Studland Bay to St Peter Port (Guernsey)

This is a well trodden route across the channel that we and many others have used many times. Different before though as it was part of a tightly time-boxed holiday when our annual fuel fill up and few days in the Channel Islands was squeezed into the 2 or 3 weeks of freedom.

To try and avoid the worst of the foul tides around the north of Guernsey, and to arrive in daylight, we headed off nice and early. Well, early, maybe not nice. Lots of residual "slop" in the channel from the many days of strong winds but nothing that worried the stabilisers. Crossing the Traffic Separation area just north of the Channel islands was fun. The AIS screen was full of the big guys - much busier than we've seen for many years (maybe the world economy is picking up again??) and lots of course changes were needed to thread through them.

Arriving in St Peter Port we found a powerboat race underway with lots of tortured engine noises as the boats thrashed their way though some choppy waters just south of the harbour entrance. The arrival of the fast catamaran ferry from the UK added to the size of the waves they were battling - I think the island's osteopaths will be busy early next week.

The visitors moorings in the harbour were almost deserted - a first. We always reckon that a place is good if you have to go ashore by dinghy. St Peter Port is good.

Having spent several very chilled days in the Solent area, seeing friends, collecting a new baby outboard motor etc, the wind finally died down and the English Channel had a forecast that didn't have "rough" or "very rough" contained in it. The plan was to raid St Peter Port in Guernsey for better priced diesel as a fill up would get us all the way around the UK if needed. Carrying 5,500 litres has some benefits, the bill for filling the tanks isn't one of them of course

So, on Friday afternoon we left our mooring in Lymington (Dan Bran pontoon, great views and just far enough out of town to make the walk into the shops seem like healthy exercise too) and headed out of the Solent. The remains of n days of strong SW'ly winds combined with the Northerly today meant a nice "sloppy" sea for the run over to Studland Bay off Poole. Of course, as we arrived the sun went in and the rain started together with the usual wind squall that accompanies a shower. Great for anchoring when you have to be outside to check things and fit the snubber.

Still, it was good to be "on the way" to wherever we end up this year. Kind of felt like the start of the adventures to come. The Brighton / Solent time that we had enjoyed since retirement was good of course, but familiar territory stuff. The best part of the trip was the crew trying to get some pictures of the Needles rocks off the Isle of Wight that had a horizontal sea in the background. Sea conditions didn't help and about 20 tries later, there is still no nice image to post in here as a leaving the Solent landmark. Just this one: