The Channel Islands
Freespirit
Wed 30 Aug 2006 23:06
 Ben and Milly making themselves
comfortable in Alderney
What a difference the weather makes! We left
Free Spirit a week earlier sitting without a ripple to disturb her on
a visitor's mooring in Braye. My return, with Sally and the
kids, was a little more bouncy. It will remain a mystery to me why Sal thought
the Channel Islands would be a good idea for the family's introduction to life
on board. It is not as though she has fond memories of her last sailing
trip there with me and Angus in my father's Sigma 33! The 32 hours of
miserable sea sickness had somehow been over-written by more distant
memories of childhood holidays in Herm Island and, to her eternal credit,
she wanted the family to be part of the trip. However, 10 minutes after boarding
we were calling the water taxi for a return to dry land. To be fair, the
roll in Braye was nasty (I ruined two mooring lines during the week we spent
there) and it was not the best way to settle down after the 12 seater aircraft
from Southampton. We were rescued by John and Julia Quaile (son
at school with Ben) who have a house on Alderney and very kindly provided a
wonderful fish pie dinner to welcome us to the island on the Friday night. Sleep
came more easily after a couple of bottles of wine but it was an uncomfortable
night and Saturday morning found us early ashore but homeless...the Quailes
saved the day again with a lunchtime BBQ. Ben and I ventured aboard for a
couple of hours but we all ate ashore before following the candle lit procession
to the fireworks which mark the end of Alderney week. The fireworks were
amazing, up close and in the strong wind we were grateful to have the full force
of the island's fire brigade on hand. Another rough night aboard and we
de-camped for a night in a B&B (luxury standard, of course) and a proper
night's sleep on the Sunday.
 Sally and Milly actually smiling en
route to Guernsey!
Finally, on Monday, we left the mooring and had a
wonderful sail to Guernsey with the wind behind the beam and sunshine
overhead. Even Sal enjoyed the sail. St Peter Port visitor's pontoon was
blissfully motionless but very busy. We had three 45 footers rafted off us
and the fenders flattened to bursting point under the weight. A quick
dinner ashore at the local Italian and we were done. The
next morning we decided against leaving for France until the
Wednesday and I foolishly started a "small" repair job replacing a
burnt out main halyard sheeve. After loosening the bolts just enough to
render the fitting useless I realised that the nuts underneath were not welded
to a plate as I had assumed they must be. Access to those nuts was
maddeningly almost impossible. Two phone calls to Sweden Yachts later and
I realised that I had no choice but to remove the lining of the saloon ceiling
and drill an access hole through a boxed section of the cabin lining. Very
disappointed to hear that Sweden yachts changed this arrangement to a threaded
plate from 2004 onwards but Free Spirit was one of the last boats to suffer
from this problem. However, I managed to get at the nuts, remove them
using a taped up spanner and I rushed off to the chandlers to find my
replacement part....no chance. It needed a special order from Harken and
could not be supplied in less than a week. Literally ran back to join
Sally and the kids to catch the 1500 ferry to Herm to relive her
childhood. Spent 2 hours wandering around the island visiting the White
House hotel and Belvoir Bay where the flood of memories brought a tear to
Sally's eye, much to the children's initial consternation and then
amusement. The island is very special, having hardly changed in 30 years
and would be well worth a trip back for a holiday sometime. On our return,
I spent a very frustrating couple of hours trying to get the nuts back on the
old main halyard sheeve (in order to make the deck waterproof again)
and not only failed dismally but lost 2 washers and a nut inside the box as
well. Poor old Free Spirit is beginning to resemble an ironmongers with
all the stainless steel rattling around in inaccessible places. Huge sense
of humour failure from me as I realised that we could not leave for France the
next day with this problem unresolved. We drowned our sorrows at a Thai
restaurant (Milly's choice) and worked out a new plan.
Wednesday early morning saw me at the chandlers
again - new nuts and washers and a fresh approach to the problem. Finally
replaced the saloon cabin ceiling to get back to where we had started prior to
the 6 hours work! Weather forecast was horrible so we got a place in
the QE2 marina organised and left the visitors' pontoons to find a new berth to
leave the boat until the next crew arrives. Very rough outside the harbour so no
regrets about not making the next passage and we filled up with diesel in the
quiet and calm of the QE2 marina. We found a very snug berth tucked under
the enormous harbour wall and out of the wind. After running out of gas
(oops) we went for lunch in our favourite Italian and then set about doing some
laundry and other chores in the pouring rain. Bought new oilies for me,
secured 3 full new gas bottles, bought more kit for the galley and
received medical kits for the Atlantic which had been shipped over from Jersey
overnight. Sally cooked a wonderful dinner while Ben, Milly and I cleaned
the boat and fenders and generally messed around with loads of little jobs that
needed doing. Watched a DVD together and (finally) had a lovely evening
aboard.
Thursday, Sally and the kids went to Herm again
while I bought more provisions for the next week, and did more chores on the
boat. Massive shop in the Guernsey equivalent of Waitrose and somehow the
mountain of bags was swallowed up by the boat's storage. Found two lockers
I had never seen before and managed to hide away a very large quantity of
beer! Another meal on board and another DVD - grateful for the shore power
and new age of technology on yachts.
Friday was another rush to get fresh food onto the
boat in preparation for Sunday's arrival of the new crew and get the boat locked
up for the weekend. Dragged the bags over the quay to the fast cat ferry
from Guernsey to Poole and started the journey back to Seaview for my nephew's
wedding with a very grim lunch on the ferry. All in all, a difficult
week for a family holiday but with Sally's help Free Spirit is now much closer
to being ready, domestically, for longer passages with more crew on board.
And, the children have at least contributed to the overall journey - even
if we did only cover 1% of the total voyage in a
week!
 My replacement!
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