Current Position :
49 27 38N
002 31 94W
St Peter Port, Guernsey
The Channel Islands - Leave the UK, stay in Britain!
We left Alderney on Saturday 22nd April, but first I want to write a bit about this truly lovely Island. I have fallen in love with it and to be honest, when this Big Adventure is over, I would consider living here. Alderney measures 3 miles x 1 ½ miles and has a permanent community of approximately 2,400. What amazes me most is that there is no legal requirement to wear a seat belt here. Sure, the speed limit on the island is 35 mph , 15mph in built up areas, but even so, I found that amazing. There is evidence of a Roman Fort built around 300AD. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited Alderney three times to observe the construction of the breakwater (the longest in the UK) and a chain of 18 forts and batteries built to defend Alderney against potential French attacks.
On 23rd June 1940, all but six of the island residents were evacuated , nine days before the German arrival . When the Germans did take the island, they built over 600 bunkers and defences. They also laid 30,0000 mines which were removed before the islanders returned. I could write pages about this wonderful Island and it's history but the best thing you could do is visit. You won't regret it . You can fly into Alderney "international " airport where there is a box of unfinished knitting to keep you occupied in the event of delays getting off again.!!!
So, we left Alderney at 07.40am . With the settled conditions we took the decision to take The Swinge south to Guernsey. The Swinge is the sea area that lies between Alderney and Burhou and has a fearsome reputation and some of the strongest tides you will find on the planet. We had eyeballed it from land and also on our paper charts. It looked a bit scary. (Actually it looked very scary!). For this passage, we had neap tides running at 4 ½ knots but on springs the tide runs through at 7 to 8 knots. The wind was forecast at 10-15 knots from the NE and we hoped for a down wind run on the genoa. What we got was 5 knots - not even enough to put up the cruising chute so we motored and entered St Peter Port at midday and took a berth on the walk ashore pontoon just outside the marina as there was no room in Victoria Marina due to a boat show taking place. There was a big " high five " and a congratulatory snog for achieving some pretty awesome nav and for getting through the Swinge unscathed and we now realise that the places that look daunting aren't always necessarily so.
Access into the marina involves crossing a sill so there are tidal restrictions. The speed with which the tide drops here is staggering and get your timings wrong you are scuppered.

Guernsey is the UK'S answer to Monoco. The tax free capital of the UK . No corporation tax and flat rate income tax is 20%. All the major financial services and banks are here. There is an air of "money" but it is not pretentious. Some seriously gorgeous property and equally as gorgeous cars. It is very, very different to Alderney which surprised me given they are only 20 or so miles apart.
We gave stiletto a hose down and tidied up below decks and then walked into town and visited the supermarket and local butcher. On our return we noticed a very nice motor yacht had moored up next to us. To my absolute delight the owner was Timothy Spall, one of my most favourite actors, and his wife Shane. You may remember him for his roles in Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Secrets and Lies, All or Nothing, The Last Hangman, The King's Speech and Mr Turner. He and Shane also circumnavigated around the UK in their Dutch barge Matilda for a TV documentary. We had a chat, they are doing the same as us and working their way down to the Med, stopping and parking the boat up when he needs to work. A lovely couple, and next morning when we slipped our lines Shane came up from below decks, waved us off, wished us a safe trip and said they would look out for us on their way to the Med.
We wanted to visit Herm, another of the Channel Islands just 3 miles from St Peter Port so good for a day sail. It was another navigational exercise as on the chart it look very daunting. Winding our way through rocks, and even though there is a channel well marked with numbered posts on the bigger rocks it is a bit nerve-wracking. I started to fret a bit when I could see the bottom but reminded myself that this was because the waters are so clear and I have only really been used to the murky waters of the Solent where visibility usually disappears after about 2 feet !! We passed the island called Jethou, 44 acres of privately owned island. It's owner is Sir Peter Ogden, owner of Computacentre, which was one of Andreas ' biggest clients for many years. Clearly he should have charged more for his services!!!! We worked our way through the channel and found a lovely spot to drop the anchor and after some lunch we took the dinghy ashore and had a wander around the island. It measures 1 ½ miles x ½ mile with beautiful soft white sandy beaches and is a haven of calm. There are no cars, and the only hotel on the island does not have phones, TV or clocks in their rooms. Perfect. We met a lovely couple, Ian and Julie, owners of Free Spirit a Bavaria 37 who are also cruising the channel islands and discovered we have an awful lot in common. We hope to be able to share stories over a glass of two should we meet up again. We returned to St Peter Port and the harbour master offered us a berth inside the marina as there was now space and we accepted gladly as this meant we could plug into shore power and have a re- charging blitz on mobile phones, tablets and electric toothbrushes. Next day we took a bus ride all the way around the island that took 1 ½ hours in total and cost just £1 each. Every bus ticket costs just £1 - no matter where you go or the length of the journey. It was a good opportunity to see what the island is like from the interior as opposed to from the sea. There is an amazing German Occupation Museum here, and we spent a riveting couple of hours wandering around. It gave a real insight into life on Guernsey during the occupation , and when the Germans surrendered and then left, they just abandoned everything. Mrs Green, was sentenced to 4 months in prison. Her response to a German Officers " Heil Hitler" was "Heil Churchill". She survived and on her return was known as " Mrs Churchill. Brave lady. There are many harrowing tales. The man who sent a message to the UK via pigeon and was subsequently shot, just one of them. Just before we went in we bumped into Ian and Julie again and spent time chatting - they had just done the bus ride that we had done the day before. . We also did a lovely cliff top walk from St Peter Port to Fermain Bay passing through the most beautiful bluebell wood, and as the path was so close to the cliff edge we looked down on some truly stunning bays and beaches and envisaged Stiletto anchored up in them given the right conditions.
Tomorrow we hope to visit Sark, and then Friday we will head for Jersey.
Song for this post: Money for Nothing by Dire Straits
Thought for this post: How refreshing to visit places where crime is almost unheard of, where people live a calm and peaceful life and smile at each other.
Highlight for this post: The German Occupation Museum. It showed just how much the Channel Islands suffered during the occupation. Very humbling.