Ribnet Cruise to Alderney - The Floptilla

[Jizm]

Originally Posted by gotchiguy

DAY 3 – Saturday 24th
After........ an early night.

Sorr that's all I could be bothered to read

[gotchiguy]

Originally Posted by Jizm

Sorr that's all I could be bothered to read

Yes sorry haha I know its long but I think its an entertaining read at least it warrants the attention...I think anyways haha! this one is even longer though i am afraid!

DAY 4 – Sunday 25th
We rose as per usual, with the aim of a run over to Dielette for lunch, however during the night, foul play had been afoot thick fog had rolled rendering the Yacht club pontoon invisible from our mooring and vice versa. The terrace of our hotel which stretched up towards the heavens and rose above the building, afforded us a panoramic view of the entire harbour and beyond. The previous two day upon ascension provided such a view, however all the was on offer today was an ominous wall of white. Undeterred however, (and filled with my favourite breakfast, fried bread ) we made our way over to the Yacht Club, meeting again at the pre-prescribed time of 10:30. As the others slowly joined us, it became clear that for the Channel Islanders this was a common occuracne, and they were therefore hardly fazed at all, even though there was an absence of radar amongst our prospective group. Richard gave me a lift out to Into the Red, and I donned full wets in an attempt to combat the harsh cold and damp that running at over 30knts through cloud can wreak. Once ready, I began to potter in towards the pontoon, expecting to pick up Gotchimum and Gotchidad, waiting expectantly for the ghostly sight of a bright red 7m Vipermax poking out of the gloom! However it was to be the other way round, Keith had kindly picked them up and it was for me to witness a light grey 6.5m Vipermax poking out of the gloom. Visibility at this time was probably at around 50m at this time, but constantly thinning and getting thicker again in turn. Having picked up the parentals, I headed out toward the breakwater at a meandering pace, waiting for Matt to join up with us, and also talking to the people on a Ribcraft that had just come in. As we began to motor out toward the breakwater, we encountered two lonely Ospreys, Jim and Mollers had discovered quite rough seas and so did not fancy 60nm of it in fog and had therefore turned back to port. (We later learnt however that after a quick chat they set out once again and made it home safely and in good time )
Once Matt was ready we slowly nosed out around the end of the breakwater, looking for the others who had informed us via radio that they were stationed just of the end of it. We quickly found them, even though the fog had closed in to circa 25m visibility. We tentatively set off, Keith setting the pace on the far right flank, running a bit ahead of the pack at around 27knts. Matt however soon powered up, even his unusually large compliment of crew and his missing seats not hindering his progress to any degree whatsoever, and he gradually pressed home the power and increased his speed. As we held station out on the far left, our radio which has been a continual nuisance not only throughout this trip but “allieurs”, picked up a mayday from St. Peter Port radio calling for any available vessels to attend to a missing diver not seen for over an hour, obviously due to the thick fog he had been swept by the current too far from his vessel and those on the vessel had not ebnn able to find him. Unable to help however, but mindful of the warning that this story held about the treacherousness of the fog, we pressed on, running up at around 45knts to catch the others who had by now increased their speed up to 35knts, all the craft being of sufficient size to be able to comfortably run at this speed. As we caught up we sighted a large tanker ahead tracking right through where our current course would take us. Soon, the harbour walls of Dielette appeared, running ahead of us, La Frette slowed down slowly, decelerating down to displacement speed in a gradual manner, arriving at the required 5knt speed limit just as the harbour entrance was broached. Entering Dielette was not an entirely simple affair, for technically the port was closed seeing as it was low tide, however thanks to reassurance from Keiths mother, we knew that we could make it in, and so bravely ignored the red lights and made our way into the holding marina, a separate area from the main marina whose water is retained by a sill.
Lunch, despite being tasty, was a decidedly chaotic affair, the hoards of mussels deposited onto the table in their millions being set upon by a ravenous bunch of ribbers keen to out do one another in their numerical consumption figures, the opposite to how they combat one another with fuel economy figures! Still, with full bellies we left the cafe (the only place to each or actually buy anything in the whole town to be honest! No wonder it was packed out with locals!) and headed out to walk out to the other side of the marina and along the breakwater in order to catch a glimpse of what the conditions would be like for our return crossing back to Alderney. A slow pace was assumed, and our group strolled around the perimeter of the marina, as we walked, a forlorn slipway reached out into the sand, the water appearing to have