After a good night's sleep, we departed Boulogne at 0730, in driving rain and a very lumpy sea. However, by 0810 the engine was off and the sails were up and the swell was easing. We had decided to avoid the large, popular ports and head for Saint Valery en Caux, some 60 miles south west of Boulogne. There were plenty of yachts out but most were hugging the coastline, past the holiday resort of Le Touquet, heading in or out of Le Treport or Dieppe. We were in sight of the coast all day but only distantly. Throughout the day, the weather brightened and it was eventually sunny. We had a useful 8 to 10 knots of wind, west north westerly, for most of the day, allowing us to sail, mostly with additional help from the tide. However, with a couple of hours to go and frustrated by the strong adverse tide, we put the engine on to assure our arrival in St Valery around high tide, as the entrance and approach dries. We took the opportunity to cook pasta carbonara for tea, while the engine was on; one less job for after our arrival. Having negotiated the steep sided approach to the lock gate and swing bridge, we were allotted a hammerhead berth, half way up the marina, a great berth, probably on account of confirming we were staying two nights. Allegedly, berths near the lock gates suffer turbulence when the gates are first opened. The sun was out, so we tidied up, changed into civvies and despite extreme tiredness, headed out for a bottle of wine. Pete couldn't resist the oysters on the menu and many of you will have seen the happy photo on Facebook.
St Valery en Caux, not to be confused with St Valery sur Somme, is a very pretty town, with good facilities but isn't particulary cheap. However, we deserved a rest and had chores to catch up on, so planned to stay for two nights. We had a good sleep in, getting up at around 9am, although I was reading in bed while Pete continued to slumber (snore). We completed our chores in the morning, including mundane admin like renewing Sky broadband and chasing a parcel which was undelivered by MyHermes, then went for a shower. To formally celebrate our arrival in France, we cracked our bottle of Digby's Fine English Sparkling Wine with lunch. Feeling very chilled, we went walkabout to take photos and buy provisions, before returning to write the blog and do the nav for the following day. We treated ourselves to dinner out, couteax (razor clams), followed by moules et frites, washed down with a lovely bottle of Picpoul de Pinet; then it was time for bed.
The 16th July and another 0730 lock out. At least the tide times mean we are sailing long distances in daylight hours. The drying heights and locks at most ports on the north coast of France require that you arrive and depart within one to three hours either side of high water. The lock keeper at Saint Valery raised the bridge for us and gave us a friendly wave and shout of 'au revoir'. This was a lovely place and we would really recommend it to anyone else passing this way, whether by boat or by road. Despite being heavily bombed in the war and rebuilt in the 1950's, St Valery en Caux has retained its charm. There's also King Henry the IV's house here, a very old, tudor style building (see gallery photos).
