At 11am, we took the lines off the mooring and motored out of the harbor as we wanted to arrive at ‘The Race’ at slack water or just as it started to change direction in our favor. Not knowing these waters very well, we wanted to take a safe route out as this whole coast is scattered with rocks. We also wanted to take a look at the back of the island and any potential anchor spots for a future visit.

As we reached the top of the coast, the lighthouse on our starboard side we hear

“Dad, WATCH OUT..”

Thinking straight away that we’d miscalculated and were about to hit a rock, we instantly throttled back and started looking down the side of the boat to try and work out what we were about to hit. By this point, Catherine said, “a rope, there is a rope in the water“. I could now see this rope, and it must have been about 15 meters long, we turned sharply so the rudder and the propeller were as far away from it as possible. Luckily, it didn’t get caught on anything, we had a couple of seconds to re-group and we carried on motoring around the top of the island. Catherine also said that she saw a large net on the end of it. I’m not sure how we did manage to miss it…

Now at the back of the island, the tide and what little wind we had was all with us, we set sail and had some lunch. The tide here is extremely strong as it makes its way down the french coast and along this peninsula. Its something to do with the tidal height difference along the coast and that amount of water trying to get through small(er) gaps between the land mass.

The sun was out, it was a lovely sail and we continued our journey with the Autopilot set. Christine did some of our washing as the engine had been on and we had hot water. We use a Steetwize centrifuge manual washer while we are on board, it’s much easier than doing this by hand and you can give the clothes a good spin at the end to get as much water out as possible. Back to the sailing, we are about 2hrs away in the photo.

We had perfect conditions for our arrival to Guernsey, so we followed The Shell Channel Pilot’s excellent pilotage notes and came in via Little Russel. Similar to Alderney, there are a lot of rocks on the coast, in the main channel (well marked) but nevertheless, it takes a little more attention than some other areas of the south coast. We stayed close to Tautenay due to a large vessel in the channel and harbour then moved over to the other side of the channel and passed Roustel, another rock in the middle of the channel to port. Now we were getting close to the harbor entrance, we switch the VHF to channel 12 to listen to what others were doing and how VTS was managing the harbour.

As it happens, the entrance has very clear lights, but it doesn’t do any harm to give them a quick call and tell them your intentions. I’ve always found them helpful, even if it turns out not to be a requirement to enter a harbour in this way. Once inside the outer wall, a small boat appeared with the marina team in and asked if we wanted to stay on the walk-ashore pontoons or go inside the marina. We decided to go into the marina and they asked us to raft with the other boats until there was enough water to go over the sill. As we waited, we had French. German and a couple of other boats from the UK. I enjoyed this part of the trip, we don’t often raft, it was a little stressful as the boat was harder to get in and out of gear but the atmosphere was great. We waited for about an hour and a half, all the crews were having a little drink and some snacks so we joined in!

Boats started to be escorted in, with the marina team asking “what’s your draft” to each one. I guess that Victoria Marina is deepest in the middle, which is where we ended up. Our draft is about 1.9m so we need a fair amount of water to stay upright!

The facilities here are very good, the toilets and showers well maintained, power and water on the pontoons and it has a really friendly atmosphere. Boats are well cared for with all the services and all the chandlery anyone could ever need! I would just say that anyone can walk down the pontoons, so do ensure you lock up. I saw a Facebook post a couple of weeks after our visit where someone had an outboard taken, they think it was from another yacht which is even worse…. Come on, we need to look out for each other and stick together!

We spent 3 nights in Guernsey, explored the town and walked around the three harbours, out towards the castle and along the front. It’s a really nice place, with lots of shops, restaurants and bars to visit.