left it in solitude, and a deserted Zodiac stood proud on its trailer, defiantly daring to challenge the water to rise and consume it. Having reached the end of the breakwater, we looked out to sea to be greeted by a reassuring sight, (especially for ourselves and Blue Ray since we would be returning to Alderney, arelativly unknown isle to us both, sans radar nor local knowledge) the sight of a light blue sky, pockmarked with scattered pockets of cloud distributed even across its length and breadths. So to the sea had risen to the occasion, a gently rolling sea of green, not still, but calm and where you to sit and stare at it for a while, undoubtedly an extremely interesting sea to watch. Without any breaking waves, and holding no semblance to a rough sea at all really, you could see for miles, the blue sky reflected in the mixed hues of the green ocean. With such good visibility, we decided to make way back towards the boats, in order to make the most of what could possibly be a slim weather window.
With everything in order on the craft, Trevor had to make an important decision about fuelling requirements, and in the end chose to take on 50 litres so that he wouldn’t need to in Alderney, avoiding the hassle with all the jerrycans and other potentially timewasting things avoidable simply by filling in France. Once we were both ready, we waved goodbye to Keith, Sabrina and Matt, and in company, Blue Ray and Into the Red departed on the return journey to Alderney, La Frette and Martini II leaving for home in Jersey.
An uneventful journey then ensued for us and Blue Ray and we made it back to Alderney in very good time, the conditions slowly getting flatter and flatter, with only a patch of water less than a hundred metres or so in length which constituted anything resembling rough water. It must have been a race formed from the converging waters coming from either side of the island. However we continued on through it, not slowing to less than 30knts since it was for such a short patch. We soon rounded the north east corner of the isle and we’re greeted by the welcoming sight of the breakwater and harbour. Seeing as we were the only two boats left, we decided to moor together on the same buoy to free up the one we had been on previously. However, whilst we had been away something had happened to Blue Ray’s tender which had been left moored happily next to a yacht with which we were sharing the buoy but was now lying half in the water, on eof the chambers had collapsed, and the engine was half submerged upon landing at the jetty and refilling with air, it transpired that there was no leak or obvious clue as what had happened, the only obvious explanation being that someone for some reason had taken it upon themselves to let the chamber down a very strange thing to happen within an island community such as that of Alderney. With help from the Mainbrayce chandlery, the engine was bathed in fresh water and set to work again in no time. The added benefit of being aircooled was that Trevor could start it even whilst it was sat on dry land, a very useful feature.
With the excitement of the dinghy not weighing too heavily on our minds, Richard and I set off to go around the islands on bikes, the Goddards having rented some for the purpose of ferrying themselves and their luggage to and from the campsite to the harbour throughout the trip. We rode along Braye Bay, and essentially followed the course of the railway lines right up to the end where we had been the day before. After an hour or so of looking round the carriages and engines in the sheds, a quick look at the old steam crane that we learnt from Keith used to be used on the track running atop the breakwater when they used to simply dump rocks on either side in an attempt to shore it up, and finally a walk around of the now disused miniature railway, a fairly long loop of foot gauge track and an engine shed which if opened may well hold a hoard of exciting things (the owner having dies a few years ago.) The sun had begun to set as we rode back up towards town, the shimmering rays of the yellow orb beat down upon the crystal blue water, glinting off the railway track as we rode alongside, and blinding us each time a car drove past. We knew that we were to meet at “the Indian”, but which one?! Richard’s apparently faultless sense of direction led us left on the fork where right would have taken us the more obvious way to town, and it wasn’t until I pointed out (by this time we had climbed 300m+ up a steep hill ) that we were back in the fields and must of taken a wrong turning that he conceded that his sense of direction was highly fallible! We rode back down the hill and retraced our step along the parallel road and within 100m we encountered the our two sets of parents just having arrived on foot. As we took our table, Martin and Jack had just finished, the Poppadom monster having consumed three! Mel soon decided to join us, and the 7 of us enjoyed a very nice meal before retiring to the hotel, (and the others to the campsite) without even gracing the threshold of the Divers A not unpleasant, but surprisingly early night was enjoyed by all, as in the previous nights, a fresh prospect hastened the eyes to close, that of spending the following night camping on Sark, a prospect, at least for one of us, to be dreaded