Today we were heading for Deauville / Trouville, just beyond Le Havre and Honfleur, a trip of around 50 miles. We headed out to sea, under engine, to get a good angle on the wind, which was blowing 8 to 10 knots west north westerly and we raised the sails at 0815, changing our course for Cap d'Antifer. It was a slow start against the tide but great sailing. Ahead of us we could see a stream of yachts leaving Fecamp, a larger port 12 miles south west of St Valery and probably not our cup of tea. We prefer small, characterful places to overnight, or to be at anchor. Due to the wind direction, we were gaining on the other yachts up until Cap d'Antifer but we never managed to catch them up. Cap d'Antifer was very interesting, with caves and arches cut into the chalk cliffs by the rough seas around this headland. There was also a shark's tooth shaped pinnacle. By this point the tide had turned and we were speeding along at 8 knots and were going to be far too early for access to Deauville / Trouville, so we decided to look at options further along the coast. We settled on Port en Bessin, as the pilot book described it as 'a walk on the wild side'. in that it's a fishing port, not a yacht marina. We had great sailing, in sunshine, until 8 miles out, when we ran out of sea room for the direction of wind, so we rolled awar the genoa and put the engines on. We motored past Arromanches, site of the Normandy landings, where we could see the remains of Mulberry Harbour, much of which was manufactured in Goole. The seabed here was littered with wrecks, some of which are visible at lower tides, so a wide berth was required. We arrived outside Port en Bessin around 1900 hours and Pete decided to call the harbour master. We knew the lock would be open but there was doubt about the swing bridge. On the second attempt, he was answered with, 'Speak French, no speak English'. Pete attempted a little French, to be answered with the same response, rather abruptly. We decided to enter the outer harbour to see if our access was clear. Unfortunately there was a fishing vessel loading its nets in the lock. We waited for 5 minutes and then I called the harbour master in my slightly better French, to be told, in English, to wait 5 minutes please. We had another few stilted 'conversations' before the harbour master shouted 'maintenant', at which point we were able to pass through the lock and berth alongside a French yacht in a very crowded harbour. The French couple on the yacht were very friendly, welcoming and helpful and spoke pretty good English. They were planning to leave at 0630 the following morning, to catch the tide, meaning another early start for us too. We cleaned up, had tea, with a bottle of cheap French wine, took a stroll around the pretty town, which appears to have quite a few decent restaurants and went to bed. We avoided the €8 charge for an overnight stay, as the the office is only open from 10am to 6pm and our French neighbours said we were therefore exempt from paying. At 0630, the French called the harbour master for permission to leave, to be told it was priority to fishing boats until 0700. It seems the 'issue' is with yachties rather than the English. However, we were all allowed to pass through the lock at 0640. Port en Bessin is a major fishing port, with a fish auction house and an ice making facility.
It was an extremely misty morning, requiring us to use our navigation lights and have a keen eye to spot the pots and fishing boats, the majority of which don't have AIS. We got the sails up after about 90 minutes and Pete decided to try the radar. That immediately blew a fuse, leaving us blind with no instruments for 10 minutes or so. Pete replaced the fuse and the wind disappeared, so we had to resort to the engine again. We had an appointment with the Pointe de Barfleur, which requires a following tode to round it, en route to Cherbourg. We sailed on and off, as the wind allowed but eventually lost the wind altogether. We could see the 72m Pointe de Barfleur light in the distance. Advice is to round this 3 miles offshore but with no wind we were cutting in closer than this. We could see a wind line approaching and went from 2 to 12 knots in seconds, as the wind whipped of the point. There was a bit of swell and chop and we could see whirlpools everywhere. You could easily see how this area would be a washing machine with strong winds and tides. WE had just 3 knots of tide, being just after neaps. Once round the point, we headed towards Cherbourg, avoiding the shallows and got the sails back up for the last hour. A French Navy warship passed infront of us and made its way into the naval base before we dropped the sails and followed it into the outer harbour. Cherbourg Chantereyne has a plentiful supply of visitor berths but not today. This weekend is the Dhream Cup and all the visitor pontoons were full of very impressive racing yachts, all carbon fibre masts and covered in advertising. It must be a big race, as the press and TV cameras were there too. Someone waved us to an available berth on N pontoon. It was still only 2pm, giving us some rare time to complete jobs, provision the boat, shower and do some washing, while in a marina with all mod cons. The washing was top of my list; Pete's base layer and socks stank to high heaven. I had already resorted to pegging them to the guardrail while we were sailing so the smell was behind me. The Carrefour was less then a mile away, allowing us to provision the boat with fresh food for the next couple of days. The free wifi actually worked, so Pete managed to upload a few photos to the Gallery of this blog. Before collapsing into bed we did the nav for the following day. A following tide is essential round the Cap de la Hague and there's a drying height restriction in Dielette, which all needs to be balanced out. The result was a 1030 start from Cherbourg, allowing another lie in. Consequently, I was wide awake at 7am but witnessed the start to a glorious day before the marina really stirred, followed by the race crews preparring for their nig day.