This was the start of a 12 hour, 100 mile journey that should have taken about 3 hours. We were flying from Exeter to Guernsey and then onto a ferry to the small island of Herm. If we hadn’t missed this flight then we could have been on our hotel by about midday, however due to many unforseen events we eventually arrived at about midnight. This is that story.
It started when we had to get to Exeter airport. The traffic was terrible and we knew that when we got onto the motorway we had no chance. No problem here though as we called Flybe to explain the problem and they moved us onto the next flight at midday. That’s three hours later than our original.
We thought that was the end but no, after the flight we left guernsey airport and took the free bus to the ferry port. This is the real nightmare. It was stormy and foggy, a ships nightmare. As we boarded the staff seemed on edge, understandable in these conditions.
It should have taken about 30 minutes to get to herm but we had to go slowly for safety. It was clear halfway through, after an almighty bang that our slow and steady hadn’t worked. We had hit one of the sand banks in the channel. Usually they are visible but due to the conditions they basically disappear.
Luckily the boat was flat bottomed and hadn’t been damaged but it was still very stuck on top of this sand bank. We sat on this boat for the next four hours, waiting for the weather to clear enough for a tug boat to come and pull us free.
Eventually after seven hours of delay from missing the flight and then getting stuck on this sand bank, we had to return to Guernsey, change boat as ours had to be inspected and then after another two hour wait at the ferry port, finally boarded the boat over to herm. It took two long hours as the boat had to again go so slowly because of the fog.
This is easily my missed flight nightmare. Although not all elements were flights, if we were on the first plane then we could have been in our hotel after three hours.