Studland Bay to St Peter Port (Guernsey)

Cruel, making retired old people set an alarm clock. So cruel.

Heading off just before 5am, we raced down to St Albans head aided by lots of tide. Similarly, the start of our passage across the English Channel was pretty fast too. The trip heads sort of south west and so we gain a little from the west bound tidal stream but have to push the eastbound one. This trip, the timings meant a little more "pushing" than benefitting. At least it was a lovely day and the channel was in benign mood - just a small residual swell on the beam from the earlier winds.

The shipping separation zone off the Casquets was, as usual, busy but we managed to get through with only one course and one speed change for the Hanjin Greece. Amazing as it was pretty busy. This is the best way to see the big guys:

You know they are unlikely to back up and hit you!

Also out and about in the shipping lanes was Aquarius, a rather large superyacht heading for Helsinki. So glad we have our fuel bills and not his (he was travelling at about 17 knots for info):

The run past the Casquets and towards Guernsey was spoiled by a little rain shower and the crew being in a deep sleep just when the Captain thought it was tea time. Such are the tribulations of the cruising lifestyle.

We had some real rocket assistance heading down the coast of Guernsey (10.9 kn @ 1640rpm!!) and were happy to see lots of space in the outer harbour when we arrived. Of course, it was pretty low water and so we had to pick our way around the moored boats carefully - only about 2 feet to spare in some places. Arriving at low water springs is a no go for us.

The trip took about 12 hours in total with no significant maintenance news. The fuel line from the port storage tank to the manifold (pump) was weeping a little so that got tightened up after we arrived. Apart from that, the big Lugger motor seemed happy to be on her travels again and the re-fettled navigation PC behaved just fine.

Scarily, St Peter Port felt more like Munich than the Channel Islands. Our Cruise liner curse was working again, Mein Schiff 1 was anchored off and the tenders were ferrying lots of German tourists ashore:

For a brief while, the Captain feared that he was back at work, hearing so many conversations in German and a couple of "Genau" comments. It brought back many memories, some of them pleasant ones of course....