St Peter Port Guernsey

A lot has happened in the first half of 2024.  Whilst spending February in the shed at Boatworks, Blue Velvet had new skin fittings, the scratches on her topsides patched up, the bent stanchions and bases all sorted, a new genoa Furlex, the staysail Furlex refurbished, replacement guardrails, the mast wiring replaced, the chainplate bolts replaced, and a complete new set of standing rigging.  The outstanding work required was a refurbishment of the backstay tensioner, which needed a new bearing and seal, plus a new pulpit.  The latter was a bit of a drama as the one sent from the UK in January had poor quality welding and legs of different lengths.  It was rejected as a proper fix but we still needed to get BV to the UK so the guys at Boatworks managed to work it into position and bolted it down with one bolt on each leg to allow us to sail to Hayling Island for the next phase of the storm damage repairs; the respray.

The mast being re-stepped before relaunch

The respray was going to happen at the Hayling Yacht Company on Hayling Island on the south coast of the UK, just east of Portsmouth.  Typically for March the weather forecast was not looking good for a Channel crossing and we had the added complication that the Hayling Yacht Company is based up a small drying creek so arrival times were critical. Slightly later than we would have hoped, we departed Guernsey on 10 March with no wind for a motor up to Alderney in the hope of catching a weather window the next day for a Channel crossing.  The 0930am start had us sailing hard on the wind but by late afternoon the wind had backed to the west and we were able to get across to Portsmouth arriving at 11pm. Portsmouth was a bonus as it allowed us to meet up the next day with a good friend, Richard Farrington, and also to pick up a new genoa car (to match our discontinued models) which I had tracked down as old stock held by a supplier in Gosport.  It also meant that we could depart Gosport on Wed 13 March and time our arrival at Hayling Yacht Company to fit in with the tidal constraints of the drying creek.

BV sat high and dry at low water with her keel dug into the mud

It was quite windy on the Wednesday, so we took the opportunity to drop the genoa whilst we were en-route to Hayling Island, rather than wait until we were in the marina with the risk of the sail catching on surrounding boats and/or piles. Having felt our way into the marina towards the top of the tide, and hauled the keel through the mud into or berth, we spent our first ever night with BV in a mud mooring. As the tide went out, BV’s keel settled into the soft mud so that she was high and dry well before low water.  The following day we crept around the shallows to position her off the slipway so that she could be hauled out.

BV being hauled out at the Hayling Yacht Company on Hayling Island

After the haul out we spent a night on board and the next day watched as the mast was craned off.  At that point it was time for us to be picked up by our friends Jonathan and Anne Lloyd who very kindly hosted us for the night and even dropped us off at the ferry port first thing in the morning for our return to Guernsey.

BV in the spray bay

A proper respray is not a quick process.  BV needed to be put into the spray bay, and then after hours of careful preparation work and masking up, multiple layers of Awlcraft 2000 were sprayed on and left to fully harden.  It wasn’t until mid-May that it was time to get the ferry back to Portsmouth to pick her up.

New Coppercoat on the waterline

Anne very kindly picked us up from the ferry port and dropped us off at the boatyard, and a week later she and Jonathan hosted us overnight, which was a delightful break from hard work at the yard.  Deliberately arriving a few days before the launch date, which was constrained by the tide, we knew that we would have a busy few days ahead of us.  Before we launched, we wanted to gently sand the Coppercoat antifouling to expose fresh copper and reactivate it.  We had been told that we would have to do that inside the spray bay where there were properly filtered extractor fans.  However, our expected one day of work before BV was ready for the mast to be put back on turned out to be a few days longer.  The surface prep work for the respray had necessitated sanding away some of the Coppercoat along the waterline.  So, as well as reactivating the Coppercoat, we also found ourselves with the extra task of repainting Coppercoat along the waterline and then leaving it for a few days until it had hardened enough to be sanded ready for relaunch. 

BV being inched out of the spray bay

With the Coppercoat work complete, BV could be removed from the spray bay.  Easy enough to say, not so easy in practice!  BV was a very exact fit for the spray bay and the tractor/trailer driver and manoeuvring team needed to be absolutely on the ball to work her out of the bay, with just centimetres of clearance at times.  Once she was out (and we’d stopped holding our breath!), she was ready for the mast to be re-stepped.

