The fleet has completed its penultimate passage and is now in St Peter Port, Guernsey
49° 27.322N 002° 32.060W
We are now in Guernsey, having bid a final farewell to France (for this cruise at least).
The first challenge of the day was to negotiate the lock at Port Vauban in Saint-Malo. As instructed by Neale, the boats all slipped their lines early and were ready and waiting when the first lock of the day opened at 1.43pm.
However, it looked like our carefully laid plans were set to fail when the lock staff ordered our boats to hold back and make way for a huge dredger that seemed to appear out of nowhere. Once the dredger was in the lock our boats began to edge forward and we weren’t sure if we would all fit in. French locks are quite stressful at the best of times so it didn’t help when the lock-keeper started shouting over the tanoy for everyone to hurry up. If the fleet wasn’t panicked already then surely it was now.
Despite the frantic rush we managed to get all the boats through the first lock and we were soon on passage to Guernsey. The sea was a little lumpy to begin with but it soon settled down to provide a relatively smooth ride across.
We now have two rest days in St Peter Port. Tomorrow we have arranged for a series of island hops – Richard will ferry all willing parties over to the nearby island of Herm on board Time Flies, with the first trip setting off at 9.30am. Hopefully the weather will be kind to us and the fleet can make the most of Herm’s tranquil beaches. Please let it be so.
