Channel Islands Sailing Guide: Navigating the Channel Tides

Clive Loughlin, his daughter Jess, and friend Keith put a Channel Island passage plan to the test. Here is what worked, and what didn’t…

In a previous article ‘Channel Island Tidal Tactics’ (ST May 2024) I worked through a possible passage plan for a sailing boat leaving Swanage on 20 July and heading off for an adventurous holiday in the Channel Islands.

For this article I set off with my friend Keith and his daughter Jess, in a Sigma 362 Fast Escape, to find out how the passage plan would work in practice. We aimed to stick to the plan as much as possible, but were prepared to deviate if better ideas presented themselves.

This is a story about what worked and what didn’t, improvements made, and lessons learned for next time.

All times are in BST, and tides are referenced to Dover.

Swanage to Braye

A key part of the original passage plan was to start on a mooring buoy in Swanage. Partly because this gives one of the shortest crossings on offer at ‘just’ 54nm, and also because setting off from a mooring buoy is so much quicker and easier than from a marina pontoon.

Fast Escape is berthed in Ocean Village Marina in Southampton, and our plan was to get to the boat early in the day on Friday 19 July, and catch the first of the ebb tide to speed our passage west, with a brief stop in Yarmouth to top up with fuel.

Swanage is a delightful town with a restored Victorian pier and a water taxi/harbourmaster on duty to advise us which buoy to pick up (Swanage Sailing Club) and a phone number to call for payment details.

The passage plan called for an early morning departure from Swanage, to hopefully ensure arrival at local slack-water Braye. At this time the tide in the Channel had just started to flood and we headed due south with an expected passage time of 10 hours.

We were just about to enter the west-going shipping lane when we had my best-ever sighting of a pod of 20-30 dolphins, some of which were huge. They showed little interest in us, and were soon out of sight and heading for Dover.

An intrinsic part of the passage plan was to deliberately head a few miles east of Alderney and use the then west-going tidal stream to carry us towards Braye Harbour. The alternative of aiming directly for Braye would have risked either being swept straight past, or facing a painfully slow slog against the stream. 

We duly arrived about a mile east of Alderney with the Quénard Point Lt Ho straight ahead. I realised that I had not sufficiently considered that the west-going tidal stream splits in two at this point, with about half continuing west past Alderney, while the rest heads south, and with considerable enthusiasm, into the Alderney Race.

Had we switched off the engine and just drifted at this point, I think the odds were that we would have been carried into the Race, which was now wind-against-tide, and ended up in Guernsey.

To avoid this unhappy ending, we were obliged to head north-west and actually away from Alderney until we were very confident the danger had passed.

The approach to Braye harbour is very straightforward in good visibility and Jess readily identified the cone-shaped leading marks, and we headed into harbour on 215º, picking up a visitor buoy close to the breakwater. The wind was now a light northwest and the harbour was the most peaceful I have known it.

The friendly water taxi runs until midnight, and we were soon in the vaults of the Braye Beach Hotel enjoying a well earned dinner.

Jersey bound

Our departure from Braye was dictated by the tidal stream in the Swinge and we had planed to go through just as the ebb started to head southwest. The strong westerly wind and remnants of a storm in the Atlantic, made for boisterous conditions, and we were soon pulling the main hatch closed.

To be honest I am not sure if we were too early or too late, or if we had the timing about right; but we had a rough ride for about 40 minutes and were glad when we cleared the Swinge and everything quietened down for our sail south to the western end of Jersey.

Although navigation to St Helier is relatively straightforward, with Elizabeth Castle an obvious landmark, I was somewhat challenged to find the entrance to St Helier Marina itself. On arrival you are faced with a tall harbour wall with various gaps in it. We followed another boat hoping it had a-priori knowledge, and all soon became clear.

In my original article I had suggested that we would overnight on the holding pontoon that is to port as you approach. This was primarily to be outside the sill that limits access to three hours either side of HW. The primary downside to this however, is that there is then a quite long walk around the harbour to the harbour office and facilities.

After checking tidal heights I knew that we would be OK to enter and leave when we wanted to, and so had decided that instead we would enter the marina on arrival. We arrived just as the sill was opening and found about five boats circling in the outer harbour, and about 10 already tied up four-deep on the holding pontoon.

We joined the queue and held station for about 45 minutes until the hard-working berthing masters indicated we could proceed, by which time most boats had vacated the holding pontoon. Fearing a scrummage within the marina, we decided to revert to plan A and tied up outside Sea Essay on the holding pontoon.

St Helier was buzzing with cosmopolitan energy, and we dined exceptionally well, overlooking the marina as sunset approached, under the awnings of the Quayside Bistro and Grill.

St Helier to Sark

Our destination for the following day was La Grève de la Ville at the north east of Sark. The shortest route (25nm) from St Helier goes west leaving St Helier at HW-4000 but we were set on a circumnavigation (35nm) and left three hours earlier (HW +0600) to ride the stream that would go anticlockwise around the island. With the westerly wind this also meant we could easily sail the whole way. 

The visible size of Jersey changes dramatically with the tide, and eye-ball navigation simply does not cut it in this area. Nowhere is this more apparent than Violet Bank which extends two miles from the Jersey shore and is visible at low water. We cut no corners, and took the Violet Channel.

Sea Essay was planning to leave an hour after us, but took the shorter route and were already on a buoy in La Greve de la Ville when we arrived – but we had chalked up another circumnavigation and the satisfaction of a route less travelled.

La Grève de la Ville is served by eight visitor mooring buoys as well as a few that are privately owned by local fishermen. Apart from these, the bay is as nature intended, without any landing stages and just a beach of rocks and pebbles to land on. 

