St Peter Port, 15 May 2005
St Peter Port was a great first destination. Apart from the fact that we had to moor outside the marina because we had Giblet on board it was very convenient and there was plenty to do which was just as well since we were weather bound for ten days. We were in good company though – Arcadia, P&O’s largest liner, seemed to be sheltering in the Little Russel Channel too.
We enjoyed several trips to the local library, a couple of times for “Storytime” with other children Poppy’s age. The mums there told us about the park by the sports centre where Poppy impressed us with her rope bridge crossing and bug hunting. There was a soft play area inside and armed with large cups of tea we watched Poppy run, roll, tumble and squeal at the imaginary “monsters” with new toddler friends. Chiara rolled over for the first time on the large soft mats and also went for her first swim at the pool.
Daddy and Poppy were enjoying our dinghy trips ashore but one inconvenience of being in the harbour as opposed to the marina was the lack of electricity and so our new pride and joy – the washing machine was out of action. The launderette facilities at St Peter Port marina are managed by a restaurant there, and so after spending half a day with washing and drying we decided to eat out! Poppy had her very own order and was quite the young lady, enjoying a prawn starter followed by mushroom stroganoff, with apple crumble and ice cream for dessert!
Although we have been to St Peter Port twice before, our new crew members allowed us to see it in a different light. We had been afraid that fond memories may be spoiled by sailing there again but our experience at our first port of call made us feel less apprehensive about stopping at other places we had visited in 2000. We are also now more skilled at hunting out entertainment, and we had a foot tapping good time at an open air jazz concert at the local park, despite being the youngest there!
Poppy was not the only one making new friends. Patrick and Eleni spent one evening with us (the night Liverpool won the Champions League – we still cannot believe it!) and although our paths are unlikely to cross in the near future as we are taking the outside route and they the canals, we may well meet up sometime in the Med. Another couple we were chatting to gave us some tips for entertaining small children while sailing– crab races in the cockpit!
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