We decided to do some washing to ensure that, on our return, our respective laundry piles would be the size of a small hill, rather than a mountain. Despite our less than smooth attempts at laundry on Guernsey, this should have been straightforward, as the apartment has its own washing machine and tumble drier. Sadly, the washing machine use was not without issues and at one point, we did wonder if our clothes would be permanently encased in a watery grave. With some not-so-judicious jabbing at random buttons on the controls, we seemed to do something right and our undies were finally freed and not even a hint of a flood. Next, the learning curve that was the tumble drier. I can count the number of times I have used a tumble drier, if not on the fingers of one hand, at least without taking my socks off. We did make the mistake of putting our synthetics in as cottons and what I thought was degrees turned out to be minutes but once the machine was in action, I dared not risk trying to change things. I am just thankful that the drier seemed to start and stop in the right places. I was half expecting the clothes to be lacking in elastic or be of a size suitable for a toddler once they were released but they seemed to be unscathed.

Another hike in to St Helier, this time to visit the Maritime Museum. Our now familiar route takes us through the attractive Howard Davis Park. This used to be a large residence and estate until it was purchased by Mr Davis. As a boy, he was caught scrumping and had been punished by the then owner. Young Davis had vowed that he would destroy the manor house and as an adult he was able to do just that once it came in to his possession.

The Maritime Museum is very well done, with plenty of automata and opportunities for interaction. This may be aimed at a rather different demographic than us but we set to to build a ship with gusto. Next is trying to rig and ballast a hull so that it will float; trickier job this one. Amongst other things, we find out about the legend of Lé Tchian du Bôulay, a cross between a man and a wolf who guards treasure and appears when a storm is brewing as a warning to fisherman. Tales of Lé Tchian also served to deter people from becoming too curious when smugglers were active.

In 1770, Customs’ Officers in Jersey strip-searched a woman who was suspected of smuggling stockings. This led to a public outcry and the officials were very wary of searching women too carefully after this. This gave women carte blanche to row out to meet incoming ships, don multiple layers of clothing and land back on Jersey unchallenged. Today’s historical interpreter is Sally Smuggler who illustrates this story and plays sea shanties, explaining that those of different tempos are designed to accompany different on board tasks.

There are several videos to watch, including one about the building of a replica of a small wooden boat called The Circassion. Later we see the boat in the Marina and talk to those who built her and who are now maintaining an old wooden lifeboat. It turns out that one of them knows people Chris knows – I thought I might escape that so far from home.

The Dunkirk evacuations are well known but after this heroic event, 200,000 allied troops still remained stranded in France. Operation Aerial saw the vast majority of these men successfully evacuated from ports such as Brest, St Malo and La Rochelle. A number of Jersey vessels were involved and the museum tells the story of one of them, The Diane.

We view the very impressive Occupation Tapestry, which was finished in 1995 to mark fifty years since liberation. There are twelve panels, one produced by each island parish. These depict various aspects of the occupation and parishes drew lots to decide which panel they would be working on. There were 233 embroiderers, who worked in groups in village halls. They had to produce a test piece before they were taken on a volunteers to ensure that the stitches would be even. There were also open days, during the construction period, when others could add a stitch making the total numbers involved far greater. In all, the project contains over 7½ million stitches and took nearly 30,000 hours. In 2015, an additional panel was made for the 70th liberation anniversary.

By the time we have walked back to the apartment, the weather is less certain, so we drive round the island again, catching up on a few bays that we missed on Sunday. Sure enough it begins to rain mid-afternoon.