The Cherbourg trip

I arrived bright and early at Stugeron Steve’s house after collecting Paul ‘Webbo’ Webster on the way, to find a breakfast of fresh coffee and warmed croissants on the table… a good start. 3 hours later we were at Steve’s boat on the beautiful Beaulieu river, and set about prepping her for sea…. James (jhr) arrived at 15h00 as promised, and after just a few minutes, we cast off, Cherbourg bound…. As we motored up the river, Steve suggested a full sail…. This seemed a bit much to me, and suggested maybe a single reef?….. as we past the Raymarine buoy which marks the outer end of the Beaulieu river, we found a good solid F6, right on the nose, and within a few minutes a second reef was dropped in….. I also discovered the joy of single line reefing…. I want it! 2 hours of really nice beating to wind, and we passed Hurst Spit, and out into the Needles channel. This lived up to its reputation, and threw a steep short sea at us…. We bounced around for a few minutes, but soon passed through. I wasn’t relishing the idea of a 70nm passge to windward, and to my pleasure we saw the wind swing to the east as we passed the needles, and soon enjoyed a beam reach in about 20kts of wind…. Great speed… making about 7kts over the water…..2 hours later, it was definitely getting dark, and sadly the wind veered towards a northerly, and eased to about 12kts. The lows in the Atlantic were throwing quite a swell down the channel, and with a course to steer of 180Deg, we had a dead run, with a quartering sea. Paul started to suffer, and within the hour had succumbed to mal de mer…. A bottle of water, a warm blanket, and he sat in the cockpit looking thoroughly miserable, until at about 01h00 he fell asleep, and we rocked our away along accompanied by his gentle snoring! Navigation proved challenging for two reasons. Firstly, there was a unbelievable amount of traffic. I have never seen so much shipping mid channel, including many many fishing vessels without the correct lights, yet obviously fishing…. And secondly, as the boats motion made anything longer than 30 second stints at the chart table extremely tough on the stomach….. Steve and I took turns in dashing below, logging a position, and if we had the stomach strength, placing a plot on the chart. By 4h00, we had Cherbourg on visual… or at least the huge mass of sodium street lights, at a long range of about 17nm. We were all pretty exhausted by this stage, with helming being a real feat of concentration. The sea state, and wind direction meaning that there was a constant gybe danger, and so we had to really focus on what we were doing. The 30min shifts on the helm had dropped to 10min shifts, and all 3 of the remaining upright crew admitted to nearly falling asleep at the helm, with a resultant 3 crash gybes in total…. As we approached a little closer to Cherbourg, it became very apparent that the two entrances to the Grand Rade were going to be very difficult to pick out against the street light backdrop, and we made a real effort to get plots on the chart to assess our actual course over the ground. It was somewhat eased by being under the Lee of Cap de la Hague, and the sea easing a bit. However, after an hour of plotting Steve claimed complete confusion that despite seemingly good log speed, we didn’t seem to be making much progress…. So I took over Navigation. I plotted for nearly an hour, and became concerned that our course was too far west of the western entrance… in fact, pointing more towards Alderney than Cherbourg! The plotter just plain didn’t agree with us, and showed us passing just east of the eastern entrance…. Confusion reigned!