Summer Cruise 2022

Published 16:05 on 24 Jul 2022

This Year our Summer Cruise took us sailing around the Channel Islands and to the North Coast of Brittany and back.So my name is Neil and my wife Leah and together we sail our boat Karma, this year we managed to book the weather and we couldn't of wished for a better time to go it was warming up and turned out to be the hottest time so far this year, anyway enough of that.We set sail or rather put the motor on, early morning (around 4.00am) on the 8th July and left the comforts of Weymouth Harbour for a cross channel crossing, something we have done many times before but this time it felt like it was the first time, a little nervous, apprehensive even, why? , well it was the first time following Covid Lockdowns and the first time following Brexit, ah yes forgot to mention filling in the form C1331 to leave the uk.So were off, beautiful morning, lovely sunrise and a somewhat casual crossing little bit of a breeze for a quick sail now and again but mainly motor on and auto pilot in control. The plan was to get into Alderney see how the time was and tides and see if we could get to Guernsey the same day.Well 59 miles later and 10 hours we pulled into Alderney picked up a mooring buoy and had lunch perfect timing as we had 2 hours before leaving and catching the tide to Guernsey. We left Alderney at 16:00hrs, hoisted the sail and 4hrs / 24 miles later we arrived after a lovely sail wind speed 12knts/Broad Reach.We decided to stay in Guernsey for a couple of nights on the pontoons outside of the lock in, where we enjoyed the delights of the St Peter Port, the place is full of places to eat and a good local bus service, but I do enjoy cooking so there was nothing better than to stroll along the front to a local Fishmongers call Surf n Turf they didnÄôt do just fish but meat and veg as well, grabbed some scallops and some Sea Bass.Next stop was suppose to be St Quay but after leaving Guernsey checking Fuel Pontoon was open we started our journey, Fuel Pontoon wasnÄôt open and as we started our Journey the wind dropped and the motor had to go on, unfortunately at this point we didnÄôt know if we would have enough Fuel to get us to St Quay and had used our reserves, so we decided to change course to Jersey for the night knowing we could refuel. In fact it turned out a great move as we had one of the best sails ever the wind filled in at 18-20 knots for about 1 1/2 hours again on a Broad Reach, which we thoroughly enjoyed. We left at 9.00 and arrived at 14.30 in a rather random course/direction 38 miles.Up Next the following day we left Jersey at 5.30am and 48 miles later at 14:00hr we arrived in St Quay, what a great place, we stayed here for 3 nights enjoying the weather and the Wednesday night there was the most spectacular fireworks display and live bands playing on stage next to the beach, everyone was in good spirit, I have too mention at this point we found a lovely little restaurant called La Cachette there food was inexpensive and was superb, and the waiter spoke very good English as my French is appalling, but he learnt his English whilst in Italy from an Albanian. So 14th July we decided looking at the weather forthcoming we should move and start to make our way back up as we wanted to end up in Cherbourg before coming home. Intention was Guernsey but wind direction meant Jersey would have to do, I will be honest IÄôm not keen on Jersey, I find everything about Jersey is overpriced and over rated, but thatÄôs my own personal thought, anyway back to Jersey we went spent a couple of nights before heading to Guernsey and then the following day Alderney. Alderney 17th July wind direction totally wrong for a stop over here but we thought how bad can it be, the wind was light and it was just for a quick stop before heading to Cherbourg, well I can safely say no sleep had it was the most uncomfortable night ever as we rolled around on the mooring and worse still the ferry driver was very good and left a lovely mark down the side of my boat. 18th July headed to Cherbourg we left at 08:50 and arrived a t 12:30 what a truly great sail good wind speed 12knts on a close reach, absolute loved it. Cherbourg was our final stop before heading home and we stayed here for 4 days, visiting the local attractions and enjoying the relaxed French Lifestyle, we did leave a little early because of weather (ie Wind Direction / Thunderstorms mid channel and stronger winds coming along). All in all we had a great time !!Total Miles = 356 Filled up Fuel in Jersey only ¬£1.16 per ltr.A total of 10 forms completed due to the Brexit Palava checking in and out and a call to Yachtline UK on the way home.

Last updated 13:28 on 22 March 2025