Jersey musings

Remember how the worker types in Guernsey seemed to like shortish trouser legs in their suits that showed off copious amounts of inappropriate sock? Well, we are pleased to report that this trend doesn't seem to have arrived in Jersey yet. Perhaps it is a bastion of sartorial conservatism here or perhaps they can still afford made to measure suits. No matter why, it looks a whole bunch better.

One "however" type of comment though. Jersey seems to have way more immensely fat people waddling about than Guernsey. Perhaps that is simply because it has more UK visitors??

We mentioned the French yacht that got stranded on the cill gates recently. Well, here it is, it happened during the last UK bank holiday weekend:

Luckily the harbour team managed to pull it away from one gate so they could raise it and stop all the marina water draining out..... According to the nice lady in the harbour office, it is always the French yachts that get it wrong. Sorry to all our French readers but it seems that you have quite a reputation here.

Previously we showed how cosy some of the berthing was during the French public holiday weekend. Well, at the other end of the marina, there were some equally close anchor moments:

Not sure we would want to be in the boat relying upon that fender to protect his gelcoat if the wind got up at all... The visitors area was, simply put, a raft of boats with very little actual water left. Not exactly a "get away from it all" place right now but fun in a totally different way. We enjoyed watching the endless procession of boats entering the marina for the non-existent remaining space at each high tide:

You could walk between the pontoons across the yachts quite easily.

Cannot imagine what would happen if one of the guys right inside decided to leave before the rest of them, say at 5am? (out = at the far end of the picture).

For the folks who don't know St Helier, here are some impressions of the town. Quite a metropolis compared to little old St Peter Port on Guernsey but they both have lovely old buildings, an M&S franchise and a Waitrose. Such civilisation, all we need now is Aldi and Lidl to move in to make life complete:

The old indoor market (shame about the tacky bunting...):

And the park:

Of course, the one German yacht that we saw here must feel very welcome. Right outside the marina entrance is a memorial to the Jersey people who died in concentration camps during World War II. The square, en route to the town centre, is Liberation square with a suitable statue in it:

Even the buses are called "Liberty Bus". (For the far-flung readers who don't know the history of the islands, they were occupied by German forces during the war and it is a big part of the island's history. Lots of gun emplacements, rangefinding towers etc were built as part of Hitler's Atlantic Wall and an amazing underground hospital too (sadly by slave labour). Have a look at wiki on island fortifications. It is so strange to see a fortress built to defend the islands against invading French ships in the 1800s with a 1940's German gun emplacement added to it. Some examples of what is left here:

Even the dockside cranes seemed to be making a Churchillian V for Victory symbol:

At least they fly the German flag above the marina office together with various others. To all our German readers, sorry. You are still very welcome here, especially if you come with lots of Euros of course.

So, we reckon that this post has probably upset the Brits, French, Germans, Guernsey businessmen and local Jersey folk. Wow, quite a haul for one little update!