Harriette Shakdown Trip

Hello Shipmates and Landlubbers! Jo, Harriette and I are now safely back in Hayling Island after our shakedown trip to Cherbourg and the Channel Islands. In fact we are nearly ready for our departure for La Coruña in northwest Spain.

Our shakedown trip started on Thursday, 8th June when we joined the Legend Owners Association rally to Cherbourg - Harriette’s first long trip with just Jo and me sailing. 6 yachts set out at 5am but one turned back with sea sickness due to the slightly lumpy water over the rather shallow bottom SE of the Isle of Wight. After that the sea state improved and the wind backed from South to SE where it was nearly on the beam, a comfortable direction for Harriette.We even had to reduce sail to let the others catch up at one time.

Overnight in Cherbourg, then a fast 4-hour journey with several knots of tide helping us round the corner to the marina at the very pleasant, laid-back village of St Vaast.

The rest of the Legends set off for the Solent on Sunday morning, long before we got up. We sailed back to Cherbourg on Monday, where we stayed for a few days, starting to add things like lee cloths to Harriette, in preparation for our Biscay crossing.

Next we went to Alderney, the nearest of the Channel Islands. We had a very pleasant 4-hour sail over from Cherbourg, even having some sunshine. The trip needed some careful planning as there are very strong tides, called the Alderney Race, which could have swept us down south, towards Guernsey and Jersey. So I worked out a course far enough north for the strong tides to help us towards north Alderney, without risk of being swept south. This worked out very well, with no alteration to the planned legs necessary, although we were averaging about 6 knots instead of my planned 5.

Just as we were congratulating ourselves on how well the trip to Alderney was going, with only an hour to go, we noticed with horror that the boat hook, tied to the foredeck, was bent up in the middle at 20 degrees. It was almost broken through in the middle! It must have got caught by the jib sheet, we think. Anyway, I spent the next 40 minutes splinting the boat hook with 2 pieces of wood, electricians tape and string. Braye Harbour does not have pontoons, only buoys, so we needed the boat hook to hook a buoy. When we got into Braye harbour the wind was blowing quite strongly, making it a challenge for me to keep the bow close to one of the many buoys, and even more difficult for Jo to hook the metal loop at the top of a buoy. Jo hooked one after a few attempts but the buoy was too heavy to lift up. As she was trying at arms length to free the boat hook before we drifted too far I shouted "Don't let go of the ..." just as the boat hook went floating away. She had not let go but the plastic handle grip had slid off the end - we still have the grip! Now we had a problem. So we got ready to "lasso" a buoy, another technique that I had learnt on the Coastal Skipper course, but which Jo had never done before. Fortunately the Water Taxi came along at that time and put a couple of our ropes through a buoy so we were saved further embarrassment.

I have now purchased 2 boat hooks and 2 special devices which attach to a broom stick and rather cleverly put a rope through the ring on a buoy, without having to reach the buoy by hand. Alderney is a very small island, and rather charming. It has only one town, about half a mile from the harbour, plus a few houses and hotels near the harbour, and no doubt other houses scattered round the island. On the Sunday we joined a group on a nature ramble!

We sailed over to St Peter Port in Guernsey on Monday afternoon in light winds. There was fog when we set out but we had spoken to the Marina in Guernsey so we knew that there was no fog in Guernsey. As predicted the fog thinned as we made our way south and the sun came out briefly at times.

The first part of the journey involved a mile-wide channel called The Swinge between Alderney and the islet of Burhou. Both coasts are rocky and the chart shows "dangerous overfalls" in The Swinge. Overfalls are areas of disturbed water caused by currents flowing over and round an underwater hill or cliff. The tide was flowing with us at about 4 knots, which is very fast. You don't sense this until you see a fishing buoy being pulled against its mooring line so strongly that it is actually under water and causing a considerable wake. A couple of times we encountered seas like a roller coaster from all directions which caused the bow to buck and dive into the waves, washing the anchors on the prow, then lifting them into the air. We had sails up, otherwise Harriette would have rolled alarmingly from side to side as well. In fact we were sailing when we first encountered these waves but I put the engine on to give us some more steerage way.

Victoria Marina, St Peter Port has a sill to keep the water in the marina at low tide. This can only be crossed for a couple of hours before and after high tide so we had to wait on a pontoon outside the marina, rafted up alongside other boats. As soon as the tide was high enough the Harbour Master dinghies started to marshal us all into the marina, very efficiently. We were one of the largest yachts so had to wait until nearly the last to go in. It's a very relaxing way to travel, sitting in the cockpit in the sun, sipping a beer, chatting to the crew on the next boat, waiting our turn - a far cry from sitting in a traffic jam trying to get home from work. No road rage here! Over the next 2 weeks we rediscovered the shops in St Peter Port and I paid daily visits to the chandlers. Amongst many other things I have bought the paper charts for the Bay of Biscay and La Coruña, and the electronic ones for the Atlantic Coasts of Spain and Portugal and for the Canaries. Also a hand-held VHF radio and cockpit cushions. One evening we went to the theatre to see a very funny play called Cash on Delivery. On the way to the theatre we bumped into another hasher from England, Steve, on his way to watch the England - Rumania match with some Guernsey hashers. We later met Steve and Wendy (Saddlesniffer & Girobonk to hashers) for a meal. We ran with Guernsey Harriettes on the first Wednesday evening - me and 40 girls! The run finished with a swim and jacuzzi in a hotel, then a meal. Then some of us went back with Sue for another jaccusi in her back garden. Very sociable - just me and 5 naked harriettes in a bubbling hot tub drinking beer under the stars! In fact the local hashers were so hospitable that we abandoned our plans to go on to Jersey and stayed for 2 runs with the Guernsey (male) hash and another with the Harriettes (involving a ferry to Herm). Thanks also to Kevin and Val for the run/barbeque with a mixed bunch of Harriettes, Hashers and the local running club. It was there that we played rounders and I put my knee out on the trampoline (to add to the many twists and bruises from the boat). Thanks as well to Sue (le Poidevir?) for inviting us to her birthday barbeque.

One day we sailed to Sark and anchored in a bay while I blew up the dinghy and we rowed ashore for a walk. This was a quadruple first - our first time to Sark, the first time we have anchored in Harriette, the first time we have used the dinghy in earnest and the first time that Jo has rowed it (she rowed back to Harriette). We had the compasses swung in Guernsey and learnt that a portable radio near the fluxgate compass can put it out by 30 degrees! On returning to Victoria Marina we rafted along side Vic and Cherrie Tinley and had a meal out with them in St Peter Port.

We left Guernsey for Cherbourg on 4th July. In Chantereyne Marina we moored alongside David and Shona Irvine’s Milagro. They have an apartment in Tenerife and we will see them when we are in the Canaries in the winter.

And finally we sailed back to Sparkes Marina in Hayling Island overnight on Friday evening, arriving very tired on Saturday morning. Here we have given Opal until Wednesday to sort out the “final” teething troubles, including a leak into the bow area, the radio and the forward holding tank. It is now Friday and the remote control in the cockpit still does not work and the boat has been lifted up out of the water onto a cradle, where Micky will work over the weekend on a second attempt to seal the bow leak. I am finishing this email in our cabin being rocked by the wind ten feet above the concrete. The good news is that the holding tank has been fixed by replacing the macerator pump (or so Opal assure me). Today 2 more lee cloths, a storm jib and Fredricksen ball slides arrived - to make the main sail go up and down easier.