STORMS at Saints Bay left just three punts above the water. Fishermen moored at the bay were left counting the cost of the unpredicted midweek winds.

Four divers spent much of Thursday helping drag sunken punts along the seabed to a winch where they were brought ashore.

Brian Norman, who has been fishing out of the bay since his childhood, said it was the worst he had seen.

‘Most of them have sunk. Unlike the old wooden boats, they go down,’ he said. ‘We had about 20 bodies to help, which was great for us, but it would have been better with a modern winch.’

He said the damage to the boats could run into thousands of pounds, with five beyond repair. The waves overnight had gone right over the quay.

‘I came down the night before and went down after midnight with a lamp but couldn’t see anything except great waves coming all the time.’

The downturn in weather has left islanders wondering where the summer has gone.

Windy spells caused havoc with summer events at the end of June and into July. But according to the Met. Office, the first fortnight of June was the warmest on record.

Herm day trippers were severely affected by the midweek storms.

‘It’s put people off, but we’ve been very lucky; the boats have run a service all day,’ said Herm deputy manager Andrew Bailey.

‘People booked into the hotel and self-catering have still come and we haven’t lost much camping either; those people came across despite the weather.’

The first two weeks of June started promisingly with temperature records being broken and days of unbroken sunshine. Unfortunately, by the time Prince Charles visited on the 23rd, gusts of up to 47 knots were recorded.

Two days later, there was almost no sunshine recorded.

The weather for the next few days appears to be on the up, if short of summer expectations.

The Met. Office predicts it will be mainly fair with the chance of occasional showers. Winds will be moderate west to south-west, freshening at times.