Back to the UK

Between St Quay and Portrieux

We spent a week in St Quay-Portrieux which was less appealing than the Calvados ports but still worth a visit. It’s another seaside resort and it was still preparing for high season while we were there so it wasn’t yet too busy.  We walked the coast path in both directions, stocked up on more wine boxes and sampled the local speciality – scallops.

Our plan, once the wind switched round to a better direction was to head back to the UK, anchoring for a night off Guernsey or Sark en route. We had thought of stopping in Alderney for a couple of nights but Sue’s mother’s health was deteriorating so it seemed more sensible to get back to the UK quickly. We set off with a suitable SW/W forecast which turned out to be pretty windless so we motored to Guernsey intending to anchor in Fermain Bay. However,  it was full of local/fishing bouys and the slight SW swell was hooking in, so we headed on up the Little Russel and the passage past Beaucette to look at the north coast. The slight swell was rolling into the bay there even more enthusiastically so we decided to carry straight on overnight. The wind had now picked up enough to be useful so we hoisted the sails and set off on a lovely beam reach in the sunshine.

Given the good weather we opted to go through the Ortac channel with the tide, to avoid either crossing the TSS or taking a detour eastwards up the Swinge.  This turned out to be a mistake. The route started well as we shot past Casquets, but then a line of white water stretched across ahead of us, with no visible means of bypassing it. Shortly we hit the biggest standing waves we’ve ever been through. The bow rose and fell dramatically as we crashed over the waves or slid off the side of them. One broke all over Sue in the cockpit and she was soaked through as the weather was too good to be wearing oillies. The boat speed dropped off so much that we even started the engine to ensure we kept steerage, as the tide sluiced us through.

Portland Marina

Once we’d escaped the maelstrom we dried off, checked everything was still where it was supposed to be, and had a reasonably good sail back through the night. The shipping lanes were very busy so we both stayed on watch to make it easier to dodge the traffic as well as keep an eye on the Mavis (the hydrovane) who is good at steering to the wind but doesn’t understand the concept of collision avoidance. The wind stayed at a reasonable level all night so we sailed all the way to Weymouth Bay where we anchored with some difficulty as the plunging in the Ortac channel had caused the anchor chain to all pile up in a tangle at one end of the locker. After breakfast, sleep, lunch, more sleep, and tea we moved round to Portland harbour to anchor for the night, followed by a further move into Portland Marina after restful day there.