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In the morning we motored north to Alderney. As we travelled north east up 'The Swinge' between Alderney and Burhou, we picked up a 5 knot tide in our favour. It was spring tides and Alderney experiences some of the biggest flows and tide races.

Approaching the south west corner, the gannets from the colony at Les Etacs came into view.

Further to the north west was another gannet location - looking like a mini Ailsa Craig.

Burhou.

After mooring in Alderney harbour we set off on our anti-clockwise circumnavigation. We hoped that most of the strong flows and races would be sufficiently offshore for us to get around the inside.

Alderney was heavily fortified with a fortress on every headland.

One of the highlights of the day was the gannet colony at Les Etacs. We kept offshore as we went around the colony and were lucky to be there at slack water.

The rockhopping was big scale.

Soon after we had a lunch stop on a beach that was a sun trap.

The tip of the Cherbourg peninsula was clear.

It had all been too easy; as we approached the eastern end of the island we could see a strong flow around the headland. A few of us took a closer look, then after going ashore we scaled the castle remains to get an overview.

(photo acknowledgement Dan J)

We reckoned that to get around it would mean going a considerable way offshore and a long paddle against the flow, so we decided to portage across a rocky area next to the castle.

Then after some brief sprints against the flow we were around the north east tip and into the slack area.

One would not wish to be anywhere near this lighthouse when the foghorn is sounding.

Back to Alderney harbour. We had about an hour free before dinner so a few of us went ashore to explore Braye.

There was a consistent forecast of a high pressure over the UK with a squeeze of north easterly winds over the channel so the decision was to head for home rather than risk a rough crossing the following day. So as soon as we were all aboard, the Salutay raised anchor and headed for Portland.