Portland to Guernsey

After many days of particularly windy weather, it was so nice to see a forecast like this one:

It had to be time to head over to Guernsey. Actually time was the challenge- the tides were all wrong for a daytime passage and not great for an overnight one either. To optimise the tides, we would arrive in St Peter Port after midnight - not ideal as the Little Russel channel is usually plagued with poorly marked pots and the little markers get dragged underwater in the strong streams. So, we decided to make the best of a daylight trip and accept that we would be pushing the tide more than necessary, adding around 45 minutes to the trip and a few litres of fuel. So be it.

We headed off on a beautiful sunny morning at around 6am. This was the view towards the Eastern ship channel exit from Portland harbour, with the blind partially down to shelter the helmsperson's eyes from the sun:

We headed down the side of Portland with plenty of tidal help, avoiding pot markers and consuming an early breakfast underway. Here is the pilothouse view of the (in)famous Bill of Portland:

and now from a little closer and a little blurry perhaps with a zoom lens:

Just not too close.

It had been a nice calm trip to the Bill, once out of the shelter of the land, the remaining Atlantic swell and the wind induced waves made the sea a bit "sloppy" - very typical for the channel crossing. The waves were only around a meter high but in a confused pattern so the stabilisers were in action to keep the crew and doglet happy

The planned route over involved letting the tide take us to the west initially, then back east to a point just off the shipping traffic separation zone to the north of Alderney as we headed more or less south. From our course, you can see that it almost worked. We had to make a couple of fairly big diversions around commercial shipping - the big kinks in the track below until we reached the shipping lanes - the straight bit:

Here is one of the guys that forced us to head too far east initially:

Only a little container feeder ship but still not worth arguing with!

As we approached the separation zone the usual gaggle of ships ploughing along the lanes appeared:

together with several French fishing boats who seem able to ignore the rules of the road and cross the shipping lanes at strange angles, not 90 degrees. No matter, it was a lovely day and the crew and 2nd crew member were enjoying the sun and air whilst the captain  looked on from the pilothouse:

Once clear of the shipping lanes (only one small diversion needed there) we decamped to the flybridge enjoying the lovely weather and giving the plotter up there more to do than it usually has:

As we approached Guernsey, the 2nd crew member was on sharp lookout:

probably trying to see the very tempting beaches. As we closed on the entrance to St Peter Port harbour, we realised that our liner curse was in full flow again, this was anchored off:

Luckily arriving late afternoon meant that the liner passengers were being taken back on board - we passed the pilot boat heading out to the liner as we entered the harbour. Result! We were met by the every friendly Jason, the harbour guy in his dory and as all the walk-ashore pontoons in the outer harbour were busy, we were directed to the one "unconnected" pontoon, known as Swan 5. No swans though. That meant we had to uncover and free the RIB, launch it and then take Izzy a whole 20 metres or so to the connected bits so she could have a run ashore. 

Directly opposite us was a truly enormous Nordhavn, Mermaid Six. Friendly folks on board but we could only briefly chat to them from the RIB as they were heading off the next morning. Actually that worked well for us as we could then move into their spot on the walk ashore pontoon:

The harbour was not terribly busy for the time of year. Maybe because they have jacked up the berthing prices considerably, especially as the facilities are, to be kind, sparse. According to the rather unhappy harbour staff, this was to help cover the huge deficit that the airport and the Island's airline Aurigny run up. A drop in the ocean I would imagine and a drop that causes a significant drop in visitor numbers too perhaps. Apparently many folks are just mooring overnight now, using the lovely island as purely a staging post to France. Quite a waste really.

We had a large yacht as our neighbour:

who also headed ashore in their RIB - a big Caribe with a huge outboard, We felt sorry for the davits that had to lift it, fitted on the stern of the yacht.

The harbour was suitably tranquil that evening:

It felt good to be here again even if we were a little tired. The RIB was left in the water ready for Izzy's early morning pump out trip and we slept rather well. The passage took around 11.5 hours berth to berth, longer than it should as we had to fight the tide more than you would wish to, in order to have a daylight passage. As there is no maintenance news to report, we will end things here.