19^th May 2014

49:43.640N 002:11.889W

Cherbourg to Alderney

We departed 0530 from Cherbourg Marina. The sun was already warm and the sea was glistening. We had very little wind again. Our engine started first time and over the next few days we tested it regularly to see if it would again cut out in neutral, fortunately it didn’t let us down again. As we moved into Cherbourg’s outer harbour we were delighted to be greeted by eight dolphins. What sort were they? I’ve discovered that there are 32 or 33 (conflicting searches) different types of dolphin. I think looking at the photos that these were Atlantic Spotted dolphins – what do you think?

The dolphins stayed with us for twenty minutes or so, playing in our bow pressure wave, using it to get a boost of speed which they obviously greatly enjoyed. We watched them race each other, jump out the water and all the while criss-crossing under the front of the yacht. The dolphins were not just entertaining us, a powerful motor launch cruised up and the couple on board proceeded to photo us and the dolphins. I did my best to look handsome on the bows so that I wouldn’t completely ruin their photos – I’m sure I heard, “George Cluney a une barbe?”

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/m8_RHm_w22qKMHCaPwJj1SxGIHO0C0xK_jVk17TtTE4=w288-h162-p-no

We motored on, keen to get to the notorious Alderney Race and use the tides to our advantage. The tide runs through here at about 8knots which would whoosh us down towards Guernsey if we got it wrong! We had read our pilots and looked at websites, which told us that we should attempt to cross the race a slack water. We had checked with Annabel a friend living on Alderney that out timings were right. In the event all went smoothly and we arrived in good time at about 1700 flying our Yellow Q flag to let customs know we needed to check in. We were busy packing up getting ready to go ashore, when the water taxi came up with Annabel waving. She informed us customs had been told we had arrived and as we were friends of Annabel’s we could report in next day – no rush.

We unloaded Daniel’s (my God son) wind generator, he had made this at his school, but it was too big to bring back to Alderney in the 12 seater aeroplane from Southampton. Annabel and I transported this back to her house. Bryony had become quite fond of it as she had shared her cabin with it last night.

We were treated to a delicious bouef burgionon. Annabel told us that Alderney does not have normal hedgehogs but blonde hedgehogs. Amazingly while walking back to the harbour later that night we spotted one.

Tuesday we were treated to a tour of Alderney aboard Annabel’s Alderney Tours bus. In the evening we went to Bumps Bistro where we were met by Annabel and Tim and had delicious fresh lobster and steak.

Wednesday we were met early by Tim Finding, Annabel’s husband and seasoned round the world sailor, who came for a sail down The Swinge with us. We went close in to a small island where puffins were nesting. Tim took us through using the Aries wind vane to steer and dropping anchor in Braye Harbour rather than using a mooring.   

That afternoon was change over, Bryony flew out and Ken flew in. Ken Ideus is joining me for the Pacific leg from Panama through to Australia. Bryony had been great to have along, how would Ken work out? We went to the First and Last restaurant for an evening meal, met the larger than life Rita and braved the wind and lashing rain to get back to Wandering Dream in the dark. Tomorrow would be a sail down to St.Peterport, Guernsey.