Jersey to Sark

Thu 27^th August 2009 Jersey to Sark, 22.5NM

 

HW 10:28(UT) 8.9m   LW 17:07(UT) 3.6m

 

Wind W4, cloudy. Swell – pretty big.

(Yesterday's weather: Force 6+; Tomorrow's forecast: Force 6+)

 

 

At 9am, I left my home mooring in St Aubin's Outer Harbour, Jersey, planning to get to Sark around tea time. I'd done the same passage on an RYA course some  months earlier so had some idea of what lay in store, although on that occasion there hadn't been quite so much swell, as I recall. An hour or so into the trip, still on Jersey's south coast, there was a coastguard warning on the VHF of F6-7 winds in the area 'soon'. I was already a little unnerved by the size of the waves and so turned round and abandoned the trip there and then. It was only another boat querying the forecast a few minutes later that made me realise that 'soon' doesn't mean the same as on land, e.g.”I'll be home soon”, so on we went.

 

There were a few dolphins playing in St Brelade's bay, but they did little to ease my apprehension about the conditions. Little Kamala took it all a lot better than I.

 

Rounding Corbiere Lighthouse bought the wind and waves onto the beam, and the stream behind us. Up sail and north! The swell was still pretty impressive from the cockpit of a little boat, but rolling, not breaking. Not that is, until we got dangerously close to Rigdon Bank. Suddenly, half a mile ahead I saw very large, steep waves with white crests covering a large part of the sea, exactly across our course. Even from that distance it was pretty clear that there was no way through. What would have happened had we carried on I still get shivers thinking about. The pilot book showed a narrow safe passage inshore of the bank, so we headed for this. Even here it was quite unpleasant so I started the motor to get through as quickly as possible.

The passing of Gronez on the North West corner of Jersey saw the sea transformed into a very pleasant place to be and I finally started to enjoy the trip. The weather improved too. All too quickly we reached the approaches to Sark. I gingerly crept through the Goulet passage, past La Maseline harbour and under the Point Robert lighthouse to Greve de la Ville, as it seemed the best place to ride out the impending gale for the next two nights.

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