There was a queue of sailboats forming already several miles before St Peter Port. It seemed that stories about the town’s marina being fully packed during the high season were true after all. The final half a mile it was like on a busy highway with boats queued up. All skippers behaved very gentlemanly at the harbour breakwater while moving slowly forward with the stop-go style, like in a traffic jam on a motorway. All boats were met by customs agent who presented a welcome package and a customs form to be returned to the boxes available at each pontoon. At the same time he asked about our intentions and whether we wanted to go inside the marina or stay at the tidal pontoon.
We prefered a berth at the inner basin that is accessible only during the high water. It looked like we were not the only one planning to get a berth there. At the waiting pontoon, yachts were waiting for the opening of the sill in rafts which were five deep. In total there were about 40 yachts waiting.
Harbour staff had everything really under control. They had a good knowledge about the boats wanting to go into inner basin and all the yachts at the waiting pontoon were organized according to boat’s lengths. After the sill was opened, each boat got its individual permission to enter the inner basin and was escorted to her reserved berth by a dinghy. Everybody got a good berth and overall the process was really painless. Well done!
St Peter Port harbour is called one of the most charming ones and so the town is itself as well. Guernsey is a well-known international business centre. It was fascinating, how on this hot and beautiful summer day both the businessman in suits and holidaymakers in relaxed shorts were both strolling on the walking street. In British way, everything was in order but well softened by French that was mixed with English here and there.
Guernsey is surprisingly small; its size is only 12×10 kilometres. We took a bus for sightseeing. It is easy because the bus 91 drives clockwise and 92 anticlockwise around the island. The circle lasts about 90 minutes and costs one pound. The pound of Guernsey has a same value as the pound of Great Britain. The bus was full of tourists who only wanted to have a sightseeing tour and only a few travellers stepped out during the drive.
There are quite a few trekking trails on the island. It’ste best to take a bus into a starting point of a trail and after trekking get back by bus as well. We left the bus on Vazon Bay where are a lot of shallow sandy beaches in the northwest coast of Guernsey. It was perfect to have an ice cream in sunshine while watching the surfers in the water. Western winds had created a nice swell during the past few days so surfing schools were very busy with keen students.
The most spectacular coast of Guernsey can be found on the east of the island. There are high cliffs combined with lush green nature and magnificent view to the neighbour islands of Herm and Sark. The sun was shining and we went for sampling some trekking paths there. From St Peter Port we headed south towards the Bay of Fermain and bistro there. The route was perfect with up- and downhills. At times we were almost in pitch black below the trees and then again back in sunshine up on the cliffs. When we finally descended to the restaurant on the beach we were completely exhausted but our spirits were in the sky.
The bay of Fermain also looked like a nice anchorage. To our annoyance the wind have been blowing for several days and even if we were on the lee side of the island there still were some swell on the bay. We had also learned that the best anchorages are around the neighbour island Sark. Unfortunately also there are no bays which are completely sheltered. In any case our imagination works on overtime and for sure we’ll come back here, preferably then the weather will be more favourable.
Next we continued south towards the next bailiwick, the island of Jersey.
Guernsey, the Channel Islands 6.7. – 10.7.