A round-the-island tour courtesy of fellow BOC members Peter and Pat Donne Davis completed our week long stay on Jersey. With yet another hot and sunny day on offer we began to wonder if it was always so nice. Stops at Corbiere and Gros Nez as well as the achingly beautiful bays at St Brelade's and Bonne Nuit were rounded off by a splendid lunch at the friendly and welcoming St Helier Yacht Club.

It was still dark as we pulled out of the Elizabeth Marina the following morning, in fact rather darker than we had expected for our 5am departure but following blinking buoys we crept out of the harbour and rounded the rocks of Fort Elizabeth. Incoming ships which wanted the whole channel didn't make the process any easier but gradually dawn came and not too soon as we dodged the fishing marks along Jersey's western passage.

We had expected a northerly going tide for the trip but either our log was wrong or the tide hadn't read the book as we were recording adverse tide for the whole trip. We must have done something right as we arrived at Cap de la Hague at what passes for slack water with only a slight chop to contend with. We knew we would be foul-tided for the remaining leg to Cherbourg and as we rounded the corner we hit a five knot west-going flow. Increasing speed to a good 17 knots we managed to maintain 12 knots over the ground and pulled into Cherbourg's western entrance on schedule.

Although we had planned a lay day in Cherbourg a preliminary look at the weather showed that the following day would be much better for cruising, with strong winds and rain forecast for Friday.

It would be doing Cherbourg a disservice to say there is nothing to do apart from stock up with cheap wine but this does seem to be the favoured pastime of visiting yachtsmen and we were no exception. We made calls at the Normandie Wine Warehouse and the Cave Dubegny before making our final selections which we hoped would last most of the winter.

Cruising Statistics

Distance: 61 nm

Total to date: 1989 nm

Avg Speed: 10 knots

Duration: 6 hours

Diesel: 366 litres

Wind: E/NE 2-4

Mooring: €31

Electricity: Included (16A)

Water: Included

Charts

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