Alderney to Guernsey
There is nothing like a 4am start to put you in the holiday mood! We were on a mission and we either had to get up early or arrive late. We didn't want to arrive late in case the fuel dock in Guernsey was closed on arrival ,so 4am it was.
The tide started running South at about 2am and neither of us wanted to go at that time given our late arrival in Alderney but 4am was ok as it meant we would arrive in Guernsey around 8am and we could chill out. The photograph on this page shows what it was like to set off but within 5-10 minutes it was really light as the sun rises as fast as it sets. Soon we were heading down the notorious Swinge, this is a passage between Alderney and a small cluster of its Islands where the tide rushes through and the water is often quite turbulent. Once safely through we were on our way South. It wasn't the most exciting sail to Guernsey but with big tides taking us we just enjoyed the ride.
We arrived in the harbour and were met by the dock master in his launch. He enquired as to how long we were staying and said he would try to find a space whilst we filled up. We went to the fuel dock and the diesel was only 85p so instead of filling up just two tanks we filled all three (ouch), but we are probably set up for more than a year now.
As we departed the fuel dock and headed towards the moorings the dock master said would you like to park on the waiting pontoon for a while, " I have one space but I am not sure you will fit in" I looked and said oh we will fit in there, it was a great spot on a pontoon not rafted to another boat but it was inside of a dead end and there was space between the end do and a boat moored further down… I reversed the boat down the channel. tucked the stern in and then when I thought we were clear I used the bow thruster to bring in the bow behind the other boat… There was just a foot of free space. Honestly I think I over estimated the space but everyone else thought I had done it before so I wasn't going to let on!
We had breakfast and I developed a terrible headache so after Linda went into the town, I slept for four hours. Later in the day the harbour filled up with so many boats that you could walk from one raft to the next, I don't know of anywhere else that packs in boats so tightly and yet I have never seen anyone get onto real trouble there, probably because there is little tide. We were surrounded by a lot of Swedish flagged boats who announced that they were leaving at 4am to go to Roscoff. I said we were leaving at 7.
The tide started running South at about 2am and neither of us wanted to go at that time given our late arrival in Alderney but 4am was ok as it meant we would arrive in Guernsey around 8am and we could chill out. The photograph on this page shows what it was like to set off but within 5-10 minutes it was really light as the sun rises as fast as it sets. Soon we were heading down the notorious Swinge, this is a passage between Alderney and a small cluster of its Islands where the tide rushes through and the water is often quite turbulent. Once safely through we were on our way South. It wasn't the most exciting sail to Guernsey but with big tides taking us we just enjoyed the ride.
We arrived in the harbour and were met by the dock master in his launch. He enquired as to how long we were staying and said he would try to find a space whilst we filled up. We went to the fuel dock and the diesel was only 85p so instead of filling up just two tanks we filled all three (ouch), but we are probably set up for more than a year now.
As we departed the fuel dock and headed towards the moorings the dock master said would you like to park on the waiting pontoon for a while, " I have one space but I am not sure you will fit in" I looked and said oh we will fit in there, it was a great spot on a pontoon not rafted to another boat but it was inside of a dead end and there was space between the end do and a boat moored further down… I reversed the boat down the channel. tucked the stern in and then when I thought we were clear I used the bow thruster to bring in the bow behind the other boat… There was just a foot of free space. Honestly I think I over estimated the space but everyone else thought I had done it before so I wasn't going to let on!
We had breakfast and I developed a terrible headache so after Linda went into the town, I slept for four hours. Later in the day the harbour filled up with so many boats that you could walk from one raft to the next, I don't know of anywhere else that packs in boats so tightly and yet I have never seen anyone get onto real trouble there, probably because there is little tide. We were surrounded by a lot of Swedish flagged boats who announced that they were leaving at 4am to go to Roscoff. I said we were leaving at 7.
