Spain, France and Guernsey Day 7: St Peter Port, Guernsey then Southampton

Day 7 St. Peter Port: Friday, 31st May 2019

The sea at St Peter Port was flat and calm and we had blue skies all around us. We were woken early as the tenders were lowered ready to take passengers ashore.

We had a cup of tea and waited for announcements of the tender service starting before we went for breakfast in the International Dining Room. After picking up our priority tickets we went down to Deck 4 to catch our tender. Behind Sapphire we could see P&O Britannia.

It was a smooth trip in, then outside the St Peter Port harbour we waited next to one of Britannia’s tenders. It looked much larger than Sapphire’s.

St Peter Port

Two cruise ships and lots tenders meant that there was a queue waiting to dock. When it was our turn, our tender docked just behind one of Britannia’s. The ramp up from the dock was packed as we all streamed up to the top. The car park had been emptied and we followed the path on the left until we reached the dockside road.

We walked along the side of the quay and then walked down the ramp to the beach.

Castle Cornet was on our left behind the jetty. We sat and watched a party of school kids rock pooling at the top of the beach.

La Valette, the underground military museum

We walked to the museum and passed by the Octopus restaurant. Our plan was to visit the museum in the tunnels dug during the Second World War by the Nazis and then have a wander in the town.

The tunnels had contained four large tanks for aviation fuel. The work had stopped on digging another tunnel for a fifth tank.

The museum had lots of fascinating exhibits and filled in for me a lot of the history of the occupation of the island.

More of the history of the occupation

I was staggered to read about the forced evacuation of 2,000 islands to camps within Nazi Germany, their imprisonment and tortuous journeys back after the war had ended. There were lots of posters announcing the rules and regulations about the occupation mainly regarding food from the island’s many farms.

There had been earlier some evacuations of civilians and finally all the British military had left the island. Before the occupation St Peter Port had been bombed before it was declared ‘open’. Then first Nazis arrived at the airfield to begin the occupation.

The museum had a copy of the notes of the discussions for the Nazi surrender detailing how the handover would take place.

Octopus restaurant

After leaving the museum we walked back to the Octopus restaurant. The restaurant was full for dining so instead we sat and had a drink on the terrace.

We could have waited until after 2.30 pm for food but instead we opted to walk back to the High Street and find somewhere to eat there.

Walking to Dix Neuf restaurant

Looking down we could see the tidal swimming pool.

We could see large queues of passengers waiting to go back to the ships as we passed. The streets were very busy despite the number of passengers leaving.

The Dix Neuf restaurant has always been our ‘go to’ place to eat, either for breakfast or lunch when we visit. Today we were not disappointed.

I had fish and chips and Linda had a steak pie. I washed mine down with Liberation Ale. We had time to look around at the sign writing and the decor.

Coffee keeps me busy until it is acceptable to drink wine

I only drink wine when I am happy and when I am sad

Sometimes I drink it when I am alone. When I have company, I consider it obligatory.

I trifle with it if I am not hungry and drink it when I am.

Otherwise I never touch it – unless I am thirsty.

Back to the Sapphire Princess

We walked the length of the High Street before walking back along side the marina. Looking at the moored boats but we could see that the floating piers could rise up over 3 meters when the tide was in.

To get to the queue for the tenders we had to walk down the left hand side of the still empty car park. There we found two queues. The Guernsey tourist board volunteers pointed us to the correct queue. The Princess queue went straight but the Britannia queue had to have a maze to allow for the much larger number of passengers.

We abandoned the queues and walked back to the High Street.

Outside the visitor centre there was an exhibit of all the cigarette ends left recently on the streets.

We then walked back to the tender and the queues had gone down considerably and we were soon on a tender and heading back to our ship.

Afternoon on Sapphire Princess

The weather was still being kind to us and we went out on the deck to watch the games on the Sports Deck and then leaving.

In our  cabin and we began our packing and watched some more of the Bohemian Rhapsody film before going down to dinner.

Our last evening on Sapphire Princess

Everywhere was busy. first we tried the Savoy, then the Verona and then finally the Half Moon restaurant. We shared a table with another couple. This was unusual as for the last three nights we had been placed on a table for four by ourselves.

Our servers were terrific and made a great fuss of us in complete contrast to our experience of a few nights previously.

I had the water melon and burnt seed, then a Caesar salad, the New York strip steak, apple pie with custard and cream and an extra desert of rum and raisin ice cream. In my defence I had left most of the steak as it was very chewy and dry and was practically inedible.

The balloon drop party was scheduled from 9 pm in the Atrium. By the time we reached it the crowd was three or four deep.

Unlike all the other balloon drops that we’d attended, no attempt had been made to move the tables in the Atrium. These were obstructing the space around the band and made getting to the balloons an obstacle course.

Once all the balloons and crowds had gone.

The house band were excellent and were helped by the brass section and pianist from the ship’s orchestra. They played their hearts out and their version of Brown Sugar was my personal musical high point of the whole cruise.

Back in the cabin we finish packing and put the cases outside a few minutes before 10 pm

From the Cruise Log

St. Peter Port – Friday, 31st May 2019*

Throughout the night Sapphire Princess maintained various north-easterly courses. Once we entered territorial waters of
Guernsey and made landfall off the limits of St. Peter Port we embarked our local pilot and approached our designated anchor position. Sapphire Princess let go her starboard anchor at 06:30, and she was brought up to her starboard anchor at 06:45. Tenders were lowered and the pontoons were rigged and ready and at 07:30 the first guest tender proceeded ashore.

With all guests and crew back on board Sapphire Princess commenced weighing her anchor at 17:45. Sapphire Princess swung onto a south-south-easterly course. The Officer of the Watch rang Full Away on Passage* at 18:30, meaning the start of the sea voyage. Throughout the evening we continued to set various westerly within the English Channel towards Southampton.

At Noon
Position: St Peter Port
Sky: Overcast
Air Temperature: 16°C/610F
Pressure: 1018.5 mbs.
Wind: Northerly, Force 3
Sea: Calm
*Approximate at the time of printing.