Weymouth to St Peter Port

As per normal, this trip means an early start. The 5am alarm was not welcome at all. A quick breakfast and then whilst preparing the boat for departure, we found that two of the navigation lights didn't work! Grr. The port light was fine after fitting a new bulb. The stern light had a new bulb fitted which very quickly burned out and needed another replacement. Luckily we had 3 spare bulbs. unluckily, they cost about £8.50 each......  It was going to be a close call on this trip between fuel costs and bulb costs!

The trundle over the channel was probably the calmest that we have ever done. Lovely. Naturally the route involves a bit of wandering around as you let the tide take you towards the west and then back to the east. Crossing the shipping lanes at 90 degrees to the big commercial boys also adds to the overall impression of a drunken duck underway:

As you can see, it was quiet out to sea..... We had a few course alterations to avoid the more serious shipping that cost us a bit of time en route but nothing too stressful even at our slowish speed (6.7 knots through the water at 1660 rpm as very light on fuel). Approaching Guernsey it was a bit misty - we prefer the term "atmospheric" of course as you can see:

Arriving in St Peter Port at low water meant heading for the mid-harbour pontoons via the local boat moorings, not the normal approach channel as it was too shallow to be safe. Ditto the last visitor pontoon which quickly became "interesting" when the depth under the keel dropped to 0.4 meters. Time to back out and head another way. For those who plan to visit here, the nice harbour master man showed us a chart showing the depths on the harbour pontoons and also in the Victoria Marina where the smaller visiting boats go:

With a draft of nearly 2 meters, some of the harbour is a little "off limits" - even some of the remote pontoons. We sat quite happily on "Swan 2" and admired the classic views of Castle Cornet

We also watched the Condor ferry "Commodore Clipper" start up on her berth, ready to depart. Remind us again why we need tier 4/5 compliant engines which are way too complex to fix out to sea for our boats and why we have all those emission checks on our cars:

Overall the trip took just over 11 hours, plenty of time for snoozing en route. No big dramas to report luckily and for those of you who want some maintenance news, sorry, there is none. You will have to get your oil and spanners fun somewhere else today.