Sunday 1 July 2018

2018 Summer Cruise days 15 to 18

Back to the future...

It turned out to be a cunning move to get into St Peter Port on Thursday. It seemed like every boat for a hundred miles around wanted to get in here on Friday!

The weather wasn't bad as such. It was still very sunny and hot. But the breeze was strong enough to make life at anchor somewhat uncomfortable and, like us, a good many crews had decided to head for shelter.

Our bone idleness continued through the weekend although we did manage to invigorate ourselves enough for a proper look around St Peter Port yesterday followed by an excellent Thai meal with live music (to listen to, not eat!)

With thunderstorms forecast for today we decided on a fourth day in port. We had rain this morning but no storm.

Once the rain stopped, we shopped for ships stores, blew up the dinghy and made plans for the coming week.

We'd already decided to scrap the original tentative plan of visiting St Malo in France. With that decision made, we'd further reconsidered the planned crew change in Jersey next Sunday.

Given how busy the weekends have been in St Peter Port, and taking advice that St Helier in Jersey is often packed to capacity in the summer at weekends, we'd have to be there by Thursday to be sure of getting a berth.

And we felt we had a lot of unfinished business in and around Guernsey!

We frustrated ourselves through poor planning and inexperience last week and the whole crew felt very inclined to have another crack at a couple of days in Sark, with a possible side order of Herm before finishing up in Beaucettte for the final weekend.

That meant discussing onward travel arrangements with the incoming crew and rearranging the outgoing flights. This was all accomplished via a Messenger chat and five minutes on the airlines website (and an extra £26)

So although there is a 50% chance of thunderstorms in the morning, we're planning on making our escape shortly after half past seven local time and heading for one of the South coast bays on Sark.

We'll check the weather radar before leaving of course and try and avoid any nastiness (nothing dire is forecast). We may get a bit soggy but we shouldn't get a battering.

If we can't get in or don't like either of the options (Dixcart Bay and Derrible Bay) we'll head back round to Havre Gosselin or La Grande Greve.

If all goes to plan, we'll have a good run ashore on Tuesday with the option to stay on Wednesday. Then we'll either try Herm again or go direct to Beaucettte. If all else fails we'll come back in to St Peter Port

Dinner on board tonight and probably beer on board too. We need to be up and about by no later than 7am and ready to go as soon as there's enough water over the cill and the weather offers a suitable window.

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