Crew: Tony Keegan, Julian Thornley and Paul Daniels
Saturday
The week started with bright, sunny weather and plenty of
breeze from the east promising a favourable crossing; we had a good forecast
for the following few days. Everyone got down to Beaulieu without too much
delay so we had plenty of time to get prepared and have lunch. In idyllic
conditions we got all the stores put away, filled all the tanks and got Alize
ready for her first real cruise.
By 4pm we had cleared
the river and set all the sails and set off on a broad reach. It was a glorious
sail down the Solent in perfect conditions – bright sunshine and favourable
tide getting us to
Being such a pleasant evening we broke with tradition and
had a beer each to celebrate prior a traditional at sea dinner of Ocean Pie and
peas – so much more civilised when the boat is not gyrating around. After the
washing up we set up 2 hour watches and concentrated on getting as much sleep as possible while
the going was good. This proved to be a smart move because when we reached the
shipping lanes in the dead of night they were really busy. On one watch we had
to dodge four ships and keep a close eye on many more – not much sleep and hard
work! Having to cross the lanes at 90 degrees took us off the direct route
close to Alderney so we had to run parallel to the lanes for some time arriving
off the Casquets at daybreak. There the wind was dropped fast and wanting to
see the first World cup match which started at 10:30 we put the engine on which
was not so bad as we had had a great sail through the night.
In the pilot great emphasis is placed on transits to pass
through the Little Russell, we found that the two towers make fine lateral
marks on the NE side and the three big French style marks define the Guernsey
side. We also had difficulty following the transit between the white house and
white patch into the Harbour; this did not come into line until well past the
Brehon Tower which contradicted the instruction to turn towards the harbour
between Roustel and Brehon. Common sense pilotage came to the fore and we made
an uneventful entrance mooring up at one of the visitor’s pontoons in the outer
harbour at 9am.
Not surprisingly the boat got sorted out in minutes enabling us set off in the water taxi for the Ship and Crown where we watched the match
against Sweden, which was a draw! Still the beer made sure we had a good
lunchtime nap to make up for the rather busy night. Feeling much more
lively in the afternoon we sorted a few jobs and checked out the inflatable,
the new engine worked really well; what a luxury a gear lever is! Eating out was a bit of a challenge, as the
whole place seemed to have shut up that afternoon. The only place where you
could get a drink was the Yacht Club and the only restaurants open were Curry
Houses – Tough! After a welcome meal overlooking the harbour we got back in
good time because of the early start the next day but found another boat rafted
outside us. A couple with a small child had just arrived from Cherbourg and the
last thing they needed was a move but a quick shuffle then was going to be much
better than at 5:30am so we soon got things sorted. This was in marked
contrast to the antics of a certain Sigma 33, Oxygen, who didn’t know what they
were doing and caused us some damage to the bow earlier that afternoon. We all finally
crashed out at 11pm.
Monday
Setting off without incident, we left the harbour together with two other Yachts and headed south in ideal
conditions – a 15kn Westerly. It was a glorious sail passing Jersey to Port
then heading to the NW and later the SW Minquiers cardinal marks. The
visibility was superb allowing us to see Maitresse Isle in the distance. Unfortunately although it was
getting warmer by the hour the wind was dropping and once again we had to
resort to the Iron sail for the last five miles to get us into St Malo safely
and in good time.
The tide was really ripping towards the east so transits were
of great importance to keep us in the main channel as we went past Le Grande
Jardin and the smaller light further on. Wanting to keep our options open we
decided to stay at the Bas Sablons marina, which has 24hr access over the sill
at neaps, which was the case. There are excellent facilities with St Servan
close by and the old city a short walk away over the sea locks.
St Servan is really picturesque, especially where it
overlooks the Rance Barrage. Here we found a bar and couldn’t resist a few
beers in the sunshine watching the French enjoying themselves. Monday night in
St Malo was a bit flat with restaurants that were not particularly exciting, we eventually
settled for one of the fish restaurants underneath the ramparts which was fair
enough but not very memorable or exciting.
