This includes a week around the Cherbourg peninsular and channel islands and odd trips.
The week away was interesting, it started as usual in Totland Bay, where we anchored overnight. Again, as usual, I just thought it was going to be a long weekend but no. Early in the morning, about 0700 both crew were up and I was motored out, but instead of heading east back to Cowes we went West and passed the Needles. Main up, we then turned south around 166 degrees and pressed on. With such light winds Thor Junior, the Code 0, was deployed or rather wasn't. With skip on the bow, it was hoisted until about halfway and then pop, the sail fell and wrapped itself within the first spreader. Skip knew what he had to do next and prepared himself to go up the mast and recover. His crewmate was not quite of the same opinion and felt that a return to the bay to sort it out would be preferable and probably safer.
However, up he did go, autopilot looking after the steering, he gently recovered the code 0 from the spreader where metal pins could've easily torn it to shreds. The halyard was up wrapped around the top spreader but going nowhere, so was left for a later recovery. This was a subtle mistake which they only discovered on our return. With little wind, we motor sailed all day. With a west or east going current, skip took the opportunity to calibrate the boat speed. If the current was not affecting the log then the boat speed should match that of the speed over the ground as derived by satellite.
When the wind did pick up slightly the engine was reduced in revs as the speed over the ground increased. This brought back time lost which skip was concerned about. However, this increase in speed did mean that my exposure to westerly current had diminished and so we found ourselves pointing further west than had intended. Skip had been to St Vaast before in a race and wanted to return for two reasons. Both crew members anxious about the entry into to the marina for different reasons, the office was clearly closed for the day as no response from either VHF or phone. Depth below the keel was minimal and that was what concerned skip more than anything. We nudged in with no real idea of where to go but skip spotted a large wooden sailing vessel and decided we'd raft on to it, there were no other spaces. This had its own issues in that it had a large board sticking out the beam of the boat that held it's standing rigging, so hastily the large buoy type fenders were brought up to protect my gel coat from damage and others were raised, as set for pontoon mooring. Also finding places to attach my warps proved interesting and time-consuming. Fortunately the benign conditions not blowing me off, whilst I was being held on.
I had 0.3m under my keel when stationary and this reduced by the same amount as the lock gates closed. I was able to brush the mud back and forth as the crew walked around on deck making a small indentation into the putty. Skip went up the mast to recover the halyard from the spreaders. On Saturday, the crew left me to go pay the office and to wander around the town. Skip was pleased to see it was just as he remembered with the market in the street selling mainly fresh produce and fish. Also, they found La Fushai's and booked a table for the evening.
Having enjoyed a very nice meal and slept it off, skip got up early to check out the weather. The fog or dense mist had reduced visibility further and it remained murky. Information passed on to his crewmate, he got back in bed. Another day here would mean the trip to St Malo was unlikely to happen. On the Monday with better weather, we left the marina at or close to high tide. A large area dries out at low tide exposing the causeway to the island, which skip couldn't see the previous day.
We tacked up the eastern side of the peninsula and then had a run west passing Cherbourg at a staggering 10kts. A decision was made to go with the Alderney race and head to Sark an island that no one had been to before, with the wind gone we motor sailed once more and found our anchorage. The sea breeze had picked up and with the latent wind, whipped around the headlands between Sark and Little Sark, the bit where the road connects. With 44.0m of chain out we held.
A friendly visitor seeing what might be up for grabs
The following day and we set off for Jersey another good sailing day and arrived at the marina to early and had to wait for the sill to be covered. This gave them the time to tick another box of the things this trip was about and filled my diesel tank to the brim plus three 10ltr Jerry cans. Diesel in the UK is around 130p for a litre at car filling stations and 89p for commercial red diesel, skip pays another 20% tax on top for pleasure use. Here it was 69p.
I was full and some of the smaller boats were starting to head in, the tide had risen significantly in the time refuelling had taken. Soon it was my turn and following on from the instructions given over the phone the previous day, I was slotted in behind a 60ft yacht, whose crew came out to help. Again with skip tidying me up, the crew wandered off to the Office. The next day, following showers on board, they wandered into town and found an indoor market, not discovered previously and bought some calves liver for dinner and pork chops for another meal. They also returned to the maritime museum and spoke with an elderly woman who had lived on the island during the German occupation.
In St Vaast
Once there was clear water over the sill for me to pass over we left for Guernsey again another island not visited previously apart from anchoring off about five years ago. The wind was southwesterly and around force 6, the shallows south of Jersey was of confused seas and whilst a reef had been put in, the reduction in power made it difficult to push through the chop. Altering on to a beam reach soon gave me back the speed and made things more comfortable in the cockpit. Reaching the far extremities of the southwestern tip of the island, skip turned me to a more northwesterly direction and headed to Guernsey. He powered me over the waves and held me as the wind gusted and arrived at St Peter Port in three hours, which is where the fun started.
LesFuschias
Neither of them has sailed in here before another learning curve started. Skip was advised to moor next to the fisherman's pontoon, but as he approached was met by a Dory and directed to a visiting pontoon. With the chap checking, we had made around a corner missing a known obstacle first. Skip reversed me in and found I was doing strange things the bow was moving in on its own accord and his efforts were being thwarted as the back was now coming out. He realised that the Dory was pushing me into a space so opted to go fore and aft to keep clear of the other boats. Again there were plenty of people around to take my ropes and secure me, even if skip does go round after and redo.
Off they trotted to pay for the nights stay and wander around town.
On Friday a bright and sunny start, we left at high tide again and headed north. The wind light so the Code 0 was raised and we began to sail. Heading for the channel in between the Casquets and the rocks of Alderney the tops of breaking waves began to appear which soon brought back memories of the Portland Bill Races we've been through before. On lowering the Code 0, it was discovered that a section of halyard had chafed, the wrap around the top spreader on our way over?
As we approached the waves, the engine went on and a path of less angry waves was sought. A 3.0m height of wave and a short wavelength lead to another difficult hour in our growing history of such experiences. Finally through, the jib was unfurled and a course set to cross back over the Channel. Without the halyard, both Thor (Jennakar) and Thor Junior (Code 0) couldn't be used and to maintain a reasonable speed through the shipping lanes a higher wind angle was sailed. Attention was then paid to the AIS that had proved itself on the way over.
In order to make Totland before darkness, the Engine was once more called for off Anvil Point and a sprint across Christ Church Bay before my anchor was deployed for the last time.
