On your (little) bike

Another lovely sunny day. We are treating this as our summer......

It was interesting to see the huge raft of French yachts scamper out on the morning high tide. Some hung around (including the two rafted to us). Unfortunately the guys moored ahead of us didn't stay put. As the captain was returning from the morning breakfast foraging trip (pain au chocolat treat) he saw the yacht that was alongside the pontoon trying to wriggle past the 4 boats rafted to it, us and the 2 boats alongside us. Kind of an aquatic limbo dance. They were under our bow and the only thing that stopped the nasty metal toe rail of the yacht from taking out big lumps of our gelcoat was a tubby Frenchman who was pushing them off our hull, sort of. We feared that he would be no match for a burst of throttle so felt obliged to shout at them a bit. Somehow, with help from everyone on the other boats they got out. Just a totally stupid attempted manoeuvre. Totally stupid.

As light relief, one yacht clearly had a shortage of sink and drainer space inside:

Using the cockpit seat as a monster draining board is novel but we suppose that we are spoilt with the dishwasher and a dedicated draining sink on board.

We must have a big target painted on the boat somewhere. A little later on, the French motorcruiser who was now moored alongside the pontoon ahead of us, cast off his lines, then didn't do much and so his boat drifted and wrapped itself around our anchor - luckily again, just the anchor had a clout or two. We sincerely hope that it did him some damage. Getting very fed up with people and their lack of common sense / boat handling ability. This helped us to recall why we never bothered to visit France during summer vacations. Just too much stress.

The little folding bikes were pressed into service for a ride around the bay to St Aubin and then along the old railway line towards Corbiere. The idea for this great cycle route was thanks to Stephen (yes, yes the sailing, shooting and trolley shopper guru) and Alison who lent us a guide book.

The route is the blue one - try it if you are in Jersey, well worth the gentle haul up from St Aubins to St Brelade. Apparently it is a 1:40 incline as it had to be suitable for steam trains but it goes on for ages. Of course, for those of us who spent the winter training on the Penarth hills, this was not too serious.

Someone had stolen the water from St Aubins harbour:

but not the sun luckily. We were glad that we had bought our fuel in Guernsey for 59p per litre:

22p per litre more eh?

The bay area is equally lovely:

In the town, you could just as easily be in France with buildings like these:

Of course, when in St Helier, you could equally be in London with street names like these:

Our plan is to head for Falmouth tomorrow now we are less hemmed in! Naturally this plan has excited the weather gods as the forecast for tomorrow am is local fog banks here. Hum. Last time we left Jersey, heading for the Hamble river at the end of a holiday, it was seriously thick. Didn't see anything until mid-channel apart from one little fishing boat who had no AIS, no navigation lights, no radar and little hope of living long as he pottered about in the Little Russel channel where the fast cat ferries are doing 30 knots. It was horrid but not unexpected to read that one had been hit the following year, in fog, by the Condor fast ferry and the skipper was lost.

Of course, no time pressure now so if it is a real "pea-souper" tomorrow at 9am, we might just stay put a little longer.... Watch this space.