Guernsey to St Malo

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haslemere_harry

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Hi all

Just getting round to planning the summer jaunt and am considering a Pompey - Cherbourg - Guernsey - St Malo outward route with a return via Jersey, Alderney and Weymouth.

I reckon I've got the Pompey / Cherbourg / Guernsey legs pretty well under control but just wandered if anyone had any tips regarding Guernsey to St Malo? I'm assuming the need for a southerly set out for the Little Russell and ideally a slack or westerly set past the Minkies but would be interested to learn of any other little pointers / tips / caveats that you've learned from bitter experience!

As always, thanks in advance for any help.

Cheers

Mark
 
haslemere_harry said:
I reckon I've got the Pompey / Cherbourg / Guernsey legs pretty well under control but just wandered if anyone had any tips regarding Guernsey to St Malo? I'm assuming the need for a southerly set out for the Little Russell and ideally a slack or westerly set past the Minkies but would be interested to learn of any other little pointers / tips / caveats that you've learned from bitter experience!
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The Little Russell is not so long - I wouldn't worry about that. If there's a flood tide coming up and little wind, do you have an engine to get you to St Martin's Point?

A westerly set past the Minkies could give you a rough passage through water churned up by them.
 
When you come up from St malo to Jersey it saves a lot of time if you cut up through the middle of the Minkies. Take a course 2 degrees long. and you miss all the rocks.
 
You can fairly easily do Guernsey to St Malo on one tide -especially a spring one. Just look at the tidal stream atlas and work backwards from approximately high water at St Malo. You catch the last of the ebb going down from St Peterport and then the flood down and past the minkies and up to St Malo.

Pencil in the times in your tidal atlas or Reeves Foulkes and your leaving time will all fall into place.

Ignore the comments about going straight through the minkies - although I do tend to cut inside the cardinal marks a bit nowadays. They are set for big ships and there's no dangers to the East of them for a yacht for a while - but check the chart!
 
rich said:
Why!
We all sail up & down the 2degree line, look at your chart.
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Firstly because if the OP is asking about passage planning from Guernsey to St Malo, it implies that he/she is a relative beginner and I don't believe that such a tactic should be suggested to a beginner to passage planning. Secondly, two degrees west takes you to the East of the minkies and going eastabout doesn't use the tides very efficiently. Thirdly, although there is some bouyage near the proposed track, traversing a line of longtitude implies using a plotter or GPS as the primary source of pilotage information and I would not be happy to encourage someone who appears to lack experience to pilot their vessel solely on the plotter in what are potentially challenging pilotage waters.

I humbly suggest that going west round the minkies from Guernsey uses the tide better and is the better option all round for a boat that is planning on a passage speed of five or six knots.

Of course if you have a power boat that is going to make fifteen or twenty knots then disregard the above and we can discuss some if it some more. I still wouldn't be happy at suggesting driving down two degrees if you haven't got a back up plan and some skills to apply it.
 
My advice about the Minkies was for the return from St Malo to Jersey. This route saves quite a bit of time but I agree you need a bit of experience to do it. First time its a little scary.
 
bendyone said:
My advice about the Minkies was for the return from St Malo to Jersey. This route saves quite a bit of time but I agree you need a bit of experience to do it. First time its a little scary.
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Beg your pardon - I was accessing off my phone and didn't read your original post properly! I still think you need a back up plan - which I assume that your agree with by your phrase, 'and have some experience'? Also, what happens if you are sailing and you haven't got a free enough wind to maintain the course? How far from 2 degrees can you be and still be safe? You need quite a bit of pilotage experience and skills to sort things out if the GPS/plotter goes wrong using such a strategy. If you don't have a back up, then as sure as eggs are eggs, you will find yourself needing one sooner or later.
 
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If you are planning to berth in port vauban check the lock opening times. We arrived yesterday at 1400 and sat on a mooring for eight hours before it opened!! Got first night free after complaining though!
 
Fergus said:
If you are planning to berth in port vauban check the lock opening times. We arrived yesterday at 1400 and sat on a mooring for eight hours before it opened!! Got first night free after complaining though!
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The lock opening times are available here. Local times, I assume.

Fergus, it looks like 14:00 (French time?) was HW + 1 1/2 hrs. Not sure whether you knew you had missed the last inward lock opening time. If you did, then you could have gone to the St Servan marina (Bas-Sablons) instead. Not too long a walk into St Malo and quite pleasant (and probably quiter than Port Vauban).

It is possible that you were not aware that the 13:59 lock opening was the last on that tide, however. I notice from my 2009 Reeds Almanac that it believes there is another lock opening at HW + 2 1/2 hrs, but the website suggests that is a fallacy. Mind you, even at HW + 2 1/2 hours you could have still got over the sill into the Bas-Sablons marina and then spent the eight hours in a bar or restaurant rather than swinging to a buoy.

Must have been galling. I bet you could smell the moules and pommes frites from there!
 
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