[Channel Ribs]

Can you upload a high-res copy of that one of us all on the pier head in Diellete for me please?

www.alderneymarine.com/floptilla

[gotchiguy]

http://s911.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=DSC00529.jpg

I think that (although it is only displayed at a small size so looks a bit blocky) may well be a high res image. On there is the 300+ photots only preened for the blurry/crap ones. If theres any others on there that you'd like just say and I will give you a high res copy. I will do yours for you though

Edi: I have uploaded the image to your thing, apart from it saying upload successful, nothing has happened?! Maybe you need to authenticate it or something before it appears?

[gotchiguy]

A little more manageable in its size today!

DAY 5 – Monday 26th

After initial enthusiasm for a camping trip to Sark to follow on from the main Alderney floptilla, the momentum gained by the thread on here quickly tailed off, and in the end only two boats, ourselves (Into the Red) and Trevor, Pam and Rick with their Shearwater: Blue Ray. We set off at around 10:30/11 and made steady progress at 25-30knts in fairly heavy conditions towards Guernsey, where we planned to fill up both craft with the cheap fuel. Having both filled up with nearly 200 litres each, we headed off into town and enjoyed a light lunch at a cafe that my father and I have frequented many a time, and is a firm favourite for a bite to eat on Guernsey. With two fully fuelled boats and five fully fuelled crew members, we headed off to complete the final 8 miles of our journey that day. We both had a run through the Gouliot Passage, a gap in the rocks about 50ft wide through which we decided it would be rude not to go at full power through. With free visitors buoys seemingly like gold dust, we were very lucky to find one at La Grève de la Ville Bay, and moored the two boats together. We pumped up our tender which had sat without use on our foredeck throughout the trip, and taking up Blue Ray on her kind offer of an engine, we ferried the crews from both boats over to the beach. After a 200m climb up the near vertical cliff face we arrived on the –relatively- flat land of Sark, a quick walk established the whereabouts of the campsite at La Valette, and then a decision was reached that we should try to organise tractor transport for all our gear seeing as trekking them up the hill we had just climbed was really not on the cards! Trevor and I took Blue Ray round to the Masseline commercial harbour where we unloaded all our gear. Having returned the boat to our mooring, and pottered back round to the commercial harbour; leaving the tender in a space in the racks and the engine alongside; we once again set off to climb the hill, although it wasn’t quite as steep this time since we followed the road up.
Arriving on the flat again, we made our way into the village with the plan of finding somewhere to eat then going back to the campsite before returning later to dine. However, as we walked along we were accosted by Peter, hailing from a balcony who pointed us in the direction of Nat who runs Time & Tide, a restaurant slightly out of the “main” area. With Pete having phoned ahead to warn Nat of our imminent arrival, we were greeted with a preset table. Having established that the entire island closed at 8:30 and the time rapidly approaching quarter to 8, we settled down to a most delicious meal, that consisted, for me at least, Scallops and Claves liver After dinner and a quick walk back to the campsite; we found our luggage deposited at the entrance and proceeded to set up camp, for us, only the second time our new tent had ever been pitched (the first time being a practise in the garden ) and despite me performing the stereotypical tentrollingawayinthewindbeingchasedbyfifteenyearol d ritual, we got the thing pitched and I enjoyed a fantastic night under canvas. Unfortunately not being a seasoned camper like myself, my tent-mate did not enjoy a peaceful night, and nearly ended up aborting to the hotel across the road

[martini]

Originally Posted by BogMonster

Martini doesn't look like a big boat till you see it next to a 7m Vipermax

Does look a big difference in the photo

But the o/a beam on a 7m Vmax is 2.55m and the Arctic is 3.1m, not that much difference. Although tube dia is 460mm against 600mm which prob makes it look a lot bigger

[Mollers]

Originally Posted by martini

Does look a big difference in the photo

But the o/a beam on a 7m Vmax is 2.55m and the Arctic is 3.1m, not that much difference. Although tube dia is 460mm against 600mm which prob makes it look a lot bigger

My 4.7 Vipermax.

It was the 2000kg weight difference that was most noticable. On the way out to the Casquets, I had to be right 'on it' with the VM to keep wth you, whilst you were chatting away and ploughing on regardless with the 'Artic'.

[Erin]

That's just Matt's nonchalance. Watch the video and see how the passengers are holding on for dear life

[Mollers]

Originally Posted by Erin

That's just Matt's nonchalance. Watch the video and see how the passengers are holding on for dear life

I had to be "on it" to avoid the passengers that Matt was losing and not noticing.

[martini]

Originally Posted by erin

that's just matt's nonchalance. Watch the video and see how the passengers are holding on for dear life :d

:d

[gotchiguy]

