To the north east of Jersey there are two reefs, Les Ecrehous and Les Dirouilles. Without doubt the most popular area of this Ramsar site is Les Ecrehous but today our destination was Les Dirouilles.
It was a large Spring Tide and although the tidal streams were running with significant energy we were able to use some of the speed to our advantage. It was at times like this that confidence in the GPS is important, monitoring our drift and fine tuning of our bearing ensured that we weren't swept past the rocks.
Very little has been written about the reef but it is known that in 1816 40 people were drowned when a ship, La Balance, which was sailing from St Malo to Canada struck the reef. It must have been in totally different conditions to those we experienced on the reef today.
The calm waters, fast moving streams and lack of any other people combined to produce a truly memorable day.
Approaching Les Dirouilles. When we left Jersey the tidal streams were running at over 4 knots, fortunately they were mainly in our favour.
Pete is just visible threading his way through one of the numerous channels.
Janet with a rather large smile, after a superb crossing from Jersey.
Landing wasn't straightforward but it was a great place to swim.
A very sheltered pool! There can't be many days like this at Les Dirouilles.
Looking north across the reef. Next stop Alderney, about 30 miles away.
Although we were on the reef for only about an hour, the tide had dropped over a metre, and this wasn't at the time of maximum change. The tidal range today was 11 metres.
Time to hitch a ride on the flooding tide back to St Catherine's. At times our speed over the ground was over 7 knots. The joy of a free ride!
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