On the Wednesday morning, most of the group headed back to England, but we went on to Normandy (now with a working car) We visited the Normandy Beaches and D-Day Museums. On the way back we were next to one of these kit cars, I think they are called Morgans:
Although it was interesting to compare notes on the cars (and to try and wind him up a bit)
On Tuesday,it was a day at leisure for all to choose what they preferred to do. My car had not yet been fixed, I phoned the garage who were working on it, so Judy & I walked into St Helier and visited Elizabeth Castle. The Castle is on an island that is accessed by a causeway at low tide, when we got there the tide was in so we went on an amphibious vehicle:
There was a demonstration of cannon firing which was very entertaining:
Meanwhile some of the others went round different parts of the island:
Some trying to repeat the Longueville Manor experience:
I got a call mid afternoon from the garage who were looking at my Panther. They had fixed it! Turned out it was a combination of loose connections, points and condenser. They didn’t have the same condenser so rigged up one from a E-Type (does this mean I have an E-Type Lima?). But all was working fine, back to normal.
We went to different restaurants that evening but ended up back in the bar to say our farewells:
Monday and the plan was to tour Jersey. Unfortunately this was my start to the day:
I called the breakdown service, fortunately the guy that came out was a car enthusiast, he couldn’t fix it but he knew who to contact, a garage who specialise in Classic Cars. However as it was Bank Holiday Monday all we could do was drop the car outside the closed garage and he ran me back to the hotel. But I can recommend Bobby at “No 1 Recovery” if you ever get stuck on Jersey!
So for the rest of our day we just pottered around St Helier. The others toured the island:
Harry Worth, anyone?
Steve and Ray were still hunting for their holy grail of oysters, and found them at a fish shack that served them in the packing crate:
The second photo above is almost a Jersey Tourism photo. Here Steve was arranging it:
Does my Bum look big in this?
In the evening some of us went to Longueville Manor, a good restaurant which should have a Michelin Star
The food was memorable and more like works of art:
The cheese board was very extensive although one of the group had to leave the room as the ‘pong’ was a bit overpowering!
Rather than risk kangaroo’ing my Lima around Guernsey we were kindly offered the alternatives of a ride in Bob’s Panther Zafira or Ray’s Deville. Difficult choice eh? So Deville it was. And the sun was out, although we did find out how blustery it can get in the back of a Deville Convertible (lots)
So we set off from the Hotel. At our first stop I had chance to inspect Bob’s Panther Zafira- never knew they made that model…
The Deville was at the back of the convoy:
Steve found a suitably photogenic spot for a group photo:
As always the Deville creates a stir:
We lined the cars up outside St Peter Port although the Deville had to be moved as it stuck out too much:
We couldn’t find an Oyster bar so ended up at a fish hut:
Finally got back to the Hotel. My Lima spluttered its way into the group for a photo (I didn’t dare switch the engine off while taking this):
Then we took the short crossing over to Jersey- somewhat smoother than the one over to Guernsey. Arrived at the very nice Hotel De France:
We got up in the morning to find that Val had had a rough night. The room below hers contained a stag party, whose room had a jacuzzi on the balcony. At 1am after much noise Val observed 10 young gentlemen in the jacuzzi all stark b…. naked having gin drinking competitions. The night staff were not overly keen on intervening until they came up against Val. To misquote the Duke of Wellington “I don’t know what effect she has on the enemy, but by God, she terrifies me!”. Shortly afterwards they stopped… We caught the 10am ferry to Sark. The weather was a bit chilly, and the boat was full.
Particularly inside where it was warmer.
On Sark some of us hired a horse and cart tour:
OK until Chico the horse needed to answer the call of nature by stopping in the middle of the road. Others decided to hire cycles, whether 2 or 3 wheels:
Elwyn’s bike had a puncture, others were just saddle sore. A theme that had just started was scarecrows in the form of nursery rhymes, eg:
On Sark there is a gold postbox to celebrate Carl Hester’s role in Great Britain’s dressage team’s gold medal:
The weather warmed up through the afternoon, which meant quite a few of us were doing lobster impressions later, having not applied suntan cream. Once back at the hotel, as my Lima has developed a misfire, Roger and Bob helped track the fault, or more a case of eliminnating possibilities such as plugs, distributor cap, coil etc. Current theory is dodgy fuel, I will be kangarooing my way to Jersey tomorrow.
We met up with most of the other Panthers at Poole Ferry terminal. Bob arrived in a Vauxhall (well he does live in Scotland) but had added Panther badges on the back and front of it! Some of the others had not met Bob, so he went up to them and said, “Hello is this a Morgan or a kit car?”
The cars needed to be strapped down on the ferry. The crossing had a bit of a rolling swell.
At last arrived in Guernsey
The hotel, the St Pierre Park Hotel is very good. Unfortunately my Panther has developed a misfire, so could be either dodgy petrol or an ignition problem. Tomorrow is car free however as we are going over to Sark.
So here we are ready for our Panther Car Club Trip Island Hopping round the Channel Islands. Car checked and ready to roll. Packed the car up, however the weather forecast was spot on.
Seconds after I took this it started to rain, so I had to push the Panther back into the garage and put the roof up. 250 mile drive down to Bournemouth, part way down got overtaken by Ray Bridges in his Deville Convertible also with the roof up.
At least I knew I wasnt lost (but sat nav helps anyway!) Met Elwyn and Margaret down in Bournemouth, great relaxed start to the trip (the wine helps as well….)
This year’s Panther Car Club Trip is to the Channel Islands setting off on 23 May, visiting Guernsey, Jersey and Sark
Panther Channel Island Hopping 