Guernsey Revisited

Its entrance, more like a trapdoor than a harbor mouth, is not wide, only about thirty feet, and it is not deep – in fact to get in you need seven feet of a rising tide – but Beaucette Marina on Guernsey rewards those who dare to enter. 

We arrived at low tide at sunset, so had to wait a couple of hours until the tide came in and gave us the five feet we needed under our keel to get over the rocky entrance. Ricky the admirable harbor manager came out in his dory at dusk and I jumped in and he took me into the harbor  through his “trapdoor” and showed me the slip into which we would park. Then he ferried me back out and left us on the waiting mooring ball as night fell, and fall heavily it did! No light, just a pitch black night!

Out he came again at 9.45pm to tell us “There’s water enough to get your keel over the sill, just follow me in.”  And so we did.  Wow. This was quite tricky anyway, but in blackness and with the light out on the starboard side of the rock face entrance, we held our breath……and then we were in to the marina with its lights, and tied up securely in just a jiffy.

Only the next day did we watch boats entering in broad daylight and then laugh at our insanity!  By all means visit Beaucette Marina in your yacht: but don’t enter at just after low tide on a dark night!

We are thrilled with Beaucette and the welcome and the facilities, and we are happy to be in Guernsey again, with its cosmopolitan St Peter Port and beautiful coastline.  And so we will enjoy this spot before heading East to Normandy.

 Sunrise as we leave the Chichester River at 5:30am

The "Trapdoor" entrance into Beaucette Marina

The old fort at the North East corner of Guernsey

Myron and Julia with JFK: we passed many happy hours with these Limey Sailor friends whom we had met in Cherbourg

 Watch out! Here come the Energizer Bunny Ricky!  Always smiling and keen to help, Ricky makes a mean cup of tea and is the best marina manager we have ever met!

 St Peter Port's inner harbour

Colourful flowers and a pretty girl!......

....who looks happy especially when the food is on its way! 

Beaucette Yacht Harbour from the cliff top: island of Herm in the distance

Top left gives a low tide view of the "trapdoor" entrance, and center right is Adventuress tied alongside the floating pontoon

View from our anchorage behind Herm, staging our departure from The Channel Islands heading to Normandy, France

Best,

John and Nancy

Enjoying Chichester Harbour

The forecast for Friday 19 August showed a large low arriving in England, so we were motivated to leave our marina in Woodbridge and make some progress ahead of it.  

After a good sail on Tuesday 50 miles across the wide mouth of the Thames to Ramsgate, we rested there a day and then motored in light winds all the way to Brighton, which is a very useful but ugly concrete and glass marina. We left there at 5.45 am  and were safely inside Chichester Harbour by noon on Friday.  Up the Chichester river we found a splendid mooring off Itchenor, 50 yards from the floating dinghy dock and 100 yards walk to the Ship Inn.  This hostelry was inviting, cosy, and excellent value, so we gave the cook a holiday and ate dinner there three days in a row.  The harbour master ‘s office was friendly and efficient, and showed us the way to Tim’s Quarterdeck Café, which is a little jewel tucked away somewhat strangely in the yard of Southerly Yachts, which sadly are now out of business.  

On Sunday we enjoyed watching the racing dinghies from Itchenor Sailing Club hold a breezy regatta, and have loved the birds, swans and beautiful marshscapes around us.

While the wind has roared and rain has pelted down, we have had some interludes of mere clouds and even some sunshine.  In other words, we have enjoyed a fairly typical August holiday week in England!

 Leaving Tide Mill Marina, Woodbridge

 One of the black swans came to say goodbye!

 Heading down the Deben River at high tide.  The river partially dries out at low tide

 The beautiful Suffolk countryside along the Deben

 At the mouth of the Deben, Beach Huts are strangely popular!

 John dressed for the 65 degree weather!

 Nancy in the same temp!

 Crossing the Thames.  There are many hundreds of windmills!

 A view from our Thai restaurant of the Ramsgate Harbour

Ramsgate is a man made harbour built out from the cliffs in the 1700s and 1800s

 Leaving Ramsgate

 The beautiful white cliffs of Dover on the way to Brighton Marina

 Leaving Brighton Marina at 5:45am

 Itchenor..a dingy sailors' paradise

 A great pub with outstanding food!

On the Mooring at Itchenor

Best,

John and Nancy 

At Last Back in the UK For Our Summer Sail

What do mice and men do?

They make plans. Best laid plans.  Then, if we are smart mice, we expect our plans to change. So smart mice “expect the unexpected”. These words are part of the drill when you come aboard Adventuress for the first time: and this aphorism is often borne out by events.

So we certainly got a large dose of unexpected when in late May, four days before we were due to fly to England, Nancy was diagnosed with breast cancer. All was cloudy and uncertain for a few weeks, but then we got lucky as we learned first that Nancy had the "best" type of cancer, then that the treatment was successful, and that she would be signed off and back to virtually normal by mid August. And so now we are finally here in Woodbridge England together on the boat, on August 14, and getting ready for an abbreviated one month sail to the Channel Islands, and possibly to the Isles of Scilly.

We will leave our marina tomorrow with big smiles on our faces and joy in our hearts as recent experience has renewed our appreciation for the happiness we have. 

