Rained all day so after morning on the boat, Ian led a yomp round Alderney. The island is well fortified, initially by the Romans, then the Victorians and finally the Germans. Went exploring disused German bunker avoiding the dead animals. Marianne wisely went to the museum in St Annes before going to a tea room. We are now enjoying a pint in the sailing club before finding somewhere to have dinner. Just received email to crews on how to change flights to Jersey ...

Awoke at 5am with the wind howling and rain falling. Checked the weather forecasts and decided not to leave here as sea state forecast rough. Going through the Alderney race in a rough sea would be unpleasant at best! So we will be off exploring the sites of Alderney In between the rain showers.

Awoke to loud booming tanoy in Cherbourg marina. This was giving the competitors and spectators the starting instructions for a triathalon. The initial swim was right past our berth in the marina for 300 metres. After we had seen them all back on land we had a fast and lively sail to Alderney from Cherbourg. It was a force 5 with wind over tide causing a lively sea and waves every now and again running down the decks. We were getting over nine knots over the grou...

It feels like déjà vue. Planned to set off for Alderney on the Friday night but weather too bad to leave. Left on Saturday morning at 8am. We wanted to give the round the island race competitors a chance to get clear. The wind was gusty force 6 and we had to tack all the way to the needles. The strong winds were causing carnage to the racers and we have great admiration for the coastguard who were continuously dealing with maydays. We passed some stragglers in...

The plan is to sail to the Channel Islands and then west and south along the Brittany coast, coming back via Flamouth and the Cornish and Devon coasts to Southampton