The charts and tide table came out again and the passage was planned. I discussed it with Geoff from another boat and he agreed with my plans. The only snag being it would mean a 5.30 am start in order to get the correct tidal stream. We went to the Marina Office to ask if we could move out of the Marina and onto the pontoons as we wouldn't be able to get out of the harbour at the time we wanted. whist discussing this the man in the marina office gave an intake of breath worthy of a plumber he disagreed with my leaving time. He was working on Guernsey tides whilst I was working on Dover tides. Which was important as all the tidal stream atlases I had worked on Dover. We had a long decision and in the end I decided to stick to my guns, he told me if I was wrong I'd soon know as it would take me ages to get there.
I am pleased to say that I was right!
We moved Rascal and I set the alarm on the phone. When we got up it looked mightily dark and as I was getting dress I glanced at the ship's clock which is always set on British time. It was only 4 am, my phone had not reset from when we were in Cherbourg! So we went back to bed for an hour. Alarm mark 2 and we quickly got up, dressed and set off.
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| Sunrise leaving Guernsey. |
As you will know we often have a ferry leaving or entering port at the same time as us. On this occasion this wasn't the case, but a pilot boat did leave at the same time as us. That should have been a warning! As we were going down the side of Guernsey towards St Martins point we could see a rather large cruise ship coming into view. From AIS we could see it was travelling at 9 knots, which was slow for a cruise ship. Although we couldn't see the pilot climbing up we knew he was boarding the ship. We slowed down to see what would happen net as the ship was exactly where we wanted to be. But he was a lot bigger than us and also had less room to manoeuvre, soon he was in a position where we could pass him and get on our way to Jersey.
It was a very uneventful journey and we made excellent time as the tide was with us all the way. however we had to have the engine on for the entire journey.
When we arrived in Jersey the timing was perfect, we were allowed straight into the harbour and there was 7.4m of water above the sill so we sailed straight into the marina and found a visitors berth. The pontoons were very low, very narrow and very wobbly.
The marina office were very efficient and we soon had our swipe cards. We were going for a shower but the heavens opens so I went to bed instead.
After Guernsey it was a bit of a culture shock as it was a lot busier. However we soon found lots of walks. The bus fares here were £2 for any journey so once again we made the most of public transport. We visited the Jersey War tunnels and did several walks, generally we took a bus out and walked back.
We were moored near Geoff and Della who we had met in both Guernsey and Cherbourg and we had a very pleasant drink with them on their boat.
As everywhere in the channel islands there is a huge tide range. I couldn't resist a picture of the sill at low tide. If you think when we entered the marina it was showing 7.3m of water above this and that wasn't at the height of the tide.
Guernsey to Jersey 28.5 miles
Journey time 4 hours 40 minutes
Pay for 6 nights stay 7
Electricity is extra
Good showers and facilities - very clean
Laundry - but expensive (I didn't use these facilities but think it was £3.50 a wash)
lots to do in Jersey - museums and walks.
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