Fuel, B&B, then more exploring - Herm this time

We had a little trip planned - only as far north as St Sampson harbour though, the bulk materials commercial port of Guernsey with a very boring entrance:

and a drying out spot for the commercial guys:

(Yes, this pic was taken on another day when the clouds decided to make themselves felt and the water level was lower.)

Timed for high tide it allowed us to pick up some fuel from Gary the friendly Rubis man. The pontoon used to be a precarious thing, vaguely coupled to the wall with chains but is now rather posh:

Izzy found the whole experience rather tiring - running around between us and Gary who was up top with his road tanker, checking out the seaweed as it moved and barking at any funny noises from the pontoon. So much so that on the return trip to St Peter Port she needed a flybridge snooze:

Our liner curse was in full swing, with this anchored off and a rash of tenders ferrying annoying cruise passengers ashore:

We discovered that their behaviour was no different to pre-Covid times. In other words they walk in line abreast down the streets, owning the pavements and making random slow moves in unexpected directions which normal folks are supposed to anticipate and avoid. Luckily they don't seem capable of walking too far and even Havelet Bay, right next to the main harbour, was uninfested:

Until Izzy arrived that is:

Martin and Inge, who also own a Nordhavn 47, were flying over to Guernsey to prepare their boat for a relaunch in St Sampson. They needed bed and breakfast for a couple of days before the launch so we obliged. We then got to see them arrive at the end of their sea trial with the M and G boatyard folks on board:

We were sitting on the ferry to Herm and so could not help them berth alongside us:

Quite a rare sight, four Nordhavns in St Peter Port together:

Apparently the official collective noun is a "noodle". We much prefer the ideas that you folks generated a while ago. Have a look at "Collective noun conundrum" post 

Whilst Martin and Inge were reclaiming their boat and adding copious fenders to keep us apart, we were on the way to Herm, enjoying sights like these:

and beaches like this:

The doglet had a great time walking the cliff path around the south of the Island:

She also enjoyed, as did we, a very good lunch at the Mermaid Tavern. The price changes since our last, pre-Covid visit were remarkable! Not enjoyable, just remarkable:

A slow wander back to the Rosaire steps (the ferry cannot get into the harbour at lower states of the tide) allows lovely views over Jethou, with Guernsey in the background:

ready for the "Travel Trident" ferry back.

We found that Herm island now operated their own ferry boat, in competition with the long established Trident operation. No idea how they will both survive, the ferry and island were very quiet during our visit. We had picked a liner free day on purpose mind you!

Guernsey revisited - very happily

The evening view from the mooring in the harbour was lovely and a reminder of how nice this island is. Castle Cornet in the sun and blue skies:

spoiled only by the rather elderly Condor ferry backing into her berth: The four ferries that serve the Channel Islands have an interesting and very chequered history. The odd collision with docks and other vessels, a high speed trimaran that makes folks ill with the motion in bigger wave patterns (bought as a bargain from down under), the odd fire on board etc:

The two main freight ferries are 1990s' builds so it will be interesting to see how they fund replacements in the coming years.

We had to do the short walk to Havelet bay to let Izzy run wild, bark, chase a fox red labrador (way too fast for her but she tried very hard!) and generally let off steam after a day at sea. Such a peaceful scene, so glad you cannot hear the barking:

We commented on how the Weymouth harbour folks seemed to have timed their pontoon replacement badly. Well, they are not alone:

It was rather poignant when Facebook (we rarely post anything) reminded us that 8 years ago to the day we had Anne, Izzy's owner, on board with us enjoying the same location. This was just before she collected Izzy at the regulation 8 weeks old:

The Swan pontoons (outer harbour area) had emptied out a lot once the Morlaix race yachts left and things became even more Nordhavnish when this rather splendid 60 arrived and moored on the non walk ashore pontoon:

Suddenly we felt insignificant again although it was nice to have another Nordhavn around. They moved to our pontoon later on and we had the pleasure of meeting the Canadian couple who were off on an extended cruise, having spent the winter in St Katherine's dock near Tower Bridge in London. They reported being horrified by their first power bills from the marina - they quickly switched from reverse cycle heating to the diesel boiler! Their friends on another Nordhavn pitched up a few days later:

What other excitement? Well, the captain managed to catch a summer cold and so was feeling a bit less energetic than his normal "cannot really be bothered" self. Dosed with Night Nurse he managed to snuffle and cough himself to sleep though. His snoring still did not match that of the little dog though. (Who is he kidding????)

Maintenance News:

We reported earlier about swapping out the horrid Chi Tai panel meters that show the DC voltage and amps on our electrical panel for way better versions from Neil, a proper electronics person and Nordhavn 40 owner. Well, he now has the AC meters available too so we happily got rid of all 7 of our AC meters too. Here is the new circuit board:

and the slightly more complex and overheating prone style it replaced:

We now have a full complement of circuit boards from Neil and his new website, Nordy Bits. There are even new stickers for the original cases so you know what is in there:

The sad bit is that from the outside, nothing looks any different at all:

As we are off shorepower, we could judge how much less 24V DC power the new meters (12 in total) use compared to the originals. It is significantly different! 

On the topic of electricity, we still like how tidy and well labelled the wiring behind the panels is:

Cosy but at least you can trace things with the aid of the good wiring diagrams the builders provide.

What else during our lazy time here? Well, the alternator drive belt for the small engine alternator (the one that charges the start batteries) got tightened up. It was new just under a year ago and had stretched a little. All good. We also swapped out the fuel polishing filter as the transfer speed / vacuum had increased a bit. Not surprising really, the filter was a 2 micron, being used up from some that we were wrongly supplied and then given for free. For the non boating folks, that is way way finer than the normal 30 or 10 micron Racor filters we use and so would clog up much more quickly.