Channel Islands and Cherbourg

Hello from Cherbourg.  The trip up from Lezardrieux was quite uneventful, and not too stressful.  We were considering how to transit the "St. Malo Bight", which is the part of the French coastline from about Paimpol to Cap de La Hague, and two options presented themselves.  We could go all the way around, visiting more quaint French towns and cities, or we could take the short cut across.  Unfortunately, the shortcut has problems with timing the tidal currents.

Islands, Roscoff Unfinished, and Refits in Lezardrieux

The Adventure Begins

Well, it has been a while since I posted something, but we have made significant progress. The boat was hauled, painted, buffed, and all made ready for sea. We Shanghaied two Maine Coon cats from their innocence on Sunday April 29, and installed them (and us) on board, trying to find places to stow all the stuff that we need (or thought we needed) for the trip.

Our dinner at Andre’s 

 On Tuesday, May 1, we left Port Medoc at 0545, at the tail end of the ebb tide, in order to be able to get to La Rochelle by the time that the gate into La Chalutier opened at 1:00 PM. We had a great ride out, hitting over 9 kts SOG, with an Irish freighter crowding us from astern. The new AIS works great, at least as far as seeing other shipping, and we knew who the other ship was, its heading and speed, and where it was going. Hopefully, they saw our AIS signal as well, and were comfortable with our intentions. In any case, no one interfered with anyone else, and we got out of the Gironde with only the minor discomfort associated with the Banc de Mauvaise, at the outer reaches of the Gironde entrance channel. It is ALWAYS lumpy, no matter what the weather, the state of the tide, or the winds. Sigh.