… Steve and I even discussed standing off until daylight as the only safe option….. A deep breath, a spray of salt water, and a self delivered slap in the face demonstrated the danger of being too tired. I went below and realised that Steve had been plotting minutes rather than seconds, and thus the reason why we didn’t show any progress, and I, being used to working on Eastern Longtitudes, had picked 30 Secs and worked east to 34….whereas, we were on the west of the meridian, so instead of plotting on 34, was plotting on 26….. doh! In fact quite scary….. it could have all gone so horribly wrong…. Problem solved, we re-entered plots, and lo and behold, the plotter was bang on…. We corrected our course slightly, and as we approached within 2nm of the Grand Rade breakwater, the entrance showed itself to us. We passed through the breakwater just as dawn broke, a matter of luck rather than judgement, and soon motored through the Petite Rade, and into the marina…. In the 2 hours we had watched the busy entrance, no ferries emerged, and sods law… as soon as we passed the entrance, the first appeared… would have been great if he’d been an hour earlier to show us the way! Tied up by 07h30,l we did a very little sorting out…. Grabbed a cup of tea, said hello to a few people, and stuck our heads down…. We got a much needed 2 hours of kip, before arising again to get showered….bliss…. The much anticipated Scuttlebutt evening party followed, with plenty of wine, and much partying…. Including several memorable (and several unmemorable!) speeches…. After much partying, we mooched back to the boat at about 01h00, and partook of Horlicks, with a wee dram added! We arose Sunday morning, relatively clear headed, and refreshed for a good few hours sleep, and gently cast off at 08h45…. Quite a bit later than many brave crews who had elected to leave at 05h00…. Mind you, many of them had not sailed through the night the previous day…. What faced us, was a truly spectacular sail… one that will stick in my mind for many years to come…. We encountered a beam reach in 15kts… that gradually built up to 22kts…. We held full sail with ease, and the large sea still remained, but this time was assisting us to surf, rather than wallow…. We held up great boat speed, with constant worst case 7kts on the log, and often dipping into 8kts+…. As we cleared the headlands, the sea built even more, and before long we had hit 9kts, then 9.8, and then Steve beat and held the record with a 10.4Kt log reading….. and all this with just white sails…. marvellous stuff! Our passage time was clearly going to be much better than anticipated, and we soon had the cliffs of the Isle of Wight in view….. we altered our course again slightly, to allow for the fact that we had not sailed through an entire west going tide, and by 17h00, passed the SW shingles buoy…. We dropped through the north passage into the solent, not being brave enough (or probably more accurately, too sensible) to attempt the Needles channel…. And by 19h00 were tied up in Yarmouth… One of the best cross channel passages I have ever done…. Truly brilliant sailing, and unlike the outbound trip, people were reluctant to hand over the helm… just thoroughly enjoying themselves…. We dropped ashore in Yarmouth, grabbed a shower again, and then nipped over to the kings head for a pint and a meal…. Lovely grub, and we all looked at one another and realised that we were dog tired…. Falling asleep in our drinks, so we went back to the boat, opened and enjoyed a lovely single malt, and retired to bed with no alarm set! We slipped the following morning at about 09h30, and sailed under genny alone back to Beaulieu…. A lovely 2 hour run, and we were soon tied alongside… back home… We spent a good three hours cleaning, removed the sails for a bit of sailmaker attention, and disappeared of back to the midlands…. I Was home, exhausted by 20h15…. But very very happy!

