The 390-tonne, 316-passenger high-speed catamaran was piggybacked on the much larger transport ship Eemslift Hendrika.
The ship docked just before 8am after a week-long voyage from Malta.
The San Pawl was then painstakingly winched off the boat, finally touching the waters of its new home an hour and a half later at 9.45am.
Watch the arrival of Islands Unlimited’s ferry
Hour-long sailings between Guernsey and Jersey are due to start on Friday 30 May.
The San Pawl’s new seven-man crew will spend that time getting to know the vessel while it undergoes sea trials and berthing trials in St Peter Port and St Helier and having the final touches put to equipment and fittings.
Chris Ferbrache and Claire Thorne were among a handful of people who had come down especially at 7.30am to watch the boat’s arrival.
‘We are boating people and this is the sort of thing we might not see again in our harbour in our lifetime,’ she said.
‘We’ve done a few of Chad Murray’s [CEO of Islands Unlimited] coastal cruises and it’s really good that someone independent is trying to make a difference and take away the monopoly of the large firms.’
Mr Ferbrache added: ‘To have one boat a week to Jersey was a bit ridiculous as there’s always been good links in the past. The timings of this ship should allow day trippers enough time to really explore.’
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.