Guernsey challenges...and beauty!
Wallace's Sailing Adventure on "Arbella"
Mike and Vicki Wallace
Sun 29 Apr 2012 21:00
following the text), reaching Guernsey 3 days later. The sail from Alderney
was invigorating, with 30 knot winds (photo #3 and #4 following text, taken
when we did not have waves breaking into the cockpit). Monday, 4/23, late
morning, the Harbor Master came in a dinghy to tell us "you need to move to
Queen Elizabeth II Marina NOW, with the high tide window at noon, since
tonight it will blow 35 knots". The tide here can vary 30 feet, and the
QEII, which is where we were scheduled to stay, can only be entered and
exited twice each day in a window of "high tide +/- 2 hours" in order to
clear the "sill". (Photos #5 and #6 show the other main marina, with its
"sill"). The sills are built so that they effectively create a swimming
pool for the boats once the sill level is reached as the tide falls, so the
boats only experience about 10-15 feet of tide, instead of the full 30 feet.
There are 4 marinas here; 3 have sills, and the 4th called "The Pool" is
where immediate arrivals go, and it experiences the full range of tide. The
QEII sill is just a few boat lengths behind us (Photo #7, taken at
mid-tide). And we are on the wall, with Vicki standing next to our boat,
along with the other larger sailboats (Photo #8 and #9, which shows the 25
knot winds with Vicki's hair). The island has a great and vivid history of
WWII and the German Occupation from 1940 to 1945. All the children were
evacuated to England before the Nazi's arrived; and after D-Day, the allies
ignored it, and the Nazi supply lines were cut-off, so for the last nearly 2
years there were no supplies or food and both the soldiers and the residents
were starving. All the bunkers, block houses, signalling towers and the
like have been retained and form a very poignant reality to the impact of
the war, complimented by the well done museums. The people and the town of
St. Peters Port are great (Photo #10). The town also has several very nice
restaurants and vistas (Photo #11 is from one, with the Castle Cornet dating
back to the 1600's in the background). Before WWII, there is also
interesting history with the Romans, and later the English and French
subsequent to our revolution. So, it is now Sunday night, 4/29, Will has
returned to Newport, and Vicki is in Denver, and I remain (until I leave for
business in London on 5/7). With electronic communications being what they
are, I just finished an iPad Facetime session with Vicki and all the kids
and grandkids in Denver (where it is sunny and warm), so I feel closely
connected. But, perhaps of further interest, everyone in the port is
preparing for another terrible "blow" tonight; we expect winds steady at
35+, with gusts to 49, making it an official Force 10 Storm. Waves on the
other side of the wall are about 7 feet already! I have 8 lines and 6
fenders out, as do the other large sailboats on the wall! As the tide
rises, we become more exposed (we pop up above the wall); high tide and the
storm peak both occur just after midnight. Yet, from Monday night onward,
winds are in the single digits and low teens with sunny skies....Mother
Nature does make sailing interesting!! Mike
