Trees down and sailings cancelled as storm hits
GUERNSEY woke up battered yesterday morning, after wind speeds up to force 10 were recorded in the early hours.
Branches and even some trees were brought down, and garden furniture, trampolines and food bins were tossed about gardens and roads.
Despite waking up many islanders, a Guernsey Met Office spokesman said it was its north-westerly direction which made the wind unusual.
‘We are more accustomed to west or south-westerlies,’ he said.
The worst winds were recorded between 1am and 5am, as a low pressure passed over the island. Sustained wind speeds of force six and seven were recorded.
‘The peak recorded gust at Guernsey Airport was 55 knots [force 10] at 3.58am,’ he said.
‘Thankfully, the winds have eased off this morning and this week is looking much less windy.’
The winds caused severe problems on the water.
Channel Chieftain V is known for managing to sail from Jersey to Guernsey with newspapers in some horrendous sailing conditions.
The ship did set off at about 3am, but it had only just cleared St Aubin’s Bay when it was decided to return to St Helier.
Guernsey Harbour was recording a speed of 48 knots at the time.
The crew had hoped to try again later, but the sailing was cancelled just after 7am.
Commodore Goodwill is also no stranger to operating in bad weather.
But while it was able to sail from Portsmouth to Guernsey, the freight vessel was unable to dock when it arrive at about 3am. Instead the vessel sailed between northern Sark and southern Herm – with Guernsey between the vessel and the teeth of the gale. It finally managed to dock just after 9am.
The Condor Liberation sailing from Jersey to Guernsey and on to Poole, which was due to travel at yesterday lunchtime, was cancelled.
Passengers were transferred to Saturday’s sailing, ahead of the bad weather.
Freight and passenger vessel Commodore Clipper was due to sail from Portsmouth to Guernsey yesterday evening, and then onwards to Jersey and Portsmouth. But due to falling behind schedule, the rotation was cancelled.
Passengers were transferred on to a new high speed ferry sailing from Poole, which has been specially scheduled for today.
Early flights to and from Alderney were cancelled due to the Alderney runway being wet and the island suffering strong crosswinds. But flights were able to resume at 10am.
UK flights were unaffected.
Trees were also brought down in Sark and Alderney.
