Lazy days off Sark

Point Robert Lighthouse

Time is passing slowly waiting for my bank card to arrive. For a change of scenery we left the marina at St Peter Port on Monday and sailed over to one of the bays on Sark. The forcast had some strong winds from the south west expected overnight so for shelter we tucked ourselves into Grève de la Ville, a bay on the north east corner of Sark. The bay is deep so there are some visitors mooring buoys and we picked one of these up rather than anchor as it would reduce our swinging circle and keep us clear of the two French yachts also staying in the bay.

At three o’clock in the morning we were up adjusting the mooring line because the one attached to the buoy had got caught around our anchor and the banging was keeping us awake. The bay was quite ‘rolly’ with the strong wind blowing and drizzle falling but one bonus was that we saw the Point Robert lighthouse in action with its beam lighting up the cliffs. After that disturbed night we slept in on what was a wet and drizzly morning. We weren't so enamoured with the lighthouse in the morning when its foghorn started sounding as we tried to doze.
  

The mooring line adjusted to keep it clear of the anchor

  

Keeping track of what's in the 'store cupboard'

For our next passage we are hoping to jump from Guernsey right across to the northwestern tip of the Brest peninsula. We expect that to be about 24 hours sailing. The long range forecast, however, looks tricky with a deep depression coming in on Thursday, which is around when we expect to have the bank card and be able to set off.

By way of preparation we spent the time whist it rained cooking some easy to heat up food for the passage. Typically we have over-catered so I think we now have enough food ready for a week at sea. Also, typically, the foodstuffs we needed were either at the bottom of the food locker or right at the bottom of the fridge. That seems to be the normal state of affairs when it comes to cooking onboard.



On the more technical side, this rather insignificant trickle of water from the ‘taster tap’ marked the re-commissioning of the watermaker. We flushed out the preserving fluid and, after fitting new filters, fired it up hoping the various components would work as advertised despite their few years of relative inactivity. Pleasingly all went well. Not a huge production rate at just 30 litres per hour, but the system was working quite hard with the very cold (just 8 degrees Celsius!) seawater off Sark, which is not really what it is designed for. That purification rate will jump to around 60 litres of water an hour when we get to warmer waters. On our system, once we are happy that the water coming out of ‘taster tap’ is good, we operate a valve and divert it into the tanks. Newer versions now come with an extra box of tricks which tests the water and diverts it automatically.

Aside from the excitement of getting the watermaker going, failing to catch any fish and reading a few books, it has primarily been a case of keeping our fingers crossed that the new bank card arrives on time. It definitely feels like it’s the right time to be heading west.