We identified Sunday as a good weather day with the tide right for both leaving Portland and arriving in the channel between Guernsey and Herm.
We left the marina at 0450 and watched the sun come up as we were accelerated down the side of the Isle of Portland. After leaving the Bill, we slowed down in a very calm sea.
At the TSS (Traffic Separation Scheme) we temporarily increased the engine revs to negotiate the shipping. We slowed down in tide-against adjacent to Alderney, but this soon let us go and the breeze increased to allow us to sail for an hour on the approach to the Guernsey-Herm channel.
We arrived at the hopelessly overcrowded and disorganised St Peter Port holding pontoons at 1915 – however as usual the other yachtsmen were helpful and friendly, and the facilities onshore are accessible, so our overnight outside the harbour was comfortable. We were finally tied up inside the Victoria Harbour around lunchtime on Monday, next to a lovely older French couple from Brittany.
26 June 2926
Friday
A cooler day so we ventured up the hill in St Peter Port to visit the 3 towers visible from Castle Cornet yesterday, and the Candie Museum. The garden behind the Victoria Monument (pictured above) has two trophy German WW1 artillery pieces. The art gallery had an excellent exhibition of paintings of the Guernsey landscape.
25 June 2026
Thursday
Castle Cornet has defended St Peter Port since the middle ages with various degrees of success. The French captured it several times, it was besieged in the Civil War (but survived remarkably intact), and was taken over without force by the Germans in WW2.
Molia