Tuesday
We woke to teeming rain;
I marched into St Servan for croissants, then found out that the weather was
going to deteriorate sharply making the original plan unattractive; we did
not relish heading home in a Force 5-6 Northerly. After a quick re-assessment
we decided to leave straightaway for St Helier, annoying yet another yacht
alongside before headed off between the Minkies and the Isles Chausey.
The rain
had stopped but the wind was right on the nose so it was motoring towards the
NE cardinal to stay out of trouble until we were able to crack off and reach
along the Jersey coastline in about 12kns of wind. There were several other
yachts heading in the same direction, we did our best and kept up with a
Tempest and an old Westerly but were overhauled by a Halberg Rassey 35 and left
well behind by a J something. These other yachts had gone straight over the
Minkies, which I was reluctant to do, as our charts were not very detailed but did infer that the highest rock was +1.5m. Later we found out that it was
safe to sail across up to mid tide from the Westerly owner who lived on Jersey.
It didn’t take long to get the boat moored in the “holding
area” which is a really good little marina at La Collette. It’s a bit further
from the town but only another 10 mins and has 24 hour access plus excellent
facilities. After a shower we went to the Yacht Club on the South Pier just
around the corner. This was really good, lots of dramatic oil paintings with a clubby atmosphere as the members spent the last of the
Jubilee holiday downing a few jars. Later we went into the Town to meet Tony’s
sister who lives in St Helier – some useful local knowledge! Subsequently went
to some of the best bars and had an excellent curry.
Wednesday
The weather forecast was not great – force 6, NW. This made
the planned trip to Carteret risky, I was not comfortable going through the
Violet Channel in rough weather and we needed good conditions to get from
Carteret to Alderney in reasonable time the next day. A slog back to Guernsey
didn’t appeal either so with the hope that the wind would back the next day we
resigned ourselves to lay day.
Naturally football had a
part to play in all this so after sorting out the masthead lights and getting
some excellent photos from the top we went to see Ireland get a last minute
equaliser against Germany at La Follie. This was a very old nautical pub but
rather run down and populated by smokers and those with time on their hands,
shame the beer didn’t meet expectations but the match made up for it.
More jobs were sorted out in the afternoon interspersed with
trips to the excellent chandlery followed by a trip out to the Bistro where Tony’s sister
works for a very civilised meal. On returning to the boat for a nightcap we
were joined by the two guys who sail a rather nice Rival 34 moored alongside.
Lovely boat, very traditional, but unfortunately rather boring people later
christened Geoffrey and Synoptic; still it added a bit of variety to the
evening.
Thursday
The passage plan called for a reasonable start - 7:30 am to
catch the favourable tide to La Corbiere where we could then head North to
Alderney. Initially this would be against the tide but timing it to become favourable as we
went through the Big Russell - the scenic route. Departure was a little hasty
as some incompetent boat owners were hell bent on coming along side us even
though we had told them we were leaving very soon; there was plenty of room on
the pontoons, I could only assume that they couldn’t moor up properly.
Motoring
out to La Corbiere was bumpy in the force 5 westerly which was right on the
nose and not a lot of fun with white horses everywhere. Once clear of the
Island, however, we could get all the sails up and although it was still rough
had an exhilarating sail on a close reach to Herm. Not surprisingly nobody felt
like going below in the quite boisterous conditions but we made good progress
against the tide and reached the Big Russell at Midday. Going between Herm and
Sark was a good decision as it was not only very attractive but also relatively
calm in the lee of Guernsey despite the overfalls.
Taking advantage of the
conditions we had pasties and soup before venturing on to Alderney in what had
now developed into a force 6. The good news was that it was not quite as rough
as earlier so it was really enjoyable – it’s a small margin between an exciting
sail and one that has to be endured!
Fortunately the tide had turned so it was a short sail
towards the headland on the southwest side of Alderney above the Garden Rocks,
which looked particularly vicious amongst the breakers. Cautiously we headed
for the Burhou side of the Swinge to stay clear of Corbet rocks initially
mistaking Ortac for a rather ugly ship.
