It's not much fun having to get out of bed at an ungodly hour to catch the tide. Never more so than when you're on holiday. Having run foul of the race once, I was not about to repeat my mistake.

The forecast SW6 was present, but at least it wasn't raining. Again I put in a reef before we set off - better safe than sorry. We ventured out and were met by a confused and very lumpy sea. I watched Brigitte turn bright green before my very eyes. Get your head down, we'll manage. It least it will be a quick passage. One minute Alderney was just behind us, the next it was a mere speck on the horizon.

And once we got into the swing of things, it was a quick passage. As we passed Cap de la Hague we clocked 11.7kts over the ground. Helped along by a generous 5.5kts of tide. Seastate improved and before long Cherbourg appeared.

First time in - binoculars ready. Anybody see the marina? There. Contacted the marina on VHF. Pick a spot on any of a number of pontoons. H pontoon for us - it's got the longest fingers. Hard to get decent finger pontoons in France.
Meanwhile the SW6 was still very much in evidence and didn't make the approach easy at all. Blown off the first time. Guess we mustn't have been the only ones as willing helping hands soon appeared. Thanks for that - I would have taken us some time without your help. As it was: Alderney mooring to Cherbourg pontoon in under three hours - that's pretty good going.

Marina staff very friendly and helpful. Then the Yacht Club restaurant for lunch - I was starving. Then a quick shave and a shower and I was ready for town. Lots of things happening: market and it appeared some kind of regatta was coming into town. Lots of stalls everywhere, bands would be on later tonight.
The city centre was quaint, but I could imagine it getting claustrophobic very quickly. Two days would be ample time there.

Yacht Club restaurant for dinner as well. Lunch had been good, dinner was even better. And I was keen to try the apple ice cream with Calvados desert. The waitress needed a clue as to which menu to bring us. It's not uncommon for the four of us to mix two or three languages when we talk to each other. In the end we settled for 2 English and 2 French menus. Dinner was lovely, and desert was like sex in a cup. Out of this world. I was tempted to order another one.

We didn't go to the concert as it was getting kind of chilly, but as the wind carried everything to the boat, we could hear most of it. A Franglais band - charming. What sounded like (according to Yanni) 'My boat's gotten kinda chewy' turned out to be 'I told him not to do it'. I like Yanni's version better.

Another day was spent bumming around town and the harbour. Shopping for food in France is never a chore. The local swindleries turned out to be quite expensive. Window-shopping only. I'm sorry we missed the Cit�e de la Mer museum, but it turned out to be quite pricy. We needed to start watching the pennies if we were to survive the rest of the holiday. There's always next time.

It looked like F�camp tomorrow. We'd last been there 5 years ago, and I wasn't too keen on the place. I had hoped to avoid it, but Snorky's demise dictated otherwise. What's a day?