Fuel and pottering in Guernsey

Having arrived, we felt that we ought to put a little fuel into the boat. Again, we used the helpful and friendly Kevin from Rubis Fuels who was mentioned in here before as "the man for diesel" on the island. He fitted us in at very short notice so we had a nice flybridge trip up to St Sampsons. Here is the view back to Castle Cornet and the St Peter Port harbour entrance:

Just to show what good protocol abiding folks we are, here is proof that the courtesy ensign was flying too:

Z

By the way, it was not attached to the crew's ear as the picture suggests.

The arrangements in St Sampsons are a tad primitive and the pontoon you lie alongside is a tad prehistoric. However a nice new tanker and a happy tanker driver more than make up for it, as does the cost per litre:

To really upset many UK boaters, bulk fuel was 32.86p / litre. We will gloat quietly. The nice people at Boatworks in St Peter Port wanted 57p. We think they are very nice people of course (if a little greedy).

We returned to St Peter Port, pushing the start of the foul tide and with a slightly heavier boat after adding just over 4 tonnes of fuel. You really notice the difference in handling. As you burn off fuel slowly, you just adjust subconsciously to the slight changes in response to the wheel. When you add 4 tonnes, mainly under the waterline in one go, the turning circle changes and the boat responds a little more slowly to the throttle! You have to relearn rather fast when coming back to berth in the confines of St Peter Port. Still, we berthed with no big dramas.

Another first for us - the harbour master man asked if we wanted to go inside the visitors' marina, known as Victoria Marina. Normally we are too big to play inside there but as it was so quiet, he said we could cuddle up into the deeper north eastern corner. So, at high water we did just that:

The mast sticking out the top of the boat belong to an old square rigged sailing craft in the harbour. It is not a new fuel saving gadget that we have fitted.This berth gave us a quieter time when the wind turned easterly and the outer harbour got a bit bumpy.

When in Guernsey there are a few "must do" things. One is raiding Waitrose and having a tea there despite the hopeless organisation of the cafe staff. (It is the same in every Waitrose cafe we've ever used to be honest - they would never survive in a Costa or Starbucks operation!) If ever the need for a job beckons, then making Waitrose cafe operations more professional would be fun and the diagnosis phase not too hard we reckon.

Another favourite sport is spotting the sickly ferry Condor Liberation if it is running (and it was):

This poor thing seems to have had more than its fair share of problems and little crunches since coming into service and is not the most popular thing in the Channel Islands. Have a look at Guernsey Press articles, some are worth a read. Very rare for a local commercial passenger ship to be stopped from sailing from the UK by the authorites owing to safety concerns.

Another tradition is walking around to Fermain Bay and sitting outside the cafe for lunch. The temperature wasn't too kind but the lunch was great as usual and provided in copious quantities:

The nice hilly path helps with another cardiovascular workout, just like the hill on the main street in Lymington. We are so lucky. The bluebell wood was stunningly beautiful:

What else? Well, we walked along the coast to Beaucette Marina, a new spot for us but one that Andrew had previously visited by boat. A great coffee location. We also explored the extended M&G chandlery at St Sampsons. Very impressed, full of proper tools and kit, not the usual boating clothing and tacky trinkets supplied by Nauticalia. The captain went wild and bought some Wurth brake cleaner (about a third of the UK Halfords price). Then he had to carry it back. Not the smartest move.


Maintenance News

Yes, for the oil and spanner types, we can report that we swapped out the fuel filters on the genset and gave the wing engine gearbox some nice fresh ATF oil. All scheduled maintenance stuff. We also gave the shaft brush a clean up. On the way over it was rattling and being very annoying generally - the noise from it carries through the boat structure amazingly well unfortunately. For those who don't have such a contraption, basically it helps to complete the electrical bonding of the shaft to the boat's ground system to protect it and it is just an irritating brush on a lump of springy metal that bears on the shaft as it rotates. Let's see if it is going to be nice and quiet on the next trip. If not, major surgery beckons........