Channe islands

[Guest]

Thinking of making passage to Beaucette (free berthing premier marinas) from Brighton range 150 miles so need to stop maybe IOW. Any advice for first time cruise C.Islands. i:e best cross channel route , things to watch, best pubs . Hoping to go within next 4 weeks subject to weather.

 

[longjohnsilver]

Beaucette a bit ded this time of year, but on second thoughts well away from Depsol, so excellent place to hide out.

Ypu must be desperate to get away, all the forecasts are still foul, presume you don't mind getting stuck there.

Best pubs on Guernsey? There aren't any really, only some that aren't as bad as the rest. Whatever you do, don't drink the beer!!!

 

[tcm]

unfort, beacette bit of dump imho - used to be a field, then a quarry, then later a marina. Still has the field qualities. Odd tax-saving types who find the tax haven , then plonk their boat in wrong marina. Fun entrance tho, aargh. Entrance isn't 24hrs but a few hrs either side of HW, forgotten. Restaurant on site, quite okay, but not a fun place like st peter port . Fields and farms outside marina. Miles more fun in st peter port, rent a car for nearly nothing per day and bumble around.

St peter port lower down more fun, day trip to herm a must (leave boat in spp) and then do take the boat to sark, laid moorings, funny fifties people with more (real) nostalgia than last of summer wine.

 

[tcm]

There's a quite good seafood restaurant just on the quay near the harbourmaster in the visitors marina, the one with the knackered storm gates.

 

[jfm]

The visitor marine in St Peter Port (Victoria?) is the place to go. Access HW /- 2.5 hours ish. Great, surrounded by pubs and restaurants all along the edge, lively

There a a few good websites including one by Guernsey harbour/marina authority, search engine will find, worth a look, have good info on approaches. Easiest with chart in your hand to see detail, and a big plotter to tell you where you are all the time, imho, because can be tricky if you have to keep plotting fixes with pencil

Massive catamaran ferry comes out of St PP with disgusting clouds of exhaust and sinks boats with its wake, allegedly

To state obvious, you absolutely must avoid wind against tide in the race, no ifs or buts on that

 

[hlb]

Yes. been to channel isles a few times. This time of year especialy, take care. St Hellier, or S peters port only safe destination. Leave other ports for quick in and outs on good days. Keep a week or two free for return trip. Avoid the Alderney races. Much better to come further down the south coast and then cross. No charts here so guessing a bit. You really nead to know what your doing around the channel isles. This time of year a bit iffy.

Haydn

 

[rich]

wot appen to the L,,,,beaucette channeLLLLLLL enterence proberly? not bouyed? this time of year not mushroom for mistakes, 2 many rocks... < why not take your own boat to herm & sark> and drink real beer,

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by rich on Thu Feb 7 00:35:43 2002 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[longjohnsilver]

Err..............

Calling Haydn, translation required please, obviously speaks your language ;-))

 

[rich]

Re: Err..............

CHANNEL Err, channeL.

 

[longjohnsilver]

Now I understand!! ;-) NM

.

 

[burgundyben]

Bray Harbour Alderney is very nice IMHO (getting the hang of the jargon now) can be a bit lumpy if wind from NE ish. Good place for short lunch stop or overnight, water taxi ashore and hire a moped to explore, uncontrolled wheelies absolute riot. Also couple of good places to eat. Great stop off point when on the way to Guernsey from ure direction, dont rely on getting fuel at all states of tide, good place to wait for right time slot to go thru race.

Also, just outside St PP, cant remeber the name of the place but rest't called 'Auberge' is aboslutley excellent can get a bus to it from St PP, never go to Guernsey without eating there, have used visitors moorings out on trots rather than marina, always been very good, showers on town qwuay good. As advised elsewhere, beware the big cat and ferries, but IMHO entrance a doddle.

If u dont make channel islands, try St Vaast round the corner from C'bourg just past Barfleur light, lovely place, visit Mr Grosselin to buy vino.

 

[Piers]

Depending on the wind and tide, either route through the Alderney race at slack (get the caculation right), or west of the Casquets (keep some 5 miles west of them).

Then depending upon the time of arrival at Guernsey, the tide may well prohibit entrance over the sill to either Beaucette or St PP, so routing to St PP and holding on the visitors waiting pontoons is far better than waiting outside Beaucette, exposed.

Beaucette's sill can be crossed some extra half hour either side of high water in comparison to Victoria St PP.

Contact at Beaucette is Niall on 07781 102302. Very helpful manager indeed. Take care since the approach channel may well be unmarked at the moment, and the leading marks can be hard to find. Plan your track to pass a cable south of Petite Canupe as you track in on 277 (T).

Dom will know far more than this, as will Niall.

Have a great time - I happen to prefer Beaucette to St PP - quiet, tranquil, good restaurant (Niall will book you a table).

By the way, the 97' Azimut has now gone from Beaucette.