And with the mast re-stepped, she was ready to be launched at the top of the tide on Friday 24 May.  But, as soon as she was back in the water, we needed to skedaddle from the Hayling Yacht Company slipway quickly before the tide dropped too much for us to get out of the creek. Once we were out of the creek we were able to relax a little and, while Nicky motored us along gently, I checked the rig tensions which you can only do when the hull is in the water.  Our backstay tensioner was still in Guernsey because the bearing needed for its refurbishment still hadn’t arrived from Italy, so instead our rigger had given us a huge bottlescrew and Dyneema strop as a jury-rigged replacement to get us back to Guernsey. So we were never looking for perfect rig tension, just something in the right ball park to allow us to sail safely back home.

We split the passage home to Guernsey over a few days.  Our first passage was a short one: Hayling Island to Shepherds Wharf in Cowes on the Isle of Wight.  Here we met up Tim and Ann Walters, some Guernsey friends who fairly recently moved to the Isle of Wight, and had a lovely evening catching up with them and admiring their new home.

We weren’t the only yacht taking advantage of the good wind to set off from the Solent

We left Cowes the following morning and had good sail across the Channel arriving in Alderney just before midnight.

Braye Harbour, Alderney

Aside from letting us to spend the Bank Holiday weekend in Alderney, our stop off also allowed us to pick up our new outboard motor from Mainbrayce Chandlery.  Our previous outboard motor had been damaged in the November storm and Mainbrayce had recently had their new stock delivered including our 9.8Hp Tohatsu to replace the one that had been damaged.

Alderney

Returning to Guernsey on Monday 27 May, the plan was to fit our refurbished backstay tensioner, do the final packing of BV and then set off on our next sailing adventure at the beginning of June.  However, we found out that the bearing had still not arrived from Italy.  All indications were that it had been lost in the post.  After an extensive internet search, I found one supplier in the UK that had just one of the required bearings in stock.  However, at £125 each it wasn’t something that I wanted to order on a whim when potentially we had 2 arriving from Italy “any day”.

The new bowsprit – wooden template (top left) and final version in position (bottom left and right)

As we were stuck in Guernsey waiting for the bearings to arrive, “any day now”, 2 tasks bubbled up as priorities.  The first was a new bowsprit.  Getting that welded was suddenly possible as our Guernsey supplier had got the right thickness stainless stell tubing in stock.  I made a wooden mock-up of the locating plate, tested the fitting with that and then the stainless steel version was made and welded onto the tubing along with an eye fitting and end plate.  To finish the job off, I shaped the heel of the tube to fit over the end of the anchor point on our foredeck.

The generator with the cylinder head and ancillaries removed

The other major job that I needed to tackle was sorting out an oil leak on our generator.  Two seals needed to be replaced but to do that the whole cylinder head needed to be removed, along with a lot of ancillary attachments.  It was a job that I had been putting off for far too long but with the delays I had no excuse not to get on with it.  The generator looked quite bare with the head off but despite my concerns about the size of the job, everything went back together seamlessly with new seals and gaskets to replace the old ones.  Better still, once the tappets had all been set up again, the generator fired up and ran perfectly and with no oil leak!

However, having been distracted for a further week, the bearings from Italy still hadn’t turned up. We decided that order was most likely lost and so ordered the last one in stock from the UK supplier.  In typical comedy style, on 13 June the bearing from the UK supplier and the 2 bearings form Italy all arrived in the same postal delivery.  The 2 bearings had been posted in Italy on 16 April and didn’t arrive in Guernsey until almost exactly 2 months later!!

Needless to say, our rigger, Mark Terry at INOX, who had been equally frustrated by the delays was a star.  The backstay tensioner was rebuilt, fitted and the rig tensions all set up properly within a couple of days.  That allowed us to set to with stocking up the fridge and rations lockers plus the last few clothes and other gubbins that we needed to squeeze on board.

BV all packed up and ready to go

With everything set and the weather forecast checked, we announced our departure time as 1300hrs on Sunday 16 June.  The time was fixed as the earliest we could get out of the QEII marina, and the day was set by the packing being finished and the weather being favourable. As an added bonus, it was also our 23^rdwedding anniversary so a further reason to celebrate.

Having announced our departure we had some leaving drinks on board the preceding evening and it was clear that some of our Guernsey friends JJ, Simone and Matt were plotting a departure surprise for us; we’d have to wait until 1300hrs to see what they had planned.

