Cherbourg 13th June 2017

Well the tides and the weather decided to cooperate and we set the alarm for 4.30 am so we could leave at 5 am.  The passage plan was written and we were ready for the off. The first bit was the worry as the Almanac and Pilot Guides all talk about Hurst Channel and the Needles Channel, these could be tricky and I didn't want to fall at the first hurdle.

Beautiful sunrise over Yarmouth Harbour.

However all was benign as we passed the  needles, we did however go down the channel at a fair rate of knots, we were hitting 8 knots and our rev counter was below 2000.

The Needles, looking a lot calmer than earlier in the week.

The sea really was like a mill pond but there was no wind so we knew we would be motor sailing all the way across. Today we would be crossing the tides so I had set a tidal vector. For none sailing friends this means I have to add the tides going one way, then the other and take one away from the other. From this I can take a bearing and say which heading we need to go on. This is not the same heading of where you want to be. The theory is the tides take you one way and then the other and you end up in the right place at the end. That is a very simplified explanation but that's what I did. Part way through the journey the Captain was having doubts about his navigator's calculations but they worked. Imagine how thrilled I was when our friend, fellow sailor, Mick Bond (Fleur of Pendle) facebooked me to say they'd been following our progress and I quote 'excellent tidal planning with great 's' track on your track'. I can't tell you how good I felt about that message as it was the first time I'd done it and was a bit worried.

The only deviation we had to make was near the French coast as there was a prohibited area that we  had to sail round. We did notice another boat go through but we didn't want any angry French Naval types getting cross with us.

Putting up the French courtesy flag. In my defence I had several layers plus my life jacket on. Hence the Michelin man look.

The pilot book did warn us about the strong cross currents as you enter Cherbourg and he wasn't wrong. It was a bit of a struggle to make sure we weren't swept passed the entrance. It's a bit counter intuitive as you can see the entrance and you have to steer away from it not too it. As we went past the last way point in the harbour entrance it was bang on 12 1/2hours so we were quite pleased with the time. Mind you it took us a further hour to get through the outer harbour into the inner and tied up. We seem to be ferry magnets, whenever we enter a harbour there is always a dam big ferry manoeuvring and we need to stay out of its way. In this case it was doing a three point turn before leaving the harbour's western entrance/exit.

We soon located our pontoon and berth and as soon as we were tied up we went to the harbour office to pay. Luckily one of our neighbours helped with the ropes as I have never seen such narrow pontoons in all my life - I wasn't going to risk jumping on to it. Also it was very low down. My handy IKEA step was so useful over the week.

Sailing Information

Pay for 5 nights and get 2 free plus discount for either RYA or CA membership. Total cost for 7 nights was 142 Euros which translated to about £23 a night.

Toilets at the end of pontoon plus facilities in the harbour office. Lovely and clean facilities the only down side was the shower seats were made for very petite French derrieres and not large Yorkshire bottoms.

Laundry also good but as usual not cheap for a double load washer it cost 8 euros. Smaller washers were 4 euros. Driers were 1 euro for ten minutes.

The Carrefour is a good walk, about twenty minutes. Some folk bought their stuff back in the trolleys but we relied on what we could carry in our rucksacks.

Can recommend the Café De Paris for an excellent meal. Reasonably priced set menu, great wine.

More news about Cherbourg later.