The Channel Islands

Sark is a pretty island with much less German concrete. It is small, taking only a few hours to walk round. We then sailed over to its even smaller neighbour, Herm.

We have had a problem with our sink on board and, unable to find the blockage in the piping under the sink, I wanted to put the boat on a beach to dry out so I could take apart the fitting that goes through the hull through which the sink drains to see if the blockage was there. We dropped anchor in 2m of water and were high and dry 2 hours later. I dismantled said fitting to find no blockage but there was a mangled seal – oh dear. I had an hour before the water came back in and a fitting that goes right through the hull with a dodgy seal! I put it all back together and hoped. An hour later my workmanship was put to the test. We didn't sink but there was water weeping through the fitting. Humph. I certainly wasn't going to get a seal on Herm and more worryingly probably not on Guernsey on a bank holiday weekend and I was off home on Monday afternoon.

The tide was now in so there was nothing I could do for the time being. We went ashore and walked round the very lovely little island of Herm in just under two hours. On the way back we spotted some strange looking structures on the beach; they turned out to belong to a small oyster farm, the oysters being grown in bags set on steel frames that covered and uncovered with the tide.

We stayed overnight in the anchorage, the next low tide being at 6.30 am- an early start for me! With the bits of fitting in my hand again I swopped a couple of seals round so at least the damaged one was outermost and did my best with a tube of silicone to repair the damaged seal. Put it all back together, put the kettle on and hope.

By 8am were were float and – success!! No leaks; thank goodness for that!

We set off for Guernsey, just a few miles over the water from Herm.

Guernsey is a delightful island. Lots of pretty little lanes, wild flowers and clearly an affluent place – all the tax dodgers I think! There is also still a lot of German concrete here but some how less obtrusive. Nonetheless I am surprised that they haven't got rid of this unpleasant reminder of the occupation.

Sadly the once prolific tomato and flower industry has dies a death. As we cycled round the island we passed countless empty and dilapidated greenhouses.








The largest of the Channel Islands, Guernsey is still not big but has quite a population at 60,000; a circumnavigation on our bikes was only 30 miles.

On Monday we left the boat in St Peter Port, the capital of Guernsey. Melanie and I will be back in about three weeks time to head south to Brittany, down the French coast and on to Northern Spain.