Heading south

dj43

dj43

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Well eleven days before we start our holiday,from Ipswich on the Orwell, Depending on the weather as always, we are going to try and get to the channel Islands, this will be our 1st trip there,and our longest solo one, approx 300 nm,each way,
Any information re places to go, see and and avoid much appreciated, anyone about, or heading that way be good to meet up,hope to spend best part of a month there so plan is to spend some time at each location, rather than keep moving every couple of days, as done in past.
As always boat has been well behaved all year, now seems on intent on giving me a few head aches,seems we shall be travelling with out the assistance of a fully functioning bow thruster,my fault as it never worked very well when we got the boat end last year,
our intended rout is as follows,
Ipswich to Dover,
Dover to Brighton
Brighton to Guernsey/cherbourg
Guernsey to jersey
Jersey to french coast (to be decided)
Well that's the plan anyway.
 
Brighton to guernsey is do able but you may prefer to drop round the solent a small way, Jimmy builder is experienced in that route see if you can get a pm to him. I'm sure he will give a few pointers.
 
dj43 said:
Well eleven days before we start our holiday,from Ipswich on the Orwell, Depending on the weather as always, we are going to try and get to the channel Islands, this will be our 1st trip there,and our longest solo one, approx 300 nm,each way,
Any information re places to go, see and and avoid much appreciated, anyone about, or heading that way be good to meet up,hope to spend best part of a month there so plan is to spend some time at each location, rather than keep moving every couple of days, as done in past.
As always boat has been well behaved all year, now seems on intent on giving me a few head aches,seems we shall be travelling with out the assistance of a fully functioning bow thruster,my fault as it never worked very well when we got the boat end last year,
our intended rout is as follows,
Ipswich to Dover,
Dover to Brighton
Brighton to Guernsey/cherbourg
Guernsey to jersey
Jersey to french coast (to be decided)
Well that's the plan anyway.
Click to expand...
SPP isnt bad place to get stuck, and the fuel is cheap too! St Helier always seems a bit formal to me in contrast.
Its an easy trip straight south from SPP to St Cast.. a crime not to go there,especially if you like eating mussels by the bucket full. West from there, you have the two main rivers for 24 hour access, but Treguier is a damn long way up river and BE WARNED has one seriously fierce tidal flow through the marina, so when HM tells you where to go, believe him ! Trebeurden west again is quite special too. East from St Cast you have St Malo of course. I am a bit mixed on it. Marina doesnt ring my bell, but if you havent been to the old/new town, it is good fun wandering the streets.
Granville is only 15 miles further west, and then you have th choice of heading up the French coast, or going back vis CIs (for fuel if nothing else)
I've mentioned it before, but going west of Casquettes isnt much of a detour in a motor boat, and avoids the race and its required passge timings.
Oh, you have Isle de Chaussey of course off St Malo/Granville which is a bit special.
Obvious, but many of the ports are tidal, so if weaher if iffy, its a juggle of not only when to go, but when you can go. Not much use of the sea is now a mile away!
CIs is a base. You really need to get down to Brittany if you have travelled that far anyway.
Edit. If you dont know the area Poole/Weymouth is simply stunning coastline, and Dartmouth/Salcome are a couple of gems. I mention it because Guernsey is a short hop from there. You risk staying in the UK west country instead, so be warned ;)
 
Last edited:
SolentPhill said:
Brighton to guernsey is do able but you may prefer to drop round the solent a small way, Jimmy builder is experienced in that route see if you can get a pm to him. I'm sure he will give a few pointers.
Click to expand...

Hi Solentphill

That's plan B :) if weather not kind,hopping to come back that way,always up for any local information that will help,does look a better rout from the needles end of I/W.
 
I have just completed this trip, from Essex, and having done it before along the south coast of Britain, I decided to cross the Channel this time at Dover and go along the French Coast. It was much more enjoyable. Places to stop? Take your pick, but these are some of the more obvious: Boulogne, Dieppe, St Valery, Fecamp, Le Havre, Honfleur, Deauville, Dives, Ouistreham, St Vaast, Cherbourg, Alderney.
 
Hi gjgm
Thanks for your comprehensive reply just the sort of information hopping for,looked at going west off the Coquettes, and is still a possibility,but 1st discarded that rout when noted over falls re Croquet SW bank,and having to keep further west.we are hopping to be able to come back via Guernsey and sample some of the west country ,passing through the solent,quite possible that we do this rather than head further south from C/I,We have the option that if we find that its viable to leave our boat rather than return to the east coast then that's another possibility,unfortunately I do not eat any sea food,unlike swmbo :D

merlyn
 
neale said:
I have just completed this trip, from Essex, and having done it before along the south coast of Britain, I decided to cross the Channel this time at Dover and go along the French Coast. It was much more enjoyable. Places to stop? Take your pick, but these are some of the more obvious: Boulogne, Dieppe, St Valery, Fecamp, Le Havre, Honfleur, Deauville, Dives, Ouistreham, St Vaast, Cherbourg, Alderney.
Click to expand...