Our trip ashore in the dinghy was not without its incidents – and a freak wave hit us just as we grounded on the shore. Fortunately Keith and Jess shielded me from the intruder, and I stepped ashore completely dry. 

We then carried the dinghy up some precarious steps to above the high water mark, before setting off to climb the winding path to the top of the cliff.

Once at the top we had gentler walks into the village and then on to Little Sark via the picturesque and impressive La Coupée.

I later discovered there is a water taxi service (Ch10) that collects people from their boats in La Grève de la Ville and takes them to La Maseline Harbour. This sounds like a far more civilised way of getting ashore, and is certainly what I will do next time.

We loved Sark, and the feeling that it was a real working community and not a Disney-style creation. It was an absolute delight to stroll the country lanes and wonder at the deliciously slow pace of life that was evident in the faces of those lucky enough to live there. 

Sark is famous for not having any cars, but if you have an urge to get run over, there are numerous busy tractors on hand to oblige.

Planning for no plan

When planning a sailing holiday there are a lot of variables to be considered, but the dates for the start and finish are usually quite tightly defined. The middle days of a holiday can, and should, be flexible to allow for new opportunities and the vagaries of the weather.

Keith and I have been to the Channel Islands many times, but have previously ended up in familiar places, perhaps avoiding destinations that I, rightly or wrongly, considered a bit too challenging. 

For this holiday, we set out from the start to make it adventurous and to boldly go where previously we had feared to tread.

Herm

In a change to the original plan, we decided that Herm should be our main destination for the following day, and set off to make the short 5nm crossing, taking the Percée Passage between Jethou and Herm, before heading for the anchorage by the Rosière Steps. 

I had previously studied the pilot guides for Herm and decided that the various passages looked a bit tricky. They certainly need to be taken with care, and with a close eye on the chartplotter and compass to allow for the cross-track tidal streams; but in the mild weather we had at the time they were no problem at all.

There are no visitor buoys in the anchorage, but holding seemed good, and it was well protected by the shallows/land on three sides.

We made for the Rosière Steps and carried the dinghy up to one of the higher platforms, and out of the way of the St Peter Port ferry passengers. 

Herm was lovely, and we followed the coastal path clockwise round the island passing the White House Hotel and the small and dried out Herm Harbour, and made our way to Shell Beach. This beach is one of the best in the Channel Islands and is made up from billions of tiny shell fragments.

After a refreshing swim, and tea and cake at the beach cafe, we continued on the coastal path and back to Rosière Steps. Relieved to find that Fast Escape was where we had left her.

Whereas Sark had captivated us as a place to live, Herm was more a place to go on holiday. I can well understand why so many people take the day-tripper ferry there from St Peter Port.

Quarry berth

Our destination for the evening was Beaucette Marina on Guernsey, and we had phoned ahead to reserve a berth. Beaucette is an interesting harbour in that it started life as a granite quarry and then, once the stone was no longer required, the decision was made in 1968 to ask the Royal Engineers to blast a 8m wide channel about 50m long to the open sea and let the water flood in. 

There is a natural sill at the entrance that limits access to 3 hrs either side of HW and the channel is quite narrow with a sharp turn to port on the approach that conceals the boats in the marina until you are well inside.

Motoring in while heading for a stone wall, and with the sun in your eyes, is enough to challenge the nerve of many a sailor. Fortunately Keith was well up to the task, and we were soon inside and being guided to our berth for the night. You will not find better shelter than in the base of a quarry with no tidal flow to talk of, and the wind passing unhindered overhead.

We wandered ashore to explore the marina and found ourselves outside the Saltwater Restaurant where Keith bought me an excellent margarita cocktail, having lost a bet in a nautical quiz. The restaurant was busy and buzzing with some eccentric guests, but we returned to Fast Escape for a cozy evening on-board.

Back to Braye

It was time to start heading home, and so on the Wednesday morning we topped up our fuel and water within Beaucette, and then headed off for the Alderney Race and Braye, with 10kt westerly wind to help us on our way.

The Tidal Stream Atlas implies that a boat leaving Beaucette will be carried straight for the Alderney Race, but we found some strange currents at work, and for a period had to head east of our straight line course to avoid going to the Swinge instead.

We entered Braye as before, however, this time the harbour was especially busy and we were guided over to the east of the bay to pick up one of the few remaining buoys. The shelter was not quite as good here as when we had been close to the harbour wall, but we still managed a restful night after a trip ashore to the Divers Inn, and a visit to the Braye Chippy for fish and chips.

For the return trip back to the Solent we aimed to sail as close as we could on a constant heading of 20° towards the Needles while letting the ebb and flow of the Channel tidal stream take us west and east of a straight line ground track. 

With the wind from the south-southwest we were often forced to head further east to keep the sail filled (a cruising chute would make a good addition to our wardrobe). The result of this was that our ground track was taking us further east than intended.

When we still had 20nm to go, we decided to work out our CTS (Course to Steer) on an hour-by-hour basis. These new headings made it easier for the helm to keep the genoa filled, and meant we had the reassurance of knowing we would get to the Needles Channel without any danger of having to punch into an adverse tidal stream. 

We entered the channel at the SW Shingles port hand buoy just as the flood tide was gathering pace, and were soon in Yarmouth and safely tied up, 12 hours after leaving Braye. We were tired and hungry, and too late for most establishments, but Salty’s Pizzeria looked after us very well.

The following day the sun shone, and we had a lovely sail on a flood tide, back to Ocean Village and happy that our adventurous mission had been accomplished.

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