Piers du Pré
MBM Cruising Club enthusiast
www.dupre.co.uk

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

You're very brave to consider a 150nm cross Channel trip at this time of year. Make sure you pick a quiet day and have plenty of spare time to get back. Why do you need to stop at IoW? I'm sure the P35 has a longer range than that
The Alderney Race is not a problem providing you pass thru at slack water. Aim for roughly equidistant between Alderney and Cap de la Hague. Do not get close to Cap dlH 'coz there can be very large waves there at the wrong time
Guernsey will be very quiet at this time of year. Tend to agree with others that St Peter Port will be a better place to be especially if you're stuck waiting for a weather window to return. On the other hand during high summer I would prefer Beaucette 'coz St PP can get very very crowded.
Entrance to Beaucette not easy to spot and fairway buoys are small. Try to approach on morning tide 'coz in afternoon/evening setting sun makes visibility difficult. Marina staff will guide you in on VHF if required. Restaurant at Beaucette serves good seafood but service can be a bit peremptory in usual Brit manner. Otherwise nothing to do at Beaucette. Good idea to hire car (very cheap) and see the island

 

[Guest]

Having run out fuel twice i would prefer to fill up en route 150 gals capacity. Heard alot about Aldernay races are they really something to fear for the first time channel island visit.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

No, the Alderney Race or the other passage around Alderney called the Swinge is not to be feared but you have to understand that the tide can run very hard, upto 10knots or even more through the Race. The sea bottom is also very lumpy which disturbs the sea even more
The standard advice is to pass thru at slack water (look in the almanac) but the conditions you really must avoid are wind against tide. If you cant pass thru at slack water then make sure you have wind with tide even if that means pushing the tide. Obviously, its better to choose a day of neap tides rather than springs
You will find one of the 2 daily slack water times will bring you into Guernsey around high water which means you can go straight into the marina. If you pick the right conditions through the Race you will wonder what the fuss is about

 

[tcm]

agreed alll above. Easy bolthole is Cherbourg, west entrance, if it's not fancied: a northerly will be nice in brighton, mebbe not so nice on N coast france.

 

[hlb]

Mark as you know, I have a P35. Do not risk 150 miles on one tank. It may get there or not. Alderney races are something to fear every time. Ok if weather good and pice the right time but weather forcasts are not perfect, so might change whilst spending 4-5 hours crossing, also your timming may be out by the time you get there. Alderney Races therefore best attacked from port close by. I take the easy route across. West of Guernsey then round the island. mind you from Plymouth it's just as quick. Dont forget, after 5-6 hours plowing across the channel, you could be quite tired so not much fun if you hit fog, rough seas, overfalls and rocks all over the place, in a strange place. Have fun!!

Haydn

 

[tcm]

sounds a good idea - so nip along east to solent, there's whatsit swanick nice and close to the route, then out into channel, with a long time to head fo aldereny or cut back to cherbourg. Forget getting juice 1-3pm french time.

 

[DepSol]

Time for me to step in I think, some good, bad and ugly advice so far.

Yes I think this time of year is not very good for visiting the Channel Islands as

1 Weather is usually crap
2 Nothing much to do here in crap weather unless you are scouting now for a summer trip
3 Herm and Sark mooring bouys are not in place

Where do I start well, Beaucette is ok but alot better in the summer. you will get swells in Victoria Marina at this time of year so the only place to be is just inside against the wall pontoon for comfort.

Restaurants that are good are L'Auberge get a cab buses are crap, La Nautique opp Vic Marina, Berties Landing (not open till Feb14th), Christies in St PP. for Bar food go to the Yacht opp Albert Marina or Cornerstones in St PP or Beaucette Marina Restaurant which is closed now for a feew weeks.

Entrance to Beaucette is unmarked by bouys at mo but still has leading lights / signs for ligning up once past the Canupe, dont gt too close to the canupe or to the platte fougiere lighthouse. LJS is right Beer is crap where ever you go as they dont have the same standards as England but give Patois a try.

Dont take Ferry to Sark or Herm, go on your own boat, get a Pilot book from Marquands opp Victoria Marina or give me a call I'll show you around if it is at the weekend, will need a dinghy for visiting smaller Islands. Also give me a call if you want a hire car I can get you one for £16 a day.

As for getting here stop in Alderney for fuel see Roland @ Mainebrayce for water taxi also, I think the channel number is 84 to call him up or tel.01481 822772. I spoke with Alan Priddy the other week and he said that if you are coming to Guernsey look at the tidal charts and avoid all the tidal overfalls by steering to the west of the casquets, this adds 8 miles to your journey but if you are at speeds over 23knts makes it quicker. If not make sure you enter and exit the swinge at approx half tide. See previous posts by doing a search.

Race and swinge are fine at right tide, like Piers said, but local knowledge is more helpful as there are areas you can cross wind against tide which are quite flat however this takes you near some scary rocks and reefs, send me a PM and I will give you the waypoints for getting through the swinge. You really need a Guernsey tide table as the info in it is very useful, navigation etc. Send me your address on a PM and I will send you one by post, cost you a beer though!

As JFM says avoid race wind x tide safest bet and as I say avoid swinge top an bottom of tides. Alderney is great stop off but most people do not like sleeping on the boat in Braye, Saye is much better but again local knowledge needed. I spend a week in August every year there during Alderney Week, great fireworks and good atmosphere.

As said before Summer is much better but give us a shout anyway and I'll give you a tour.

Dom

PS if you want to extend your fuel range try using SOLTRON. And see me about fuelling up also, dont use fuel from quay in St.PP harbour unless desperate.

 

[Piers]

Mark,

I was in contact with Depsol today, and he says this about Beaucette.

No the bouys aren't down in the entrance to Beaucette. Things are a bit bleak there at the mo and the restaurant is shut.

Piers du Pré
MBM Cruising Club enthusiast
www.dupre.co.uk