From Cherbourg to St Peter Port, Guernsey, 15 May 2005

Three weeks of weather watching climaxed on Sunday 15 May with a forecast for Easterly force 3-4 winds. It was our first chance to escape the clutches of Cherbourg and there was the possibility that after a day in Guernsey the weather may hold long enough to make the next hop to Trebeurden in France on Tuesday.

We made it to St Peter Port as planned and, as predicted, the weather did blow E3-4 once or twice during our voyage. Unfortunately the rest of the time it blew a good force 5, which kicked up a lumpy sea. It also rained, almost continuously.
Poppy and Chiara had a great time, Poppy seemed quite excited, but because of the rain spent most of the trip below with Chiara and Giblet mothering them. Chris too spent most of the trip below, while I remained on watch outside except for one spell below to feed Chiara.

Despite the weather we still enjoyed the tingle of excitement a new landfall makes as Guernsey's Little Russel passage loomed out of the murk and we threaded a route through the rocks and into St Peter Port's very cosy harbour.
With Giblet aboard we are not allowed into the marina, even though she has an EU passport, so we berthed to a pontoon out in the main harbour from where we must dinghy ashore. There is no electricity on the pontoon so our generator is going to get some heavy usage.

After a calm, if cold, night out in the harbour Wednesday dawns with glorious sunny weather, but a trip ashore in the dinghy to the harbour office reveals a dismal weather outlook. A whopping great confused depression is tracking east across the Atlantic and we are to enjoy various weather fronts bringing strong southwesterly winds and more rain. It looks like we face at least a week here where we will have to use the dinghy to get the girls ashore, this will be a good early test of how well we will cope with life aboard as a family of four.