JERSEY

Executing your first sail to Jersey is an experience to be savoured; to go back after a long spell in less interesting waters is a renewal for the yachting senses. Here, amongst seemingly rocket propelled tidal streams and rocky shorelines, is where all the challenges of our amateur pursuit come together. To see double figures over the ground through the channels, or, as can all too easily happen, to be damned back to whence you came by a foul tide is a good litmus test of all that tidal theory.

I had all this in mind on leaving the Solent on approach to Jersey, which could almost be described as starting at Cap De La Hague. Fail to get this crucial tidal gate right and you might