St Peter Port, Guernsey

Braye Harbour Alderney

 All went well with Nicky’s father’s operation and so on Sunday 24 July we loaded BV up with lots of victuals and moved back on board.  The weather wasn’t being particularly helpful with light wind forecast for the afternoon followed by stronger westerly winds with gusts of 30 knots overnight.  Our original plan had been to head directly towards Falmouth or, ideally, the Isles of Scilly to position us for sailing up the Irish Sea towards Scotland.  Strong westerly winds wouldn’t help with that plan but we were keen to get going so we decided that we’d use the initial light winds to get going roughly towards Plymouth and then overnight, when the strong winds kicked in, we’d bear away to have a more comfortable sail ending up at Dartmouth.

Heading out from St Peter Port

The winds did not play as forecast.  We moved from the QEII marina into St Peter Port to refuel which took an age as they only had one diesel pump working and a long queue of yachts waiting.  Finally, an hour later, at 1500hrs we started heading north up the Little Russel.  The islands of Herm, Jethou and Sark looked beautiful in the sunshine but there was barely a breath of wind.

Brehon Fort with Herm to the left, Jethou to the right and Sark in the distance

We continued on hoping that the forecast light wind would show itself once we got north of Guernsey.  It did for a short time and we got 40 minutes of sailing but it was so light that the tide was sweeping us east faster than we wanted.  If the 30 knot winds came as advertised, we’d have a really hard beat to make Dartmouth rather than our hoped for reach.  Recognising that, ultimately, we were trying to get west towards Land’s End we had 2 choices: head back to Guernsey or accept a bit of easterly and move on to Alderney until the wind became more favourable in a few days’ time.

Anchored in Braye Harbour, Alderney

Alderney became the new immediate destination, and we arrived in Braye Harbour 2½ hours later at 1900hrs.  The anchoring area had lots of free space, so we elected to stay there and have a slightly different view from our last visit 4 days previously.

As the sun set, we studied the weather forecast.  We’d be in Alderney for at least 2 days due to strong westerlies, there would then be a period of 3 knot winds from the north clocking around to the southeast and then the wind would pick up from the southwest.  We wanted to catch those southwesterly winds to head up the Irish Sea towards Scotland.  However, for the next 2 days we’d be going nowhere, so it was time to enjoy some more of Alderney’s charms.

The forge at the 200-year-old watermill

For some unknown reason, neither of us was any good at taking photos on Monday 25 July.  We walked around Crabby Bay, past Doyle’s Battery and up past Fort Tourgis.  There we turned east to pick up a track along the Bonne Terre valley.  However, before we took that path we made a small excursion back northward to take a look at the watermill site.  There has been a watermill there since the 14^th century but the building we saw was a little over 200 years old.  It is being restored by the Alderney Society and we spent a long time talking to a couple who were working on demolishing a tumbledown dry stone wall and rebuilding the wooden gutter that would feed the stream water onto the top of the 5m high waterwheel.  On our way out they suggested that we had a go at pumping the bellows in the mill’s forge, another area that had recently been restored.  It was fascinating to hear what they had achieved so far and where the project was going.  Well worth the diversion from our planned track.

Pretty lanes in St Anne

The rest our route took us up the stream that fed the watermill, past the St Vignalis Garden (St Vignalis first brought Christianity to Alderney) and the into the pretty lanes at the western side of St Anne.  A stroll down the hill took us back to the inner harbour where we had left our dinghy. A nice circuit.

France clearly visible, the Alderney race running quickly westward, and Fort Raz at low water (R)

Tuesday 26 July saw us out and about again with our hiking shoes on, this time exploring the eastern end of the island.

German WWII Naval Range Finding position Marinepeilstand 3 – ‘The Odeon’

We’d come east to visit the 1943 German WWII multi-level naval direction finding tower known locally as ‘The Odeon’.

Looking out to the northeast from inside the Odeon

This unique building was part of Hitler’s ‘Atlantic Wall’ designed to prevent the Allies from invading Europe. German Naval observers would spot any approaching allied ships and coordinate accurate artillery fire to sink them.  However, advances in radar and optical range finders meant that the other 5 triangulating towers were never built on the island, so this tower was instead used by the Lufwaffe as an anti-aircraft command post.  Recently restored, the building and presentations gave an insight into the immense defensive building work constructed on the island during WWII and, more chilling, the prisoner manpower used to achieve that and who were housed in concentration camps on the island.  A dark side to Alderney’s history.

Fort Corblets (R) and Château à L’Etoc (L) either side of Corblets B­­­­­­ay

Corblets Bay

From the Odeon we walked along the beautiful Corblets Bay beach stopping at the camp site café for lunch.

From the campsite, the logical path to take was around the coast and up to Fort Albert.

The climb gave fabulous views back where we had come from….

…. and once around the western side of Fort Albert, down into Braye Harbour.

