Tuesday dawned and we headed to Falmouth for an Almanac and bits and pieces before setting sail at 1400 for Guernsey some 120 miles to the South East.
This was not without some trepidation on both our parts - it was the first Channel crossing that we had done double-handed. The forecast for SW 4-5 occasionally 6 added a bit of extra spice, but the skies were clear and we settled into a nice close reach at 7.5 knots in 14 -16 knots of true wind in a relatively calm sea (normal white horses everywhere of course)
Night fell and Anne stood the watch from 2100- 2400 calling me occasionally for the shipping. The star lit night was wonderful, and we saw many shooting stars. I took the next watch from 1230 - 0430 and enjoyed my solo time, only once shining a poweful torch on our sail and then bearing away as a large ship passed on a close course ahead of us. On Anne's next watch the wind died and we motorsailed to arrive at the North of Guernsey before the tide began to ebb south. We sailed down past La Platte to Herm Island at 0830 and took the narrow rocky channel across to Herm, anchoring in brilliant sunshine between Herm and Jethou.
Here we walked round Herm, still rather exhausted and headachey from the long night, but exhilarated to have acheived the crossing. We came across Belvoir Bay and dashed into the clear cool water to swim. This sorted out all tiredness and left us feeling in great shape for the rest of the walk round the island. We retired to Laros and read and snoozed until 5pm when we took another narrow passage through the reefs to St Peter Port where we rafted up for the night.
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