Hi Neal
As we have not visited many places on the south coast,hopping to check out a few of them,but as we have no fixed plan, if the weather does not play ball we will be looking at alternatives,but not Belgium :D
 
gjgm said:
SPP isnt bad place to get stuck, and the fuel is cheap too! St Helier always seems a bit formal to me in contrast.
Its an easy trip straight south from SPP to St Cast.. a crime not to go there,especially if you like eating mussels by the bucket full. West from there, you have the two main rivers for 24 hour access, but Treguier is a damn long way up river and BE WARNED has one seriously fierce tidal flow through the marina, so when HM tells you where to go, believe him ! Trebeurden west again is quite special too. East from St Cast you have St Malo of course. I am a bit mixed on it. Marina doesnt ring my bell, but if you havent been to the old/new town, it is good fun wandering the streets.
Granville is only 15 miles further west, and then you have th choice of heading up the French coast, or going back vis CIs (for fuel if nothing else)
I've mentioned it before, but going west of Casquettes isnt much of a detour in a motor boat, and avoids the race and its required passge timings.
Oh, you have Isle de Chaussey of course off St Malo/Granville which is a bit special.
Obvious, but many of the ports are tidal, so if weaher if iffy, its a juggle of not only when to go, but when you can go. Not much use of the sea is now a mile away!
CIs is a base. You really need to get down to Brittany if you have travelled that far anyway.
Edit. If you dont know the area Poole/Weymouth is simply stunning coastline, and Dartmouth/Salcome are a couple of gems. I mention it because Guernsey is a short hop from there. You risk staying in the UK west country instead, so be warned ;)
Click to expand...

+1

Good advice from gjgm. If you come from the east across the Channel I'd suggest a stop at Cherbourg. Interesting enough for a night or two, big easy access 24hr marina. No need for any carefully calculated timings to get in and it makes the perfect stepping off point to go around the corner to the CIs.
 
dj43 said:
Hi Solentphill

That's plan B :) if weather not kind,hopping to come back that way,always up for any local information that will help,does look a better rout from the needles end of I/W.
Click to expand...

It's a long way from SPP to Brighton if you do it in a oner, about 140m from memory, and that assumes you're going through the race. We did this a while ago, got the timing of the race wrong and had a rough ride, broke a few things on the boat, including the steering wheel - not helpful when you're being chucked about all over the place.

If I was doing Brighton-SPP I'd route via the Solent, and then head down west of the island, and west of the casquets. (In fact what I'd do is go to Dartmouth, because it's lovely, and then cross to SPP from there, it's only about 70m).

However, in your specific case, I'd probably skip Brighton altogether, and have a leg from Dover to somewhere like Gosport (100m), and then from there to SPP, which is about another 100m. Much easier imho.

Cheers
Jimmy
 
kcrane said:
+1

Good advice from gjgm. If you come from the east across the Channel I'd suggest a stop at Cherbourg. Interesting enough for a night or two, big easy access 24hr marina. No need for any carefully calculated timings to get in and it makes the perfect stepping off point to go around the corner to the CIs.
Click to expand...

Hi
Looking again at our rout ,yes have to agree, as timing arrival at race plus or minus 1hr could be dificult,thanks for posting
 
jimmy_the_builder said:
It's a long way from SPP to Brighton if you do it in a oner, about 140m from memory, and that assumes you're going through the race. We did this a while ago, got the timing of the race wrong and had a rough ride, broke a few things on the boat, including the steering wheel - not helpful when you're being chucked about all over the place.

If I was doing Brighton-SPP I'd route via the Solent, and then head down west of the island, and west of the casquets. (In fact what I'd do is go to Dartmouth, because it's lovely, and then cross to SPP from there, it's only about 70m).

However, in your specific case, I'd probably skip Brighton altogether, and have a leg from Dover to somewhere like Gosport (100m), and then from there to SPP, which is about another 100m. Much easier imho.

Cheers
Jimmy
Click to expand...

Hi Jimmy
Looking as though it's probably ,the better option, ref Brighton swmbo wants to visit , Thinking now is,call in at Solent on way down.,and cross from there,instead of return trip. The original plan was to go straight to channel islands before spring tide thanks for post. Merlyn
 
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