It is time to leave St Helier as the tide rises and we take the opportunity to fill up the tanks at the tax-free diesel station. On our way out, we see that the Elizabeth Castle is again an island as well as the Corbier lighthouse. The tidal scheme never stops fascinating me.

I have seen pictures of the Havre Gosselin at Sark and the original plan was to have lunch there before continuing to Herm. However, we decide to continue but take the detour through this beautiful natural harbor and the Guillot Passage. The tidal stream is favorable and we are shot like a cannon ball through the passage. Our plans is to dry out completely in Herm as one of my zinc anodes has been eaten up and the others looked in pretty bad condition.

As we reach Herm, we really do not know which buoy to pick as we could not see the bottom and there was a warning that there be some rocks. We pick what seemed like a good buoy and prepared lunch and started waiting. I went down with a mask to check so there were no real mess under the boat but it looked nice. A thrilling experience to wait to go aground… As the water disappeared, I went out, stood in the water, and literally saw the earth lift the boat. Amazing! I could sit in the sand and replace the anodes and after some cleaning, we took a walk on the island to check out the scenery. The boat was not going anywhere – that was for sure.

Herm is a very calm and beautiful island – one hotel and a souvenir shop. We wandered over the island and had a look at Sark and a bird’s colony at the south side. Coming back, we waited for the tide that neatly lifted us back in the sea.

As Guernsey is not within the EU, we need to set the Q flag and before we sailed the last miles into St Peters Port where we got a nice berth in the middle of the city. The customs clearance consisted in filling in a form and leaving it in a mailbox in the harbor. After picking down the Q flag, we stroll through this nice city and although the late hour we managed a hot meal to finish this exciting day. Nice to see this city more closely as we visited the port only to fuel as we sailed Melody from France back in 2007.