The new day trip service between Guernsey and Jersey has completed its first passenger sailings.
It left Guernsey for Jersey at 07:00 on Thursday morning, before making the return trip to St Peter Port, arriving just a little later than planned.
The San Pawl then left Guernsey early on its return to Jersey this afternoon.
Speaking after docking in St Peter Port this morning, Captain Chad Murray said the delays in getting to this point were just part and parcel of delivering the new service for the Channel Islands.
“We got away on time this morning, which was great,” said the Islands Unlimited Managing Director.
“Numbers were fairly light, which we expect at this early stage,” the former Harbourmaster added.
“Passage down was great, (in) Jersey we inherited a couple of delays, just because we haven’t had so much time down in the Jersey port, so familiarisation for the master and and things like that, just it took a little bit longer.
“The sea conditions are about metre, metre and a half today, we’ve got a operating limit of two metres, so well within our safe limits, and we’re really pleased with the performance of the ship.”
Pictured; Captain Chad Murray, the Managing Director of Islands Unlimited. 
Pictured; The San Pawl, Islands Unlimited’s vessel of choice, docked in Guernsey carrying paying passengers for the first time. 
Pictured; The seating onboard will feel very familiar to members of the Public who’ve transited by sea before.
Islands Unlimited was unveiled to the public after the conclusion of the ferry contract negotiations, which had begun as a Channel Island package. That was before the bundle was bifurcated, resulting in Guernsey going with Brittany Ferries, and Jersey going with DFDS.
This meant there were no more daily sailings between the islands, and that’s where this new company comes in, with their ship, the San Pawl.
The operation hasn’t taken long to set up, but its longevity depends on how well it’s embraced by islanders, and other members of the travelling public.
“Everything’s front loaded at this stage, with purchasing the ship, getting it set up, making sure we’ve got the correct spare holdings, and all those sort of things,” said Captain Murray.
“So we have obviously put our forecast in, and we are comfortable that we can make this sustainable. However, we do need people to use it. You know, we’ve got a minimum number of passengers. We need to make the ship break even on each leg, because there’s obviously fixed costs, whether you’re carrying one person or 300 so we need to work hard.
Captain Murray continued: “We need to push the marketing. We need people to get behind it, not only general public booking for themselves, but we need the tourism sectors to be behind us, encouraging tour operators to move their guests between the islands, and provided we reach those targets, then there’s no reason why it can’t be a success.”
That success depends on a lot of factors, but the focus on inter island day trips, and regular links between the two largest Channel Islands is what the company’s Managing Director was keen to emphasise.
“When we looked at stakeholder engagement and market research, we’d seen over the past five years or more, that there’d been a decline in the ability for people to move daily between the islands by sea. There was always a service, but what it didn’t allow is for a day trip option.
“What I think we need to do is prove that is sustainable and it’s regular, so that people then know that every day, if they want to pop to Guernsey or Jersey, they can.
“Day trips are something we really need to focus on. I think there’s other things we can look at in terms of whether, particularly the community of Guernsey, maybe look at how they can tap into the wider network of Jersey airport, for example, using those sort of connections is another way of people moving between the islands.
Captain Murray continued: “We need to build confidence with sports teams and event organisations so that they can put on those events and those inter island fixtures that they’ve not been able to for the last couple of years, which is obviously then also impacted on the number of people moving.”
With the first day of sailing back and forth complete, Captain Murray was really happy that it went fairly smoothly, despite some choppy seas.
“I think it is a massive milestone in terms of the project and service delivery. I’m very proud to be where we are, but also I think we’re not able to take our foot off the gas. We already have seen things that we can improve on today, there’s a lot of pressure on the officers and the crew of the ship, and that’s not just coming from themselves and from the passengers, but also from me, and the ship manager side of things.
“Unfortunately, the weather isn’t on our side this weekend, so we’re now having to look at how we best communicate with our guests, and I think it’s a learning curve.
“Today is just the start of the next stage of the journey.”