British sailors are world renowned for their sailing skills- exploring and taking over the world in the days of sailing ships. My good friend James is from the UK and we had always talked about how sailing in the English Channel was a totally different game. So I was really stoked to have the chance to experience it myself with James and Susanna recently on a charter sail out of Southampton. The boat we chartered from Hamble Point Marina, a Bavaria 36 is a really well designed boat – exactly the same model as my friend David’s in Portugal that we sailed the Algarve on.
Sailing in these latitudes could certainly be a lot colder than I’m used to in Hawaii, but luckily it’s summer so it’s not too cold. The days are long and we’re lucky we have good weather for the 5 days we’re planning to sail. The plan is to charter the boat from Southampton and sail out the Solent, across the English Channel to Guernsey island and back. Guernsey is part of the channel islands of the English Channel, off the coast of France, that have a unique history resulting in their autonomous political status. Honestly, I didn’t know anything about the Channel islands until I got here and making landfall and exploring I learned more.
But first, to sail across the English channel we had to experience what makes British sailors so good… the tides and currents! I’ve studied about sailing in tides and currents but honestly never really had a reason to care too much about them, especially in Hawaii. But in this part of the world if you don’t take into consideration the tides and currents, you’re not going anywhere. James looked into this very carefully and actually had the trip all planned out before we even started, researching the exact time and flow of the tidal current and timing our passages through the Solent, out past the Isle of Wight and into the English Channel so that we were surfing with the tides, not against. Of course on a passage lasting more than a half a day, you’re going to have a counter flow so we have to also set our course so that we’re not losing ground or being pushed off course. All this requires very precise navigation, or a lot of wasted time.
We didn’t waste time at all, sailing quickly across the English Channel at night, we arrived on the other side off the coast of France in time to catch the current past La Hague and Alderney island, past Sark and Herm to Guernsey island. There’s a big harbor with available dock space that we were able to easily get and safely tie up to go out and explore Guernsey. The island is an interesting place that has more historical ties to the UK but became independent at one point when England and France were at war. Guernsey had an interesting experience in WW2 as well, being one of the last places liberated despite being so close to Normandy. The local WW2 museum completely leaves out any mention of the US.
We wanted to stay longer on Guernsey but looking at the tide charts it made sense to cut our visit short and head back across the channel early. This turned out to be a good plan as it gave us an opportunity to stop in Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight. Sailing again across the channel in good wind conditions, mostly at night we sail past the Needles rocks at the tip of the Isle of Wight and into Yarmouth harbor. This historic and picturesque town is amazing. The wonderful thing about the Isle of Wight is that is was mostly spared from bombing in WW2 so a lot of the old historic buildings still stand and are well preserved. There is a rich nautical culture here, the marina is nice and welcoming and it’s a nice place to stop long enough to explore. After safely tying up in the harbor, we took a bus to explore the island, as far as the Needles rocks on land and back to Cowes to check out what James says is the center of UK yachting life. This place gets crazy fun during the race around Isle of Wight that ends in Cowes. Definitely want to come back for that!
After exploring Isle of Wight it’s only about a half day sail from Yarmouth up the Solent back to Southampton, if you time the tides right. Which we did and end up back where we started with another cool sailing adventure down on the books!
