We departed Starehole Bay before first light, with the intention of getting to L'aberwrac'h or at least across the Channel to somewhere in Brittany. There was wind, which was good - so we sailed, albeit it slowly, under gennaker. However the wind was light and fickle, so we changed sail plan a few times until at about 3pm, we gave up. The wind dropped and dropped until we had this in the middle of the channel:

Time to leave the Channel Islands, much as we love them. South, you'd think? No - we missed meeting up with Tim & Kirstie and Mike & Mary before we set off, so over to Dartmouth. For once the wind did co-operate and we had a cracking sail most of the way. Very rewarding. We opted for the inside of Town Jetty for a couple of nights, making it easy to meet up with Tim and Kirstie who drove over to see us. Another nice evening of catching up. <p>

Despite the wind, which really limited the number of boats that made it to St Peter Port for the celebrations, we had a great time. We naturally did the rounds of the occupation museum, tunnels etc. <p> We did manage to string all the bunting together to join in and Ocean Tigress got into party mode too... It was great to meet up with Derek and Mandy. Derek's solar panel mount is working very well for us, keeping the batteries nicely charged. <p>

Guernsey was empty! I don't think I've seen Victoria Marina so empty! Liberation day was superb, topped off with some excellent fireworks.

Err... except we didn't make it to Alderney. The promising wind died off and left us motoring to Cherbourg. In truth at this point, it didn't matter. Our main aim was to get some miles under our belts - to have "started". <p> And the start wasn't without its little trials. The GPS hooked up to the nav system didn't want to play. No worries, we left without GPS and sorted it underway. The VHF hiccuped too, but again, was soon sorted. <p>

This is it. The start of the start. Making our way to the start of the Christmas Caribbean Rally 2014. We're lucky that we can take our time and enjoy a relatively leisurely trip down the coasts of France, Spain and Portugal before heading out to the Canaries. <p>