Fecamp

After a great 24hrs in St Valery en Caux, that we really enjoyed it was time to move on.... St Valery is very pretty and quiet... and besides, it was worth a stop just to see M's face when he walked into the toilets to see a traditional French hole in the ground... he had simply no idea at all what to do, and had me in stitches asking which bit he should sit upon......One of the advantages (or potential disadvantages) of St Valery en Caux, is that it is behind a closed gate, so you don't have an early start when the tide is right!.... fortunaterly this worked well for us today, as with an early afternoon lock out, we were able to leave at midday, and face just 45mins of foul tide before it tuned to sweep us down the coast towards the next destination, Fecamp.The downside is that the summer South Westerlies remain in charge (although the don't seem to be matched with the hot sunny weather!), so it was, yet again, pretty much dead upwind the whole way, so motoring was the order of the day.This should be the last time we have to deal with this though, as the next leg will be across back to the UK, across the wind, and then back east, so hopefully with the wind behind us.... whats the betting that the wind changes direction!!!!Anyway... we set off into what looked like a bit of a rainstorm ahead of us, but it didn't materialise, and so we had a dry, if rather grey trip... The sea state was fine, with our further westing producing a sea with more rollers rather than short wind blown chop.... as the tide turned (to assist us) with wind over tide it was slightly more choppy, but still not as bad as the shallow east coast waters to which we are used.With a fair tide, we made excellent progress, and in just two and three quarter hrs had made it to the entrance to Fecamp, which was extremely easy, and very obvious. Berthing proved trouble free, excepting the French preference for finger pontoons half the necessary length and with loops rather than cleats, but even with this, we got on safely and relatively gracefully.Now to explore Fecamp!

Miles logged 15nm
Miles this season 568nm
Miles this trip 175nm
Miles since this blog started 3,515nm