Here are some photos taken when Nancy arrived in London and on a visit to Dad on our way to Adventuress:

At Roger's pad in London, off to the..............

........The Phantom!  Running for 25 years at Her Majesty's Theatre, Haymarket: a special occasion to share as Nancy's birthday treat. We had both seen the Phantom twice before, but this was a first for both of us, to see it in its original theatre in London.

 Another revisit, this time to Abington Church where we were married on "countdown day": 12/11/10.  Mum and Dad Knight were married here on July 1 1944 when Dad was granted a 48 hour leave from the RAF to get married! John's sister Jenny, and then John were also baptized here: the Church is over 800 years old.

We enjoyed traditional Sunday Lunch with Dad in Northamptonshire, at Dad's favourite haunt, the Saracen's Head in Little Brington, in the heart of the Spencer Estate, ancestral home of Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales. We had carved roast meats, Yorkshire Pudding, and roasted vegetables, of course! Dad celebrated his ninety first birthday on May 1st.

And finally the Admiral is aboard.  Do you think she is happy?

John and Nancy 

Tide Mill Marina, Woodbridge, Suffolk, England.

Return to Holland and a Canal Cruise

From the ugly look of the weather we certainly made the correct decision to take the inland route from Lauwersoog to Harlingen. Six weeks earlier our new Dutch friends Ad and Werner had mentioned something about this “Upmast” route through the top of Holland, and John thought he remembered them saying that they lived there somewhere. So we called them and made rendezvous for dinner in Leeuwarden, where Werner keeps his office.  Off we set on a damp grey morning for a cruise through the Friesian country side, through Dokkum and to Leeuwarden, where we found a spot to tie up in the city at the park marina.

 

On the way to Leeuwarden

 

 

Sheep gather along the canal to greet us

 

 

Parked in the Park!

 

Leeuwarden is a beautiful, interesting and clean city.  We were charmed by the canals, its varied old architecture and the friendliness of its citizens. At the Walrus restaurant with Ad and Werner we had entertaining conversations – they, like all Dutch, speak excellent English - and the dinner was outstanding.

 

Flowered Bridges

 

 

 Ad and Werner

We had been through a half dozen lifting bridges to get to Leeuwarden: now we set off for Harlingen, the port on the Waddenzee. The monotony of another bleak day motoring along the canal/river was broken up by many lifting bridges.

 

Art under the bridge

 

 

Hope it stays up!

 

While waiting for the penultimate bridge to open, we took the opportunity to chat with Axel and Marion on Rascal, the sailboat ahead of us, and asked them where they were going to stop in Harlingen: they told us to go through the lock into the Waddenzee, then make a sharp U turn to port and go into the town dock: “No problem,” they said: “We are going there so just follow us.”  And so we did. And what luck! The Noorderpoort harbour in Harlingen is a canal running through the old wide city street lined with Fifteenth and Sixteenth century buildings – old trading “warehouses”.  Once again we had an unexpected treat, tying up to the side of the canal among the old Dutch barges and the new modern yachts. Then we discovered that yet again we had arrived in a charming small city when they were having their annual festival!  We were fascinated by over 100 sailing barges of all sizes that were moored in the canals.  Entertainment, interesting food and friendly people made this three day festival a fun experience for us. 

 Noorderpoort Harbour in Harlingen

 

 

 

We dined at Restaurant Noorderpoort..just across the canal...outstanding!

 

 

 

South Harbour

 

 

 

Eels fresh from the smoker!

 

 

 One of the many classic old houses

 

 

 The "old" yacht is actually brand new

 

 

 Fishing boats dressed for the festival

 

 

 A dozen buggies compete to spear the rings!

 

 

 Hordes enjoying the festival

 

 

 This lion is guarding the lock gates

 

 

 Hundreds of sailing barges

 

 

 Quaint bridges cross the canal

 

 

The Friday evening crowd arrives...note the cream colored yacht in the distance

...another Island Packet 420 like Adventuress

After enjoying Harlingen (even though the skies were mainly overcast with some rain), we sailed across the Waddenzee to Den Helder, which is located next to the North Sea, a perfect take off spot to cross to England.  Den Helder is the home of the Dutch Navy and we stayed in the Navy marina which has superb facilities.  To our delight we were invited by a Dutch neighbor, Hubert, a retired officer, to dine with him and his partner at the officers’ club.  And again everything at the club was first class.

 A very nice marina at the naval base

 

 



A few Dutch Navy boats

 

Thank you Netherlands! You received us with open, friendly hospitality.  We loved your sailing culture and your orientation towards the sea.  We loved the food, the clean, beautiful towns and cities, and we will definitely return.

On Sunday/Monday we crossed the North Sea 136nm from Den Helder to the Deben River. We had a lumpy seaway when the North wind was opposing the North flowing ebb; but we were able to sail most of the way. We timed our arrival just right, one hour before high water. We are now anchored in the Deben River, awaiting high tide at Woodbridge, three miles north of us, so that we can enter Tide Mill Marina and start the process of putting Adventuress to bed for the winter.

It has been a fantastic adventure this summer.  We fly home to the USA to Florida for the winter and will return to England and Adventuress next May.

Our very best to you,

John and Nancy