Miles logged this trip 161nm
Miles logged this season 686nm

Cherbourg bound!

Wahay!.... Off to Cherbourg in the morning with the boys...... 35 boats, 120 (mainly) blokes... should be good fun! Going with fellow forumites, Stugeron Steve and jhr on Steve's boat, a Beneteau Oceanis 331... Forecast 16 to 18kts West or South-West, so a broad reach/run across... looking forward to it..... Coming back Sunday/Monday via Bray on Alderney, and wind is forecast to swing West or North-West at about 10kts, so yet again, downhill all the way!

Boat Show

Good show this year... Weather was kind... about 20degrees and no rain... It took us about 3 hrs to drive down, and much anticipation on teh way... So when we got there, we charged over and in a matter of 2 hours had viewed the 4 boats that we had eventually targetted..... just a quickish peek around each of them, and then we sat down, had some lunch and discussed, and agreed which two to view a bit more carefully.... So our initial reactions? Well.... we were looking for somethign very much a cruiser, and with a few features...- We want 3 cabins... with two kids that will be teenagers and young adults in the time that we intend to own this boat, and one of each gender, we really need 3 cabins...- Second, while we want 3 cabins, we don't want to be overly penalised in the cockpit locker space- Its got to be light and airy... with plenty of space..- Lots of locker space... you just can't have enough of it!- Decent height coamings.... too many boats we have been on have daft 6 to 8 inch high coamings that do OK keeping the water out, but offer no back support when seated- A large enough wheel that the kids can stand on the helm or side seats and still steer... if they don't stand on the seats, then they can't see over the coachroof- Good engine access- A fridge the SWMBO can reach the bottom of. She's not that tal, and on some boats (Maggie included) struggles to reach things right in the bottom of the compartment- Decent sized chart table - with space for sufficient instrumentsSo we looked at the Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 35, the Beneteau Oceanis Clipper 343, the Hanse 342 and the Bavaria 37.... all of a similar price... Over lunch we discussed, and quite frankly, there was one stand out boat.... it was the Bavaria. The Beneteau was very drak below in our opinion, but that is being fixed with a much lighter wood option. We had a peek at the 373 on display, which had the lighter wood, and it was much better. I think that if we were looking at a 2 cabin boat, then this would be a serious contender, but the layout in our opinion didn't work well for 3 cabins with the heads at the rear. They become VERYsmall, and the lockers are tiny.... shame as the 2 cabin version is a very nice boat The Jeanneau was the most expensive of the 4 boats, and was also very nice, but again, the 3 cabin layout felt like a bit of an afterthought.... its biggest failing against our list was the lack of storage space in the 3 cabin version... one of the largest lockers below vanished in the 3 cabin version... The Hanse was very appealling to me for its performance, and also the ease of sailing that comes with a self tacking jib.... Our immediate reactino was of suprise. While it was a very nice boata again, it felt quite a bit smaller than the Beneteau, and unsuprisingly, a lot smaller than the 3 foot longer Bavaria. The quality of the interior woodwork was excellent, but it s very dark colour was too much of a contrast with the white bulkheads for our taste. We also loved the HUGE cockpit locker, but this disappeared with the 3 cabin version, leaving two very small lockers. The Bavaria stood out for a number of reasons. Its layout made it feel simply enormous down below with massive headroom. The 3 cabin version still retained 2 decent sized cockpit lockers. There was storage everywhere, and this was the 3 cabin version on display. The engine access was superb. besides the nowadays seemingly standard lifting companionway steps, there were large removable panels on both sides, meanin near 360 deg access to the whole engine. It had an enormous cockpit with high coamings meaning a safe and comfortable environment, with a generous cockpit table. The wheel was big, so good for the kids to use. There were a few things we didn't like... the lockers in the cabins have a silly little plastic strap to prevent them openeing too far.... can't see them lasting 5 minutes, but they would be easily replaced with a bit of cord. Silly, but the shower in the heads didn't have a wall fixing, so needed to be held by hand... again easily fixed with a small pipe clip... but seems a bit daft... So.... it looks like we are going to get a bit more serious about the Bavaria.... we'll contact the local agent after the boat show to arrange a test sail.... and then... well.... assuming two things...1] that we get enough of a deposit together, 2], they'll either part-ex Maggie, or we can sell her quickly.... looks like we'll be buying a new boat! Anyone want to buy a much loved Carter 3/4 tonner? plenty of work done on her.... just read the blog!

crap weather

Change of plan saw us down to the boat Saturday morning, rather than Sunday, and as we arrived at about 10h00, it was chucking it down...... the wind was blowing all of 1kt and less, and we decided to just sit on the boat for a while instead of going out sailing.... no fun to be had in thrashing rain and no wind! Wandered over to the chandlers, and bought a replacement ensign staff for the princely sum of a tenner..... While there we wandered over to a friends boat, to find him with some other friends who have just bought a Bavaria 34..... they have very little sailing experience... in fact pretty much zero sailing experience.... should be interesting in the lock! So.... didn't get the MOB practice done.... and left by 15h00 after getting a few much delayed jobs done.... No sailing next weekend... its Southampton Boat Show, and we are going new boat shopping!

MOB practice

This coming weekends a bit restricted... The inlaws are away on their hols, and they normally have the dog while we go sailing. We would take the dog with us, but she's rather elderly, less than 100% stable on her feet, and has rapidly deteriorating eye sight and hearing, and in our opinion, it wouldn't be fair on her to take her on the boat. Long range forecast for Saturday is dire anyway... wet, cold and windy, so we are going to just day sail Sunday. We've been threatening for several months to do more MOB drills, so thats what we are doing.... one poor victim fender is really going to get it in the neck this weekend, along with his partner in crime, bucket.

No sailing!

Yet again, for the third time this season, I've had to miss a weekends sailing (guess thats not too bad really!).... We got given tickets to take the kids to the zoo yesterday, and then to a open-air McFly concert, with the kids going backstage beforehand to meet the band in person (only 10 kids went, and they had 40 minutes with the band!)...geat pictures for the family album.... and would have been mean to say no!.... With a bit of teeth gritting, I have to admit that they really were quite good.... nice to see a 'manufactured' band that can actually play their instruments......an especially good rendition of 'pinball wizard'...that got all the mums and dads going! SWMBO has taken the kids to see her parents for a hour or so, and I am sitting here, with easy listening on the stereo, relaxing pretty effectively, looking out of the patio doors, seeing a beautiful hot day with a lovely breeze, and feeling very sorry for myself.....! Still sailing again next weekend....