A crossing of two halves
Having wiggled our way out of the marina into a blissfully empty Portland harbour (funnily enough foiling windsurfs like 0400 even less than most yachts) we plotted our course down the edge of Portland and across the Chanel to Alderney.
No dolphins appeared for this passage, which was rather a shame as I’d missed the ones in Poole Bay – my fault for sneaking a quick cat nap according to Mike. It did make up for this with good sailing for the first two thirds, and enough waves off Portland Bill for our crew to really work on their sea legs.
Typically, the wind ran out just as we were about to cross the shipping lanes…oh how predictable! A few zig-zags in our track later to make sure big ships were more than a cable away from us and we made it across into even less wind….
At this point we could see Alderney, though it was a good 3 hours of motoring sideways on the tide to get us there. The early morning was definitely worth it when we picked up one of the last mooring buoys nearest to the quay.
First stop, post dinghy pumping up, a friendly visit from the harbour master and customs forms – the pub! This time with a lovely welcome from Alderney Sailing Club followed by a sunset stroll around the inner harbour.
Exploring Alderney
Mike and our crew had never made it to Alderney before and I’ve never made it past the first ice-cream shop and the beach (the most important things when on shore leave from a sail training boat!), so it was with much interest that we set off to St Anne’s.
First stop, the Museum where we found out lots about Alderney’s history over World War II, shipwrecks of many eras, the Channel Islands Bayeux tapestry and, most surprisingly, Wombles
Venturing back into the great outdoors led us in search of amazing beach views (who needs the Caribbean!) and a fort to explore – Mike did well at finding some underground bunkers to disappear into whereas I was more content taking in all of the gorgeous views.
We felt that after all that walking (and ice-cream and swimming) we should go and meet the locals – best place for this: The Divers Inn. We found a rather striking local who turned out to be rather on the quiet side…though great at starting conversations between everyone else!
Originally we had hoped to push on down to Guernsey but the weather didn’t play ball with our planning – in the end we didn’t mind that at all, as we still felt that there was plenty on Alderney we didn’t manage to see. We will definitely add Alderney to our list of places to visit again 🙂
