We had a beautiful day today, the winds had died down over night and the anchorage is sheltered from Westerly swells. Thus by the time we approached the anchorage it was nearly wind still and as flat as a mirror. Quite a difference from the last few days. The pilot was happy to see us, as tourism is a major part of the islands revenue and more cruise ships also means more money for the pilot. The weather forecast was advising that the weather was going to change for the worse but that would not happen until much later in the day so therefore we could enjoy an undisturbed day in the town. This is an anchor port for any cruise ship over 120 meters and even then those smaller ships have to anchor most of the time as the berths in the port are mainly occupied by ferries. During our last call, we had an almost ferry-less day as the calling schedules were outside our visiting period but today we had some traffic.

There are ferry connections with France, (ST Malo) with England (Weymouth, Poole, Portsmouth) and of course with the other Channel Islands such as Sark and Jersey. Their comings and goings are not hampered by our tender service but we ourselves have to be careful. Even as the ferries are arriving and departing with slow speed, they do pull a wake and that can be dangerous to a tender docked alongside the ship. A one foot wave is not that much for a ferry but it is quite a height difference if you have to step in and out of a tender. Even worse when the height varies due to the bobbing tender. Thus the pilots are supplying the ship with the time table of the day. Is the ferry time nearing, then the Officer of the Watch keeps an eye out for the exact passing time and ensures that there is no tender docked alongside the ship. A simple and effective way to avoid accidents and injuries. Today there were three arrivals and departures. With the ferry not spending more time in port than a maximum of 20 minutes, turn arounds are fast and the ferry comes back out of the port again before you even realize it. It gave the OOW something extra to do apart from monitoring the anchoring position.

I had something totally different on my mind. The impending bad weather. It was great that we had a beautiful day here in ST. Peter Port but tomorrow is Dover which is the end of the cruise. With the weather being predicted to be positively nasty for the day tomorrow I had to make sure that we would make Dover and would be able to get in. Dover is not often shut down but it does happen and with it being a change over port I could not afford that to happen. How remote the possibility. Studying the weather forecasts carefully, it looked like the bad weather, read wind, would arrive at Dover sometime after 5 am. With the scheduled arrival time of 7 am. and the plan to be alongside at 6 am. (To be early for luggage offloading) that would not work out very well. However I could put the Pedal to the Metal and try to dock early and be all fast before the wind would come.

A sound plan and thus as soon as the last guests were back and the anchor was away, I put the sticks forward and we raced away from the anchorage. If things go well I will be docked before 3 am tomorrow morning, well ahead of the coming weather. The wind is supposed to reach peak forces of 30 knots an hour but as there is rain forecast with the wind there could easily be wind gusts of up to 50 knots. Not good to get caught in when you are docking at Dover Cruise terminal.