We had been totally spoilt by the weather and had enjoyed 2 great days out exploring Alderney, but along the way we had decided upon a plan to depart in the morning and see if we could get out towards Lands End before the wind built from the southwest.

Braye Harbour, Alderney

Alderney back to Guernsey

We slipped our mooring in Braye Harbour at 1600hrs on Wednesday 20 July.  Disappointingly it had turned quite overcast and grey with visibility down to 3-5 miles and even a little drizzle – what a contrast to the superb weather that morning when we had walked up to St Anne.

The rocky western tip of Alderney

We headed west down the Swinge, picked out the jagged rocks at the western end of Alderney with Les Etacs just off the coast, and then turned southwest to head back to St Peter Port on Guernsey.  Not what we had originally been expecting to do but Nicky’s father was due to have an operation later in the week and so we wanted to be back on Guernsey for that.

Good sailing despite the overcast conditions

Grey and overcast it might have been but there was actually some wind so we sailed instead of motoring which made for a very pleasant change.  We couldn’t quite make the Little Russel channel so debated sailing down the eastern side and then around the south side of Herm but instead elected to tack and work our way down the shorter route through the Little Russel Channel.  That was a mistake with the tide flowing across the top of Guernsey across to the entrance of the Big Russel.  Not shown too clearly on the tidal atlas but, belatedly (Ed:  well after the event!) remembered by Nicky as a caution talked of by her parents sailing in the days pre-GPS. The motor came on again for the last few miles so that we would actually get into St Peter Port at a reasonable time.

We tied up on the local layby pontoon in St Peter Port at 1950hrs which gave us 10 minutes to inflate the dinghy to go and pick up Charlotte and her boyfriend, Matt.  Charlotte had heard on Sunday that she had passed her final accountancy exams, so she and Matt were waiting on the quay at 2000hrs with a bottle of champagne to celebrate.  It would also be Matt’s first time on board BV.  Just as well that we weren’t late!

Patched sprayhood and new dinghy cover

The tide allowed us to move BV back into the QEII marina from 2230hrs and we tied her up safely there at 2300hrs.  Our 3½ day mini cruise around some of the local islands had allowed us to check that everything was working OK on BV but had highlighted that our sprayhood and dinghy cover were a little more worn than we had realised.  Our winter list of jobs already included replacing some of the canvas-work but we didn’t have enough time to have a new sprayhood made before we expected to depart for Scotland in a week or so.  Instead, over the following few days, I made a new dinghy cover and sewed a large patch onto the sprayhood over the thinning fabric on its top.  Not particularly elegant but good enough to tide us through until it can be properly replaced during the winter months.

St Peter Port, Guernsey

Braye Harbour Alderney

We had been thinking of moving to the other side of Sark or perhaps Fermain Bay on Guernsey because the wind had, as forecast, veered around to the west but then we thought that it would be much better to go for a longer sail.  So, at 0915hrs we left Grand Greve Bay and turned north up the Big Russel towards Alderney.

We hoisted the sail and actually started sailing!  Sadly, not for long.  Forty-five minutes later the 8½ knots of wind dropped off to 3 knots and so we switched the engine back on for the rest of the passage.

Motoring northeast through the Swinge on the northwest side of Alderney

The other relevant factor was the tide; we only just had enough time to get to Alderney before it turned strongly against us so we couldn’t drift along under 3 knots of wind.  As it was the tide had turned against us as we finished the passage motoring east through the Swinge on the northwest side of Alderney.  Perhaps we would have been better to have taken the longer route through The Race on the south of Alderney and then come in to Braye Harbour from the northeast?

On the last available mooring buoy in Braye Harbour

Once in Braye Harbour we were lucky to be able to pick up the last available mooring buoy by the breakwater. By 1240hrs the engine off so there was still plenty of time to go ashore and explore.

Left: View over the northeast end of Alderney with Mannez Light and ‘The Odeon’ lookout tower (German WWII observation and ranging post) on the island’s horizon.  Right: Nicky outside the Community Woodland Trail
 Information Centre (refurbished German WWII bunker)

We walked up through the Community Woodland Trail to the east of Newtown.  These woods hide the entrances to the 2 largest WWII German tunnel systems which run hundreds of metres into the hillside.  Most are unsafe and inaccessible, but the lookout bunker just above the old quarry has been restored.

Views of Braye Harbour, including a pretty blue boat close to the Napoleonic Wars era breakwater

Top:  Fort Albert with Mount Hale Battery below.  Bottom:  northeast Alderney

From this high vantage point we enjoyed great views…

Braye Harbour…….again!