This turned out to be a safe but
uncomfortable strategy as that was where the worst of the overfalls lay and it
was difficult to maintain course in the swirling water. Just when things seemed
to be getting a little less tense we got buzzed by the Harbour Master’s Rib who
took lots of pictures – what had we done to deserve that? It turned out that it
was a photographer from Sailing Today out taking pictures to illustrate an
article in the series “Treacherous Places”.
We soon were heading straight round the breakwater as it was
high tide with 6 meters of water over the submerged section and tied up onto a
well protected mooring close to the inner harbour. After fun and games getting
tied up who should we see behind us but the Rival 34 who had left with us but
taken the direct route.
Alderney always makes a great destination and after a brief
pub-crawl in Braye and walk around St Ann’s we had a memorable and highly
enjoyable meal at the First and Last. Rita and her staff were all on top form,
both in terms of entertainment and excellent food.
Friday
After a later than usual start for some unknown reason we
got stuck into the list of jobs that were still outstanding, replenished the
ships stores and replaced the deck brush which had broken due to some vigorous
activity earlier. At Midday it was off to the Albert House Pub in St Anne’s to
watch England beat Argentina. It could not have been a better place to watch a
great match. Full of a very mixed bunch of enthusiastic supporters the
atmosphere was really something, especially after England scored and after the
nail biting last few minutes.
Straight afterwards we
took the water taxi back to Alize with the intention of setting off straight
away for Cherbourg, the tides having arranged themselves perfectly to coincide
the optimum departure with the end of the match. This was almost foiled by the
boatman who was working to Alderney time and took ages to get us back on board.
The result was that we made the crossing of the race a bit after slack water
but it was a brilliant sunny day. The wind was not particularly cooperative so
we had to motor across to Cap de la Hague but once clear we had a good close
reach with a ripping tide in our favour taking us into the outer harbour in
less that three hours overall. We were soon through the Outer Rad where we had
another ineffectual attempt at sorting the auto pilot before going into the
port de pleasance.
The visitor’s area was quite clear so we moored in good time
to be able to get into the town to sample some of the excellent seafood in the
traditional French style. We chose the Café de Paris which was excellent, a
four course meal including a Plat de Fruit de Mer for 24 Euros. We even had
time to stop in a few bars on the way back to round off a great day.
Saturday
An early start but not a challenging crossing – light south
westerlies were forecast so it was engine on and 2 hour watches. We crossed the
shipping lanes in great visibility and a lot less hassle than earlier which was
just as well as we had a few difficulties getting used to the Radar which kept
on wanting to switch itself off. We had a few awkward moments when it looked like we could
not switch fuel tanks but managed to sort it out after sailing in fitful
breezes before lunch. As always the Needles were in sight for a long time before
we finally had them abeam and entered the channel in brilliant sunshine.
The big decision was
restaurant bookings – almost every restaurant we tried was full so we had to settle for a 7pm
table at Mad Dogs in Lymington; sailing back home went out of the window. Eventually we
arrived at our reserved berth at the Yacht Haven at 17:15 in good time for a
shower and a beer before heading off to the restaurant.
The evening was a fitting climax to the week, great food,
innumerable bottles of wine, lively music from the hanging pianist and a great
night out.
Sunday
The last day – a bit sad but……. Rose at 8am, got our free paper, had
breakfast on board and set off before the contrary tide became too strong. The
wind was favourable and strong from the west so we only had to unfurl the
Yankee a little to speed up to Beaulieu. Once in the river it took ages to get
to Bucklers Hard where we replenished the tanks then it was back to the mooring
and tidy the boat up. This didn’t take long but by then it was pouring with
rain and anyone venturing outside just to take down the burgee had to have full
oilies on. Somewhat reluctantly Roy came along in the club launch and took us
all off, complete with all our gear in the torrential rain.
The cruise that had proved the seaworthiness of Alize in no
uncertain terms. A soggy end maybe, but a great week overall and one to be
repeated.
