Our cruise started a day late, due to the skipper returning from France late the previous evening; and a man down due to poor David White breaking his knee cap. However, the fab four – Jane Mancini (S), Phil Boden, Martin Nash & Chrissi Taylor – enjoyed a perfect afternoon sail to Yarmouth for our first leg, and we were excited to get going. At this point, I should take a step back in our story as it involves our evening meal. Those of you who have been lucky enough to have sailed with Chrissi will know that her ability onboard extends above and beyond when it comes to victuals. It had come to her attention that cans of casserole might be making an appearance at some point during our week aboard. Appropriate emails were duly dispatched, and that evening we enjoyed a beautifully cooked, home-prepared beef casserole, courtesy of Martin.
Monday 14th depart Yarmouth 05:30. 78nm, arrive Braye 18:30
With good weather ahead of us we eagerly and silently slipped our mooring at Yarmouth with Phil at helm and Chrissi navigating our first leg down the Needles channel on a slack tide and with a calm sea. We had an hourly rotating watch system of nav/helm/2 hours off, which rotated your team crew mate and kept us interested and occupied when on duty. Traffic was quiet and by early afternoon the wind had picked up enough to turn off the engine and with Phil beautifully trimming our sails we enjoyed our journey to the port of Braye, arriving at slack water and in time for dinner onboard.
Tuesday 15th depart Braye 12:10. 28nm, arrive St Peter Port 15:45
One day out of the season the ashore taxi stops at Braye, however the Harbour Master is always obliging and he picked us up at 09:00 for a walk up the hill into town and a delicious breakfast ashore at Jack’s to start our day.
Having sailed with the skipper many times, Chrissi noted a slight air of anxiety hanging over Jane as they slipped the safety of the harbour buoy and headed west down the ‘Swinge’. Waypoints had been set up in advance and ‘don’t stray from the path’ was the order for the first hour of sailing as Jane skipped up and down the companion way looking at the charts; plotter; tidal streams and rocks that resembled dragon’s teeth adorning the west coast of Alderney – this was not only her first time skippering down the Swinge, but her first time down the infamous passage itself, (this information may be news to her crew now!). All went perfectly to plan though – the sun shone accompanied by F4 winds on the beam, and an hour later, once south of the Pierre au Vraic rock, Jane sat back relaxing in the sunshine eating Chrissi’s flapjacks and saying we could ‘play out here under sail’ whilst heading in the general direction of St Peter Port.
Wednesday 16th A sunny day off
Jane likes to add a little extra to a club cruise, and this time it emerged in the form of lunch on Sark and then a chartered boat trip around the island exploring the caves and rocks close (very close) to shore, on a beautifully restored, small, fishing vessel with the very attractive Morgan – well the ladies thought so anyway – at the helm whilst he told local stories to amuse us on the cruise – once again, perhaps don’t ask the ladies onboard to recount any details of his tales, as they may not have been listening to him… The weather was perfect – Morgan didn’t need his jumper and was happy in a t-shirt – and the waters were calm. We ended the day with The Best Salmon Dinner Ever, cooked by Chrissi. We had all visited the fish market in the morning at St Peter Port to help her shop and the fish was beautiful. Supper was followed with a round of delicious cheese and a card game that the skipper won again.
As we all prepared for an early night, Jane had been continuously watching the weather which was well within our capabilities as we buried ourselves in our bunks for a 06:00 departure to Cherbourg. However, at 01:30 she woke, as most skippers do, to check new reports coming in. The predicted F5 with gusts to F6 along with an occasional shower had increased to a constant F7 with gusts to F8 and set in rain. She messaged her snoring crew to say that the departure was cancelled, then went back to sleep, knowing full well that none of them would read it. Sure enough, she was back up at 05:00, dragging them away from the windy pontoons as they headed for the shower block.
Thursday 17th Stormbound in St Peter Port
After a few boat jobs were completed, and the rain stopped, we went in search of entertainment. This took the form of the road train around the town. We quickly realised that we could spot potential watering holes via this mode of transport and once we waved goodbye to the conductor we headed to a sunny balcony overlooking the harbour where we could heckle our crew member Martin, who decided to take the health option for the day and went for a jog along the seafront. The rest of us thought this very odd behaviour and ordered cocktails and wine instead. Martin soon saw sense and joined us as the last rays of sun died along with the winds that had kept us in port.
Friday 18th depart 06:00. 46nm, arrive Cherbourg 14:30
Martin made a beautiful departure out of St Peter Port and the sun crept into the sky to accompany us all day along with F3/F4 wind on our beam and later behind us for a fabulous sail all the way to Cherbourg. We took advantage of our early arrival and went straight to the fuel pontoon before finding a visitors berth and heading to the Harbour reception where passports are no longer shown, only the pre-filled in PAF Formulaire was required.
We took a turn around Cherbourg, which has been transformed from the building site that it was last year, to a beautifully paved City, with busy cafés, fishmongers, fruit stalls and creperies! Then we headed to a great cocktail bar that Chrissi and I had discovered last year – not that she remembered much about it, in-particular its location… but that’s another story. Phil and Martin were suitably impressed with the beverages and tapas and a jolly evening was had by all – until skipper beat everyone at cards again.
Saturday 19th depart Cherbourg 05:30. 90nm, arriving well ahead of schedule into Gosport at 17:30
This time the skipper had the sense to ask her crew to check their phones for early morning cancelled sail messages as the winds looked lively for our cross channel sail home. However, the predicted forecast held and we slipped our berth early and took the opportunity to put two reefs in whilst within the shelter of Cherbourg’s Petite Rade. With a constant F6 behind us all the way home we think we may have set an Eagle cross channel record of 12hrs berth to berth. We had a fabulous sail, with sunshine, jacket potatoes, all the snacks we could eat to clear the cupboards, and dolphins joining us occasionally as well. We were kept amused by a few shipping lane tankers that wanted to play, which is fun when you are creaming along at 8 knots and we came into Gosport on a low tide (for those who don’t know the outside of L pontoon goes down to 2m on a low neaps tide) in time for showers, dinner and another game of cards, that the skipper, very annoyingly now, won.
Sunday 20th depart Portsmouth 09:00, 22nm, have a cracking sail up the Solent to arrive at Universal 13:00
A fabulous cruise was had by all, everyone gained experience and skills, and not a tin of casserole was in sight.