Love me Tender!!

On our mini cruise on Emerald Princess for 3 nights last month, we had 1 day at Sea then a visit to Guernsey.

Saint Peter Port is the capital of Guernsey as well as the main port.  It is only 24 miles so everywhere is no more than 30 minutes from the port.

This was my first visit to Channel Islands and I absolutely loved Guernsey and would to go back for a visit, I’d also do Jersey as would love to see both islands.

As the port is small the ships cannot dock so they use the tenders to get passengers from the cruise ship to the dock, I have done tender before but never one as bad as this…..

We got off the ship about 9.30am, it was raining so sat inside on the tender and it was only approx 15/20 minute journey and quite calm.  As we were with friends, the men wanted to go off to visit a museum so us ladies went into St Peter’s Port to have a look round the shops.  It was a lovely little town with some beautiful shops and buildings.

My husband Adam and Paul walked off to see their museum which gave us a couple of hours to have a wander round.

We walked up and down the pretty lanes and did a bit of shopping then had a lovely coffee in a quaint little coffee shop come souvenir shop, of course after buying some Guernsey souvenirs.

The weather wasn’t very good as it kept raining on and off so after a couple of hours we met up with our husbands and decided to go back to the ship.  We headed back to the port to take the tender back, there was a bit of a queue but didn’t take too long before we were on the tender.  As the weather had decided to brighten up a bit we thought we’d sit up top so could take some pictures of the ship as we approached.  All was going well and got some great shots until we pulled up at the side of the ship.

There were 2 tenders being loaded and taking people to Guernsey for the afternoon as we were waiting to approach. There were 6 tender boats being used in total.  We approached the ship but the swell was quite high so the attempt was abolished and we moved back out to sea. The tender behind tried to approach but again the same thing happened so the 2 tenders were bobbing around waiting for the swell to reduce. The captain even moved the cruise ship to try to get us back on.

After half an hour or so we were starting to get a bit cold and it was rather choppy so bobbing around was making some people feel ill, we were OK but I did feel sorry for those people who were being sick and getting upset.

Tender’s are not suitable for people in wheelchairs or with walking difficulties as can be quite tricky to get on and off, take a look at the videos I took to show how choppy it was.

In the end all 6 tender boats were bobbing around waiting to get passengers back on the ship. Lots of people were still on Guernsey and we wondered if they would get back at all.  Luckily they did but took all afternoon to get people back on.  Anyone wanting to get off after 1pm couldn’t as they cancelled any further trips off the ship and focused on getting everyone back on.

I can honestly say the staff did their best in this situation and did a great job and put safety first – this I was impressed with. We literally had to jump off the tender into the arms of a member of staff so everyone got a cuddle as they were safe back on the ship – ha ha!!

Take a look at these videos to show how rough it was:-

The tender behind was struggling to keep still to get people off and bangs against the side of the ship, take a look for yourself on this video.

We headed straight up to the bar as needed a cocktail after this little adventure….

Have you ever experienced a bad tender, I’d love to hear your story.