… particularly to the north over Braye Harbour.  Continuing down along the Community Woodland Trail we came across large areas with newly planted trees.  Local volunteers have actually planted over 10,000 new trees here making it the largest community woodland in the Channel Islands.

Braye Beach

With the tide out we returned to the dinghy dock along the fabulous Braye Bay beach.

View down over Braye Harbour from the Butes

On Wednesday 20 July we need to move on but the morning’s weather was fabulous so we took another trip ashore walking up to St Anne, the main town on the island.  Our route took us up to the Butes, another point of high ground with great views down over Braye Harbour.  Whilst in St Anne we stopped for lunch sitting out in the garden of The Bump, a lovely bistro tucked away down a small lane off the high street.  It was a nice end to our short stay in Alderney.

Braye Harbour, Alderney

All out of excuses not to go

The bank card turned up as promised on Tuesday 23 April; a massive relief. We made plans to leave that evening and moved out of the marina in the late afternoon to an anchorage just off Rosiere Steps on Herm so that we could catch the evening tide south and west. The only issue was the weather forecast with thick fog predicted. Not wishing to sail in fog unless absolutely essential, we bravely decided to stay the night where we were and enjoyed a great crab supper.

In the morning, despite joking about how many excuses we could come up with not to depart, we were very pleased with our decision as we were surrounded by thick fog and would have been sailing in it. Unfortunately the fog never lifted so we spent a further night at anchor! The picture on the right shows the view from our cockpit on Thursday morning. There is a blue ferry less than 100 metres away dropping off passengers at Rosiere Steps (just to the left of the outboard motor).



Just when we thought we were going to have to spend a third night at anchor, the fog lifted enough for us to go on the evening tide. Initially under motor, and then with just enough wind to make 4 knots, we headed west on an amazingly smooth sea floodlit by a full moon; magical.

As predicted the wind got up during Thursday night. As we filmed this short video during Friday morning, there was an Irish yacht in difficulty close to L'Aber Wrac'h, our destination. The conditions were proving too much for him and the lifeboat was launched. It all looks pretty benign in the video; BV took it all in her stride (but I was seasick though, happily, this wasn't caught on film!).

The view from the marina at L'Aber Wrac'h was typically Breton; it reassured us that we are finally properly on our way towards the Mediterranean.

The view from our cockpit in L'Aber Wrac'h Marina

On the starting blocks

Shell Beach, Herm

  
Despite the best efforts of Jenny and Sue from the bank, seven days after the new bank card had been despatched from the UK we had to accept that it was probably lost in the post and unlikely to turn up. We therefore cancelled the replacement card and ordered a new one. Fortunately, after some strong words from Sue, this one is being couriered across and is “guaranteed to be here by Tuesday 23^rd”. The sad bit about the delays is that we have missed a fantastic wind for heading west. But, on the other hand, without access to my bank account keeping our accounts in order would get very difficult.
  

Very much on the plus side of the bank card issue, we have been able to sail around the islands and enjoy some great sunny weather.  Last night we were anchored off Belvoir Bay on the east side of Herm and spent the late afternoon walking on the island. Sundowners on the beach was particularly pleasant. Belvoir Bay is significant for us because it is where we spent the first day of our honeymoon anchored off in Nicky’s father’s yacht. In an amazing gesture of trust he lent us his yacht for two weeks so we could cruise along the north Brittany coast as far as Brest and back.

Only tractors are allowed on Herm

The Barclay brothers' castle, Brecqhou

We also visited Sark again and spent a night anchored in Grand Grève bay. On the way over the view is dominated by the Barclay brothers’ castle on Brecqhou. Not a bad pad for a couple of newspaper boys (oh, and they are also the owners of the Ritz Hotel, amongst other holdings, as well as the Telegraph newspaper)!

Bang on the transit! (Vermerette post & white mark on the quay)

A few nights at various anchorages have worked well in between the trips back and forth the bank. Most of the navigation around the immediate islands is based upon transits; two markers you line up to keep you clear of the rocks. Some of the rocks are also marked with posts, often with letters on them showing their names. All very helpful but I’m sure based upon too many people over the years parking their boats on top of the rocks. In comparison, the Solent is more forgiving as, if you get your tidal calculations or navigation wrong, you generally will hit soft mud. The granite here is far less forgiving. That, plus the large tidal range, makes it a very interesting place to sail. When you have got yourself safely into a beautiful anchorage you really feel as though you have achieved something.
  

Even the cruise ships think the islands are worth a visit!