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Tag: Channel

  • Delegates from Islands meet with French politicians over profile of Channel

    Delegates from Islands meet with French politicians over profile of Channel

    Officials from Guernsey and Jersey came back from a trip to Paris.

    Guernsey Representative Jonathan Le Tocq and Jersey Representative Kirsten Morel met with people from the French National Assembly and the Senate.

    The goal of the visit was to make the Channel Islands more well-known to French political leaders.

    The topics talked about included connections in the ocean, problems with using renewable energy, and relationships between different areas.

    Mr Morel said that Jersey has strong connections with France in politics, culture, and economy that have lasted a long time.

    “He said our talks showed that it’s important for the Channel Islands and France to work together, and we both agree to keep working together even more in the future. ”

    Mr Le Tocq said France is an important partner in Europe.

    He said: “This visit was a good chance to improve our relationship with the government in Paris as part of our policy to be good neighbors. “

  • A British kayaker rescued while clinging to a buoy in the English Channel

    A Dutch fishing boat rescued a British man in the Channel after his kayak capsized and he was left clinging to a buoy for days.

    Teunis de Boer, the captain, said he saw the kayaker waving frantically as his boat Madeleine sailed by.

    “He was clearly in distress,” the captain said, according to Dutch media.

    After the man was given water and a chocolate bar, he was airlifted to a hospital by French authorities.

    The drama unfolded late on Thursday morning several miles west off the French coast, in a shipping lane of the Dover Strait, also known as the Pas de Calais.

    The boat captain said he was checking they were not steering too close to the Colbart Nord buoy when he suddenly saw something moving around on it. “I picked up the binoculars and saw a young man just in his swimming trunks waving at us like a madman,” he told the De Telegraaf website.

    They threw the Briton lifebuoys and hauled him on board. “He was covered in bruises and explained that he’d stayed alive by scraping mussels off the buoy and eating little crabs and seaweed,” Mr De Boer told public broadcaster NOS. He was dehydrated and suffering from hypothermia, so the crew wrapped him in blankets.

    A French coastguard helicopter was quickly on the scene and flew the Briton to a hospital in nearby Boulogne.

    What is less clear is how long he had survived clinging to the buoy. The fishing boat captain said the man had told them he had left Dover in his kayak on 15 October, 12 days before he was picked up.

    In a statement, the French maritime prefect for the Channel and North Sea said, however, that he had left Dover around 48 hours earlier.

    The prefecture warned anyone planning to cross the Channel of the risks involved in such an undertaking, pointing out that conditions were often very dangerous and more than 400 merchant ships passed through it every day.