Brittany Ferries typically runs a vehicle service weekly on a Wednesday, but added a Sunday morning sailing for yesterday to take Jersey competitors back home.
‘It would have been really difficult if Brittany Ferries hadn’t put on that extra sailing, because there’s no inter-island travel from Jersey over the winter. We could use the Wednesday Brittany Ferries sailing, but it would mean for anyone working that they’d lose almost a week of work, which is just too much for a lot of people,’ she said.
‘I think everyone at home in Jersey is really grateful that Brittany Ferries agreed to change the schedule and allow us to get home on Sunday, it’s mind-boggling to think how much work that must have involved. It will involve a very early wake-up but we’re very, very grateful.’
The Islander service left Guernsey for Jersey at 6am yesterday.
She said that Brittany Ferries had the rally competitors and their cars check in early on Wednesday, so that everyone could get away on time.
‘They were really good with loading us all on deck, everyone knew why we were coming and the staff were really keen to see all the cars,’ she said.
Mrs Fossey’s son Ed raced with Guernsey navigator Will Rutherford, placing second in this year’s rally.
‘Everyone calls me “rally mum”. Me and my husband run the car for our son, we keep it in Jersey although he lives in London now, but we’ll be going back to clean it, go through it, check it all over again and get it ready for the next rally,’ she said.
‘When they race, you have the service crew, which just so happens to be family in our case.’
She joked that they ‘sit and get wet’ for two days, but in reality they are putting the work in behind the scenes.
‘They come rushing in, we jack the car up, check it, put more fuel in, change the tyres according to the weather conditions and just keep the car going. And we keep them fed and watered as well,’ she said.
‘Ed is a third generation racer, he didn’t really have a choice, and Will is a second generation racer, it’s just the way it is.’
Thankfully her son brought the car home in one piece, as Mrs Fossey and her husband will be racing the car themselves next weekend in the Bovington Rally.