather-bound in Alderney, so we had a relaxing morning with breakfast and coffee at PJ’s café on the High Street, and I went to the Alderney museum. We bought some fantastic local grass-fed sirloin steaks, which we cooked in the evening for our last meal on the islands.

We got up at 6am, got the dinghy on board across the aft cabin, and were underway at about 06:50. Unfortunately the following wind was very light, and although we did put the foresail out for a while, it wasn’t doing much. We motored all of the way back across the channel, keeping a steady compass course all the way. On approach to the Isle of Wight we decided to go into Bembridge rather than persevere the extra hour or so to Gosport, as this would get us in during daylight and allow for a short sail back to Portsmouth harbour the following day. We were both tired and a little fed up with the journey, so it was a good decision to stop.

A great, if short, sail to Portsmouth just under the jib on the Saturday morning. Nick headed home from Premiere Marina, and I went on board Rona for drinks with club members Peter, Damian and Jonathan, who had greeted us on our return. Later we all went to The Boathouse and had excellent pizza, although the wine was a little disappointing

A Trip to Remember

A wonderful and memorable trip overall - perhaps more motoring than I would have liked, but none the less some great sails between Alderney and Guernsey. I can’t wait to go back again next year, and there has been talk of a combined West Country and Channel Islands cruise for the future.