CI to CI

Solitary Cruising instructor heads for the Channel Islands

Evening

At some point one gets itchy feet and it is time to up sticks and head out to sea before gets too comfortable And so it was on 13/8 that Seascape was off towards Guernsey single handed this time and in a high pressure atmospherically making for a sedate trip. Wind was force 1-2 and so a departure at 11:00 suited the tides for an intentional ride south down the Alderney Race.  In fact I left a bit earlier having finished my rewatering chores and so with no rush, Seascape and I pooled along the shore again. This time we stayed un peu a Nord just to prove that once bitten is enough.

Omonville

En route I decided to poke my head into Omonville La Rogue while I waited for the tide to kick in. There were a number of steel white mooring buoys in place for visitors and a couple of nice restaurants were visible. The buoys have rings on top but are without pick up buoys. They all looked like they could be a bit rolly as they were on the East end at the rather exposed end of the harbour.   I would not wish to be here in any Northerly wind quadrant whatsoever.

 At 13:50 We were off Cap de L'Hague and riding the tide south with no real wind to speak of.

 At 15:30 the tide had only kicked in enough to give us 7.5 k over the ground and we were east of Alderney making reasonable progress. It looked like the negative tides are stronger than ever but the positive one are shy today! At 80:00 after 35 miles we arrived in St Peter Port and moored up alongside the non walk ashore pontoons in a relatively busy harbour.  A French charter boat moored up alongside us and we later discovered that it's grotty fenders had scoured a long scar in Seascapes starboard beam as it tied up. At the same time a French Ovni attacked from the bow and was only just fended off from driving its anchor through the pulpit as the crew stood at the bow with a line disconnected at both ends and told me calmly that he was awaiting an order from his skipper instead of tying one end around a cleat.

Needless to say I was somewhat firmer and told him to xx£&@ tie one end on and let me get the other round a pontoon cleat to slow the metal ram down. Why is it that there are many excellent French Yachtsmen doing exceptional things in yachts, particularly the  Vendee, Little Bretagne and the Jacqueline Vabre but so many charterers who should never be allowed to float. How come the charter companies seem to hide all the fenders?

Saucisson Sec and Muscadet for a sun downer

Supper the correct way

Meeting the Bretons

An uneventful trip to St Piriac on approach we were welcomed by a leisure motors fishing boat preceded by a host of 6 or so dolphins also on the hunt for fish. Following the marks into the port I noticed there were quite a lot of racing spinnakers still some 3 miles behind me and thought nothing of it until entering the marina and being told that there was no space because of the Tour de Bretagne. Ah! I crossed over the sill an hour before high tide and after a short wait it appeared that they HM preferred to get me out of the way in the marina than to send me back out into the way the racing fleet. I thought the HM was going to help me by nudging me into the mooring pontoon and prepared all of the lines and fenders and manoeuvred in. As I turned around to speak to him, he had disappeared! So much for my helper. Unfortunately this put me off my stride and I nudged the bow into the walkway which really annoyed me. Had I been prepared I would have been happy to single hand in and take my time.

Piriac Sill

Lesson learned, trust no one , particularly professional assistants with a short attention span.

Alderney and back

We had a day in Cherbourg to have a nice meal and show Charlie the sights. Over the meal we discussed what we could do next to make the most of Charlie's holiday. It was proposed that a trip to Alderney would be in order.  8/8  We had a lazy start the next day and I worked out the tides for a trip across the Alderney Race which is ideally approached for a crossing at slack tide. (The Alderney Race is renowned for its fast flowing currents and rough waters so respect is called for). We planned our departure for a couple of hours before HW Dover to give us time to get along the coast using a little back eddy to help us inshore between Cherbourg and Omonville. It was a beautiful morning we decided to ease along and sail as far as possible which turned out to be a mistake as today would prove not to be a day for loitering. The wind was North Westerly today and we had to squeeze along the coast on a tight Starboard tack. On the positive side we were able to see the villages and sights along the way in the light wind. On the negative side this pushed us in towards a couple of headlands and their associated turbulent water not the least of which is Basse Brefort which we travelled through in a damp fashion with the boat pitching up and down into some large chop which ordinarily we would have been to seaward off.  I was most grateful that we were in a well found vessel who could withstand the shaking about. Even so we got a couple of green ones along the deck. We pushed out towards Alderney skirting the Cap de l'Hague and taking some more green ones for our trouble. As we got into the Aderney Race the wind increased and the swell accordingly, as we were about a third of the way across we hardened up the Genoa sheet and something went quite wrong. The drum literally flew off and the O ring headed for the scuppers, these new winches less than a year old had failed. We reassembled the winch after taking the load off the sheet, just as well I always teach my students how to do a rolling hitch! Lo and behold it failed again, this time the O ring bounced in the scuppers and went overboard to howls of disbelief from us both.  

That's blown it

  We managed to jury rig the little spinnaker winch to take the load after a while but it did not bode well for such an expensive failure in a relatively moderate wind. What was worse was that we had spent so long dealing with the sheet winch that we were now no longer squeezing up north of Braye but we're approaching the shore from the East and the tide was starting to ebb southwards sending us to Guernsey if we were not careful. The next hour was not an experience I would want to repeat, ever! We started the engine and throttled it up as far as I dared and sailed the boat as hard and as close to the wind as I dared. As we got nearer to Aldreney and approached .Pt Quenard the tide started to ebb even faster around the headland.     We were less than a quarter of a mile from the North channel but the tide was sucking us South at an incredible rate. At one point we had 9 knots on the log speed and zero knots on the Speed over Ground and what was worse was that directly behind us was opening up a set of whirl pools from hell with standing waves that it looked like we were slowly going to reverse ourselves into.

Keep calm and carry on

 

Sliding down the Race

 So what to do...... If we carried on then surely we would slowly get sucked backwards into the morass. If we turned and fled we would drive straight into it. The other option was to oh so gently manoeuvre a little sideways in an attempt to find slacker water and inch towards the North channel where the tide was starting west rather than South. I took a while and it could have gone either way, but eventually we pulled ourself out of the quick sand and got into the West going channel and relative safety. Heading into Braye harbour we found a mooring buoy close into the harbour wall as the other buoys further out were occupied by a number of boats rocking and rolling in the swell which in my experience is becoming a bit of a thing on my last few visits. So we had a bit of lunch and then of course the swell reached is with more than a little tenacity. Patience is in short supply when being rocked from one gunwale to the other. After 90 minutes of this rigmarole we collectively decided that enough was too much and made plans to head back to Cherbourg as soon as the ebb eased so we tucked in for a snooze until later. Heading out of the washing machine in Braye into the tumble dryer just outside the harbour at dusk was as pleasant as one might expect. Once clear of QuenardPt again we were then just into the wind against tide of the race which was lumpy and on the beam for a while. All in all not going to be the best day's sailing. Sorry Charlie! We made it back to Cherbourg in the dark with an increasing Westerly wind and the tide behind us making 10 knots over ground which at least shortened our purda. Oh how we laughed after a bottle of wine and a hot meal, 55 miles to end up where we woz! That night a gale went through unforeseen , what a pleasure to lie in my bunk and hear the whistle of the rigging and be neatly tied up in shelter rather than bouncing around a mooring buoy.