Channel Islands: Alderney Island - Caribbean flair on the English Channel
Christian Tiedt
· 25.12.2024
About an hour before high tide, we leave Victoria Marina via the Sill and thus Guernsey. It feels like the journey is coming to an end, as Alderney is the last of the English Channel Islands. Then it's time to cross the English Channel itself. Tomorrow we will be aiming for the Needles and the Solent, and two days later we want to arrive in Portsmouth, where a new crew will take over the "Rolling Swiss 2". As tough as the weather has been on this trip, it should finally get better.
Lucky with the tides
What we were consistently lucky with, however, were the tide times. The tide was always such that we were able to start our days at sea in a relaxed manner, rather than at night or so late in the afternoon that we would have had nothing left of our destination. We usually set off at around 9 o'clock, sometimes even later. Today it's a quarter past nine, so you can't complain. Nevertheless, the first half hour is choppy because the wind from the south-west is against the current. However, the sea soon calms down and for the first time ever we have something like a relaxed passage.
Alderney has been in sight the entire journey, the distance is barely 15 nautical miles from leaving Little Russel, the passage between Guernsey and Herm, to the entrance to The Swinge, which separates Alderney from the small island of Barhou. Up to this point, we have steered a dead straight NE course, now it runs parallel to the north coast of Alderney, but again through impressive standing waves, even in these conditions.
All about the Gulf of Saint-Malo:
Alderney, our last Channel Island
The long pier of Braye Harbour begins and at its end we round the head of the mighty wall and enter the much calmer bay. Following the advice of an American in Saint Peter Port, we look for a buoy in the shelter of the harbour. breakwaters (it will be number 17) between a Norwegian and a Belgian yacht and wait for the Harbour Master, who soon arrives in his boat to collect the money.
Then the dinghy is launched, as the first large gap in the clouds approaches. Fortunately, there is a proper dinghy dock at the floating jetty, Adventures like on the Îles Chausey so fortunately we will be spared. Above, the cargo pier, a few sun-bleached containers, boys on bicycles, palm trees bending to the wind, even if they are small specimens. The letterbox of the customs. Clearing in according to the trust principle, which is not applicable to us anyway, as Alderney is part of Guernsey in administrative terms - and that's where we've just come from. Nevertheless, even here, with a population of just 2,000, the island maintains its independence.
A bit of the Caribbean at last!
Our little crew of three disperses. I walk past the fort and inner harbour, where a cutter in beehive colours dries up against the high wall, then back and through colourful Braye Street, into the dunes and onto the beach. Sand between your toes at last! The few holidaymakers are lost along the wide crescent, the water in the bay glows turquoise. Alderney already feels much more Caribbean - or at least more southern - than the islands before. What a difference a little sun makes!
The fact that things are more relaxed here anyway is of course not only due to its location on the edge of the Channel, but also to its manageable size: with an area of around eight square kilometres, Alderney is around five kilometres long and half as wide. Most of the space is taken up by nature and the variety of landscapes is enormous, ranging from steep cliffs to gentle beaches. This compact size makes it easy for guests on their own keel to explore the island on foot or by on-board bike and discover the surroundings. You will come across fortifications, from Victorian forts to Atlantic Wall bunkers, small forests and lost white houses - and the tracks of the island railway.
Beach bar on the last evening
After a wonderful hour, my mobile phone rings: the skipper is sitting not far away on the terrace of The Moorings, a beach bar with a view of the beach, and has spotted me. Fifteen minutes later, the crew is reunited and the place is very relaxed: Lounge music, light-coloured furniture, dark beer - Guinness. Our third man asks the barman for the city centre. He just laughs. City? "You can't do better than here," he says. Pretty convincing marketing, we think. And so the plan is set for our last evening on the English Channel Islands, Jersey, Guernsey, Herm and Alderney, once again with a view of the sea. An extraordinary area.
