Last sight of the Needles for long while

Newtown River

 
Having spent several days in Newtown River whilst the wind blew strongly, there was finally a window of opportunity on Saturday 6 April to cross the Channel. The tides through the Needles Channel and the Alderney Race governed our departure time which ended up being a very civilised 0930 for raising the anchor.

The Needles, Isle of Wight

 
Bizarrely after days of gales there was now barely 5 knots of wind so we motorsailed out through the Needles Channel at the western end of the Solent, hoping for some more wind when we were clear of the Isle of Wight. The Solent has been our main weekend sailing location for the last 11 years so it was quite strange sailing past the Needles knowing that we weren't going to see them again for potentially several years. A very different feeling to when we have escaped from the Solent in the past for our summer holiday cruises knowing that we'd have to be back after a few weeks for work.

Despite the forecast of force 4-5 winds and our best hopes, even when we were clear of the Isle of Wight the wind never got above 8 knots so the trip across to Guernsey was more of a motor than a sail. It was cold but with clear skies so with a good view of the sun and a clear horizon we practised our sun sights with the sextant and spent several hours working out where we were the old fashioned way. On 'marking our homework' using the GPS's Lat and Long, we found we had calculated where we were to within 2.5 miles using just the sun and a few sums. I need more practice to speed up the whole process and hopefully improve the accuracy but that should keep us occupied when we come to cross the Bay of Biscay.

The other game that kept us entertained was dodging the steady stream of ships in the shipping lanes.

At just gone midnight we were tied up in St Peter Port, Guernsey. We have left the UK and are finally on our way!