Passage ended at Guernsey!
Wallace's Sailing Adventure on "Arbella"
Mike and Vicki Wallace
Sun 22 Apr 2012 13:30
Ipswich, UK to Guernsey, Channel Islands, turned into 3 days!! As sailors
know, the weather dictates your itinerary, not your planned schedule. The
weather ... mainly wind and seas, with current, due to very high tides, and
with 45 deg F...has made the passage very challenging! With a stop in
Brighton, and a stop in Alderney, on the way, we managed to both meet some
great local people, and enjoy some historical sites, while resting the crew.
Typically, we have had 25 knots of wind, gusting to 30, 4-6 foot seas, with
occasional 10 feet, low temperatures, waves breaking the bow and into the
cockpit (and this is a 58 foot boat!). We have been continually in full
foul weather gear with spray hoods. Breaking up the passage made it quite
interesting. We are now in St. Peter Port Marina, on Guernsey, where the
tides are 30 feet...that means the water level changes just under 1 foot per
10 minutes! Today's sail was exhilarating....3 hours....main and staysail
only, no engine...peaking at 15 knots over ground, and boat speed through
the water peaking at 9.2 knots, with 7 knots of current at times, and waves
routinely soaking the helmsman (that was almost exclusively Vicki), heeling
about 30 degrees. We think this 3-day passage may rate as one of the top 5
sailing high adventures we are likely to experience on "Arbella"! Tomorrow,
we will try to post some pictures....we also have some terrific video for
the future. We will try to make this blog interesting as we get more
experience with its features. Mike