After a day of (electric) car travel, we’re back in Cambridge. I’m sitting in Bould Brother’s coffee shop, waiting to watch the new Superman film on IMAX! There’s a couple of hours to go so I thought I’d spend the time drinking coffee and writing up my thoughts from last week’s Channel Islands sail.
1. Mission accomplished
We booked the trip a while back because we wanted to experience not just the passage across the channel and the islands themselves; but also the planning and thought processes that went into making the passage, Learning the tips and tricks from Hugo that we could have partially received from pilot books, but are much better experienced first-hand.
2. Small islands are great - and one week isn’t enough
It’s no secret the Isle of Wight is where I love spending my time, and I think it’s the fact it has great trails and walks through nature, whilst always being no more than a few miles from the sea, no matter where you are.
Whilst we were in Jersey we got to experience a similar thing by circling the island on e-bikes in a day. It’s a beautiful place, 1/3rd the size of the Isle of Wight but with 2/3rds of the population. It appears to be a thriving island with tourism revenues being boosted by the freedom to encourage its own financial services economy. I’m sure this creates its own downsides and conflicts but it does seem sustainable and a great place to live.
Alderney was a little more wild and rural. With a population of only 2167 (as of 2023) it seems amazing that it can survive economically. I’m glad it is though and although we only had two short stops there, we definitely found the place vibrant, beautiful, and incredibly friendly with locals always happy to volunteer information, or a lift to the top (or bottom) of the steep hill that separates Braye Harbour from the main town of St Anne’s. It’s also a fascinating and spooky place with German bunkers and gun emplacements still visible where they’d have protected the harbour. All built using forced labour from camps on the island. It’s somewhat jarring but an important reminder.
Sark is fascinating but it was a short afternoon-only stop, and I don’t think we had the time to properly get to know the island. It has a fascinating history though and the wikipedia page is very interesting.
One week really isn’t long enough to explore the Channel Islands properly and I look forward to sailing back here on our own boat, spending longer to get a real feel for the unique character of each island.
3. Bigger boats are better
Much as I love our Sadler 26, Lucice, who has carried me 3 times in the Round The Island Race and around the solent, Precision is a much more comfortable boat in stronger winds and bigger waves. Precision is at least a knot faster in all conditions and doesn’t have a noticeable prop walk in reverse which makes for much easier handling despite the extra nearly 3-meters in length. The boat is still also easily set up to single-hand.
In terms of Precision’s size, five is a reasonable number in the cockpit, though four is probably best for comfort, and the same is true below. Compare that to Lucice which really only handles 2 in the cockpit and whose best berth is in the saloon. A great boat for an overnight/weekend and would stretch to a week comfortably but much more than that and you sacrifice too much.
What would I change? I thought the macerating electric head on Lintika (Brady and Blue’s Passport 42) was great, even when it clogs it’s a simple fix. Hugo had to do some work on the hand-pumped head on Precision while we were away too, so it’s swings and roundabouts maintenance-wise in my opinion. I’d also add a water-maker if we were cruising, and davits that could pull up the tender and hold a few kilowatts of solar. Otherwise I think Precision would be a good next boat - but Lintika definitely felt like it was the goldilocks zone at 42ft - another meter in length over Precision. See, bigger is better!
4. Learning is good
I learned a lot this week, much as I did on the trip to Mexico. It’s super refreshing to sail with more experienced sailors over a longer period of time, and much better than any textbook or prepared course - again in my opinion. Things I (re)learned:
- It’s good to sail to somewhere else to get a better angle for a longer trip. This I kind of knew, you sail south to get the trade winds to cross the Atlantic. Up until the discussion on whether to go to Portland or stay further East in Lymington to start the crossing, I hadn’t really thought about this with respect to medium length journeys. Sometimes the best lessons are reminders.
- Sitting on the leeward side to give you a better view of the tell-tales. Again, I know to sail to keep the tell-tales flying horizontally, but I normally sail from the windward side of the boat for best visibility. However, with a crew on board it’s better for the helmsman to steer to keep the wind flowing over the sails and rely on the crew to keep a good lookout.
- I’m still hopeless at finding my way into new harbours. This was especially true of Jersey where I just couldn’t work out how to map the surroundings to, well, the map. I’m going to chalk this up to a lack of experience and just the need to be cautious when approaching more complex areas. I also didn’t use the satellite view which would have been a clearer way to do the mapping I think.
- I should use both charts and satellite views. See 3.
- Tidal races are a thing in the Channel Islands. This would have clearly shown in the pilots guide but it was good to hear Hugo talk about it and how we’d use it to our advantage.
- A hundred other smaller things. The advantage of being on board and watching a more experience sailor is that you can pick up things you aren’t told. A lot of these will be stored at the back of my brain - not retrievable now, but will show up as useful at some other instant.
5. Me time is important
Seven days on board a (relatively) small boat is a tough ask for a misanthrope like myself. It’s important to find time to spend alone or just with Elpie when on this kind of trip. I disappeared for a few old man naps, which obviously helped from a sleep perspective but also provided a bit of downtime from being sociable. I always forget that the cockpit isn’t the only space on the boat during good sailing weather and it’s good to sit up on the foredeck and appreciate the sea and skies. All while looking out for dolphins, of course!
That’s it
That’s all the thoughts I can think at the moment. There may be others but this was another great trip and I highly recommend Salty’s upcoming trips back across the channel and perhaps also Antigua in Jan next year! Get in touch with Hugo and the team*.
Go read the other posts from the trip starting here and read about our Mexico trip as well.
- Not sponsored