31 bays in 31 days
06 August 2021
Sadie
The Jersey July Challenge = To swim in thirty one bays in thirty one days.
We didn’t quite make it, but we had a good try. Jersey was just the tonic we both needed to get our heads round my returned cancer diagnosis. We spent whole days walking the dogs with a picnic in the rucksack, or cycling to a little tea room or beach. We always tried to have a swim in a different bay at the end of each day. I ended up parallel swimming at St. Ouen’s beach with the local undertaker, who had a few tales to tell! The sea was not as cold as we had imagined, and on a sunny day after a long walk it felt good to cool down and have a splash. Patch has turned out to be a great swimmer, and never misses an opportunity to swim with me.
All good things have to come to an end, and we decided it was time to move on. We gave it two days for the sea to calm down after the storm, and set sail for the West Country. The weather forecast was for light airs and a moderate to slight sea state. We left harbour, went across the Bay of St Aubin’s and on to Corbiere lighthouse. We faced walls of water, and the boat was pitching and tossing in the big sea. Bertie turned green, and promptly threw up before nestling down on his cushion and falling asleep. Poor little Patch was another matter, he was sick until there was nothing left inside him, and he was dry retching. He sat on my lap and we felt so bad about taking him out to sea. We decided it would be silly to go back through the overfalls but pressed on towards Guernsey. Guernsey is closed to all boats coming from Jersey unless the crew have had a private Covid test in the last 24 hours. Obviously we hadn’t bothered with the £180 test each, as we were planning on sailing overnight to the UK. The coastguard was superb, they alerted the harbour authorities and allowed us entry for the night to allow Patch some respite. We felt a bit fraudulous, as once we entered the calm of the harbour he was full of beans and barking on deck!! The harbour master was all for us being allowed a Covid test on the quay, so we could get the dogs out for a walk, but the lady in the centre labelled us “a category 4 incident from a high risk country, requiring immediate 14 day quarantine”. We had to stay on the boat and were only allowed on the pontoon to drop off a Tesco bag full of vomit! We slipped our lines early the next morning before the lady impounded the boat and set sail in calmer seas to Dartmouth. This time the dogs loved it, and played chase on deck whilst Leslie Frank glided through the calm waters. It was the perfect sail, with pods of dolphins and beautiful rainbows in the distance. The sky was set alight with a stunning sunset and we got into harbour just after 10pm as the light faded. We finally got the dogs ashore, and we even managed to get a drink at The Ship Inn, who have a reputation for their late last orders!!!
We have been here a few days now and have had a mixture of beautiful sunny days, and stormy weather. It was lovely to meet up with friends who are holidaying here, and we had a great evening mucking about on the water. When the kids said they were going to jump in from the pontoon, the adults felt we had better not let the side down and joined in too! Earlier in the day we had blown up the paddle boards, and I took one out. Patch was very upset that he had not been invited, and took a running jump off the pontoon and swam out to join me. We have walked miles along coastal paths and have kayaked up the river for a superb lunch, and today we enjoyed lunch at the Yacht club to celebrate 27 years of marriage. Let’s hope that the next twenty seven years are as much fun!