DAY6 - Tuesday 27th
As we woke early on Tuesday morning, a high pitched noise was perpetually ringing in our eyars. The tent seemed consumed with this ringing noise that prevented either of us from returning to sleep. Poking our heads out the window, the origin of the noise was obvious; overnight thick fog had once again rolled in, and the island was consumed with billowing clouds of white. With the tractor leaving at 9:30, all hands were on deck at 8:24 when the bags began to be packed and the tents came down. Depositing our bags at the collection point, we set off into town. As we passed through, a quick stop at the bank revealed a branch of Natwest that could be anywhere in the UK; a huge glass screen the same paint scheme etc. A slightly pointless waste of money I would have thought A quick trudge down the hill to the harbour cafe ensued, and once breakfasted, the intrepid Trevor sallied forth in the dinghy to go and fetch Blue Ray and put transport all our stuff back to our boat and stow theirs in the cabin. I hopped in with the three Goddards, and we made our way back round to La Grève de la Ville where I stowed our stuff on Into the Red and rowed ashore: the Goddards having been returned custody of their air-cooled museum piece!
After scaling the hill back up to the flat, myself and Gotchidad hired two bikes and rode the way over to Little Sark, across the famous causeway laid by the German POWs, where we lunched in a very nice restaurant whose garden was invested with chickens! They were running around all over the place, it was a wonder that the waiters never tripped over them An return ride was had, the constant complaints from Gotchidad throughout that his gears didn’t work led rise to swapping bikes and me finding that his gears worked pretty much flawlessly – along with the fact that he had a significantly better padded seat . We left Sark as soon as we got back to the boat and, having gone round from the North the day before, continued our circumnavigation and went round from the south, encountering many interesting rock formations which led rise to odd currents and water patterns. After the rapid crossing to Guernsey, we had to wait about two hours to be let into the marina, but once in, we were given a superb position right up on the farthest pontoon, right next to the gangplank, and 15m or so from the main road, so that when we met our friend, we stood and showed him the boat from the main road After an enjoyable dinner at The Auberge, a haunt of ours for many years; we returned to our b&b and enjoyed a markedly more civilised night than the one before

[gotchiguy]

DAY 7 Wednesday 28th
Having breakfasted, and with the incentive of trying not to get stuck in the marina where we too slow, we made our way over to the boat, and exited the marina. A quick stop off at the Boatworks chandlery by the fuel pontoon wasted some time, and gave us a few bits and bobs that we’d like to add to the boat, before we set course for Jersey. An easy crossing was had for the first 15 miles or so, cruising at around 40knts, before a rough patch off the tip of Jersey forced us to slow down to 25, and this continued till we were nestled right in St. Helier bay.
Needing oil –quite desperately to be honest - we stopped in La Colette and got some from the nice man at GT marine. By lucky coincidence (I smell a setup ) Gotchidad caught sight of Keith driving past, and even though we had already arranged to meet for lunch, we firmed our plans, and motored back round to the holding pontoon were they ferried us over to St. Aubins following the old railway line to the Old Courthouse Inn where we had a very nice (if a little chilly and wasp infested ) meal. After running us back to the boat, we waved goodbye to Keith and Sabrina for the final time, and set off for home. Despite experiencing the roughest conditions encountered all trip, I followed the “faster will be better” terminology, and despite the force ¾ conditions, powered on at 35knts, completing the crossing in 1hr7mins, the fastest we have ever done it, averaging out at just over 30knts, a very respectable achievement I feel in those conditions (also for my patience in ignoring the pleass for mercy from my navigator )
All in all we had a spent a very nice week with one and all, met new people, and made rough plans for next year. IN the coming weeks, we hope Keith and Sabrina will make the trip down, maybe Matt would join them too? Looking to next year, Blue Ray and her crew look set for a tour of the northern Brittany coast, and for us, a run up to the Scillies should be on the cards
Many thanks to any of you that bothered to wade through the garbage I’ve written above, and finally, long overdue, a big thank you to everyone who organised the trip and all those who braved it to make the crossing!
Oliver

[Channel Ribs]

Originally Posted by gotchiguy

In the coming weeks, we hope Keith and Sabrina will make the trip down, maybe Matt would join them too?

Me too!

Have you started the thread yet??

[gotchiguy]

Originally Posted by malthouse

Me too!

Have you started the thread yet??

Well your very welcome to if you do decide to, we're here throughout august pretty much expect the bank holiday

I'm sure Keith, Matt or yourself would be better at organising it than us, so I won't start a thread unless no one says anything and the end of the summer begins to close in We can of course advise on campsites/hotels if it turns into a bigger thing though, or if just one of you comes down then you can possibly raft up to us.

I'm sure you could find visitor moorings here in Dinard or if not, across the way in St. Malo, so we look forward to you all visiting in the future

[gotchiguy]

I know it's dredging up an old thread but I don't think it merits its own new thread so here is a little video we took of Martini II on the approach to Alderney for Floptilla 2010 July last year.

[YOUTUBE]SZQb9wCP7AA[/YOUTUBE]

[Channel Ribs]

Cool

I just linked to that from Facebook

[martini]

Look forward to your camera mount

[gotchiguy]

Originally Posted by Channel Ribs

I just linked to that from Facebook

Facebook floptilla page

Originally Posted by martini

Look forward to your camera mount

I agree. Haven't sourced one yet but on GD's radar methinks. Along with finally getting an etec diagnostic cable



P.S. Like the annotations?

[Channel Ribs]

Originally Posted by gotchiguy

Facebook floptilla page

No, mine.

Though ease of use for linking to videos is another reason to start a C.R.F.B.P.

[gotchiguy]

Originally Posted by Channel Ribs

C.R.F.B.P.

Surely you mean a G. O. O. O. A. F. B. F. P. (2011)