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by Betty Sollof
My first Channel Crossing on a boat smaller than a car ferry! A fleet of five yachts had signed up for this cruise and I was on Summer Song, a Moody 34, skippered and owned by Pam Wyatt. The rest of the crew was made up of Eamon, second in command, then Janny and John Taylor, and myself, the novice, not only to the boat but also to the club.
With only three of us on the boat we set off from Chichester Saturday afternoon and sailed to Lymington, where John and Janny would join us. They had attended a family wedding and despite that they managed to clamber on board at midnight in the dark, with bags, through the main cabin into the forepeak cabin with a minimum of noise and no falling over things.
Early the next morning the whole fleet set off to Cherbourg, past the Needles and out into the Channel. It was a wonderful feeling to actually leave the Solent and go out to sea. We had motored out past the Isle of Wight, but then set the sails and off we went in silence and a lot less jolting about.
The weather in the morning was overcast, but the sun came out in the afternoon, and the winds were good. We arrived in Cherbourg after 12 hours sailing, apparently one of the fastest crossings ever. Our early morning start that day just left us fit to eat our evening meal, have a shower, and go to bed after relaxing for a while. I had managed to contact my sister, who lives not far from Cherbourg, and she came to visit next morning, which was very nice, and she was grateful for being welcomed onto the yacht by Pam. Her partner had never stepped onto a yacht, and he was very impressed by Summer Song.
At lunchtime we left Cherbourg in beautiful sunshine for Guernsey. In England they had heavy rain and horrible weather, here the sea was sparkling. Our first port of call on Guernsey was Beaucette, which is a really beautiful little marina. The entrance to the marina is quite spectacular and makes you wonder if it will be wide enough to get all the way in. It was converted from a quarry in the 1960's when the Royal Engineers blasted a hole from the quarry to the sea, and once you are in there you are all enclosed by steep cliffs, partly overgrown with flowering shrubs. The showers are up a ramp on top of the cliffs with a gorgeous view. It was worth taking a camera to the showers just to take a picture from up there. The weather the next morning was sunny, blue sky, not an awful lot of wind, which meant we had to motor to St Peterport, but it only took an hour and a half. The marina there is right in the town, the main shopping street starts there, with Marks and Spencer just opposite the marina. On Wednesday we had planned to take the ferry boat over to Herm for an outing, but unfortunately it rained and the winds became so strong that the ferry was cancelled for the morning. We all just explored the town. The plan for Thursday had been to sail over to Carteret on the French coast, but this had to be cancelled because Fizzgig had a small problem with their engine and that meant that we couldn't leave the marina all together so we didn't go. We had another good day in St Peterport instead. Eamon and Pam went for a walk, Janny, John and I hired bicycles and had a nice ride all over the countryside. The gardens are really special there.
In the afternoon we sailed back to Cherbourg for an overnight stay and then on Friday morning to St Vaast, just round the corner on the Cherbourg Peninsula. Sailing over there we came across the odd fog patch, but nothing too serious. We all meet up in St Vaast and went out for a cruise dinner. All that time the fog thickened. When we walked back to the marina the fog horn was sounding, and it didn't stop all night. At 6 am the fog horn finally gave up, I could just about see the sun through the hatch - I was still enjoying my comfortable bunk at that time. Janny however was already up and about, trying to find out if the showers and toilets in the Marina building were open. She suddenly came back down, calling scramble, scramble to get us up - we are leaving now. No time for a shower, or even to go to the loo up top. We were casting off and that was that. The skippers had decided that there was a chance that the fog would descend again on Saturday night - which is when we had wanted to sail back, and that it would not be a good idea to wait for that. It was best to sail during the day and arrive in Chichester in the evening.
This is what happened, we sailed back across the Channel in beautiful sunshine, and excellent sailing conditions. It really was a fantastic sail. To cap it all we arrived back in sight of the Isle of Wight when the Round the Island Race was in full swing just going round the southern half of the island. Dozens and dozens of yachts all going the same way, it looked beautiful. Southern England had had a heatwave that day, and we could still feel the heat coming off the land as we approached Chichester Harbour, and smell all the BBQ's from there. We finally arrived back in Chichester Marina at 10 o'clock in the evening. It had been a wonderful day, and it had been a wonderful cruise, a great holiday and a fantastic experience. Thank you for taking me is all I can say.