Jersey to Granville

Poor weather (!) meant that the voyage to Granville was postponed until Thursday morning which meant rising at the unearthly hour of 6am!  The weather, at last, was fair (for that time of the morning) and once past the St Helier harbour approaches hazards we got the sails up and again we were heading to a new destination.

In order to maintain the magical 5 knots, required to get us to Granville whilst the tide was still favourable, we had to keep the motor on, but only at low revs.  With one amazing exception this was a very smooth trip in fantastic weather, the exception being . . . Dolphins!  We had been motor sailing for about two hours, on the lookout for the dreaded lobster pots, which plague the area and provide an ever present threat of ‘prop-wrap’, when Chris exclaimed "Dolphins!!"

There were at least three of them and they played around us for a good ten minutes.  Chris turned off the engine but we didn't see the point of missing out to go below to get the camera.  Shots would have been difficult anyway because we never knew quite when they would surface.  But they were so lovely.  Two swam at the bow and one was playing, rolling over and leaping out alongside.  All too quickly they were gone and we felt like we had been treated to something rather special.

We arrived safely in Granville in time for lunch.  Later we explored the old town, built high on a rock, known as Haute Ville.  Again, the effect of occupation in WW2 was much in evidence, but the beautiful little streets seemed much intact and with limited access to cars you could imagine yourself back a good hundred years or so.

Outside the Haute Ville, Granville seems to be a popular holiday town, supported by a busy fishing industry and commercial port.  We enjoyed our brief stay but the weather was fine and we took the opportunity to head on to St Malo.  The weather was gorgeous, the water was as flat as Chris's singing voice for as far as you could see, and that included into the Bay of Mont-St-Michel where the silhouette of the famous island was clearly visible.