May 2019 - Alderney

Off to meet up with fellow Jester sailor John Willis, owner of Pippin and to continue my exploration of Victorian and Nazi fortifications covering the south eastern side of the Island. On this trip I walked the eastern half of the south coast.

John, a native of Alderney heading home to Guernsey in his Francis Pilothouse cutter. The picture was later the main picture in John's account of the 2019 Jester Challenge in Yachting monthly.

Longy Bay with Fort Raz top right with France behind.

Fort Hournet Herbe

Alderney lighthouse and on the left "The Odeon", a Nazi lookout bunker.

Fort Les Hommeaux Florains

Aldern's war memorial. With the central plaque for all Foreign Labout
who died in Alderney
"They also Served"

The shipping lanes were rather busy on the way home. Sancerre is the
Blue dot heading north east.

Slide show:

March cruise to Alderney

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. 



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.



Fort Groznez, on the wester edge of the harbour.

Rogue Tourgis

Fort Clonque at the NW corner of the Island.



Clonque on the left, The Qasquets on the horizon centre and Ortc with its
gannet colony on the right.

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.

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:



Alderney September 2018

In terms of enclosed area Braye harbour is one of the largest man made harbours in the world, built to shelter a Navel fleet the breakwater was 5,000 ft long when completed in 1864 but by 1900 2,000 ft had been lost. A planned breakwater running north from the shore to provide protection from the east was never started and the project abandoned as development of modern warships made it unnecessary.



Still busy in September, Sancerre is there! 4th from the right

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 east from the harbour.

Fort Albert on the eastern shore of the harbour.

Alderney has the only railway line in the Channel Islands, Queen Victoria
once road these rails although not in the London underground
coaches now in use.

The harbour from Fort Harbour, Sancerre extreme right.

German strongpoint "Biberkopf" just east of Fort Albert.



The harbour breakwater from Fort Albert, the broken water extending
from the remain structure is caused by the broken remains lost section.
Sancerre on the left.

The NE shore from just east of Fort Albert. Saye Bay to the left, France
in the distance on the right.

Saye Bay with some brave swimmers - the water was cold!
Chateau s L'Etoc Point, centre.

The tide giving sairly symmetrical tracks outbound and return crossing
almost on the rhumb line. It was about 15 hours each way.