Monday 25th March.
An early season shake down cruise to Alderney in lovely weather.
I got caught in some bad overfalls off Dunnose point with >=20 knts of wind against a strong tide - I cut the corner a bit too much with the wind backing.
The mooring was free as the season had not started but showers etc. were closed and the dinghy pontoon was not in position.
The island has been very heavily fortified twice. Once, despite the "Entente Cordiale", in the 1840s, in response to French fortification of its norther ports. The second time by Hitler. on this trip I explored the north shore moving west.
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| Sancerre in the centre, the only visitor. Nice and quite and no mooring fee but on the down side the landing pontoon was yet to be put in the water and the showers etc. were shut |
The island has been very heavily fortified twice. Once, despite the "Entente Cordiale", in the 1840s, in response to French fortification of its norther ports. The second time by Hitler. on this trip I explored the north shore moving west.
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| Fort Groznez, on the wester edge of the harbour. |
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| Rogue Tourgis |
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| Fort Clonque at the NW corner of the Island. |
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| Clonque on the left, The Qasquets on the horizon centre and Ortc with its gannet colony on the right. |
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| Seagulls eying my lunch on a warm sunny day by the harbour. |
Thursday 28th. Alderney to Osborne Bay, IoW.
The wind was very light and variable, changing direction several times and I changed my destination several time and ended up coming in through the Needles and anchoring in Osborn bay at 02:00 on Friday before moving on to Hasler marina at 07:00.
For some practice I used traditional means of navigation including the "Walker" towed Log, but I did keep an eye on the plotter.
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| Homeward bound. Note the Walker log ticking away lower left. |
A total of 241 miles and 32 and a half hours at sea.
Slide show:
