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.



It is much better to take the shortcut in two parts, stopping in the Channel Islands along the way for a rest and for the tide to change.  Unfortunately, the CI are also part of the UK (sort-of), which means that you cannot take the dreaded animals-who-may-be-carrying-rabies there on a private vessel.  They make a big thing about this on their web site, but they do say that boats that arrive in spite of this warning will be taken to an isolated mooring/berth and not allowed to touch shore.

St. Peter Port, Guernsey

So, we decided to see what would happen.  The sail was again glorious.  7-8.5 kts thru the water, on a beam reach all the way, for about 7 hours.  We arrived a St. Peter Port  and announced ourselves to Guernsey port control, who advised us to contact the marina, and they said they would have a launch come out.  Very nice young chap met us and directed us to a concrete pontoon in the middle of the harbor.  He gave us a packet of papers to fill out (actually, only one sheet), took our 28 pounds, and told us that we might be visited by customs/immigration, because of the cats.  We kept them down below with the hatches locked because that is the rule in these cases, and we were never visited by anyone.  We kept the Q flag up for 16 hours, and left the next morning for Cherbourg.  It appears that we could have stayed longer and gone ashore, as long as the cats were confined to the interior of the boat, and this is someting to keep in mind for future visits.

The second leg, up thru the Aldernay Race, was anticipated to be quite a bit more exciting, because the tidal currents during spring tides are supposed to reach 8 kts(!).  Unfortunately, we did not quite take the best route to get the best push, and the wind(the damn wind) decided to go fickle on us..  We made it past the tip of Cap de La Hague, with the Areva reprocessing plant in full view, when the wind decided to turn directly astern and die.  So, on with the engine, and we motored for a few hours into Cherbourg.

Cherbourg

Old drydock in middle of town

The rade in Cherbourg is enormous.  The town does not have any sort of sizable natural harbor, so the French have built one over the years, to provide a naval port, a commercial port, and a sizeable group of marinas for pleasure craft.  Transatlantic passenger ships like the Queens, the Titanic, the SS France and SS Normandie, and the SS United States used to stop here on the way between the US and Southampton, and there is a large passenger berth right in the middle of town.  One major section of the port is a restricted military facility, where they seem to have a major dockyard with covered docks.  If one were to take the entire Hampton Roads area and shrink it down a bit you would have something similar. No actual naval vessels in sight, however.

The marina is inside the inner rade, and we decided to refuel before we headed to a berth, and this was a new adventure.  We arrived at the fuel dock just after a small sport fisherman, and of course he parked himself right in the middle so that we could not berth either ahead or behind him.  We circled for about 20 minutes while he fiddled with the pumps and hoses, and then we asked him to bouge a bit so we could fit in, too.  He explained that it was faster(!) for him to refuel in that spot but he did move.  In the end, we got in, pumped 180l of diesel, registered with the marina, and were out before he was finished.

We did a quick tour of Cherbourg that evening, and found the large Carrefour market just where the guidebooks say it is.  There was some question about this, because the building has a large number of construction cranes towering over it, but it turned out to be right there, in a centre commerciale that is being renovated.

Vikings in Cherbourg!

Thursday AM was market day in Cherbourg, so we did not stay in bed too long, but headed out to the market, which was quite nice.  Upon returning to the boat, and connecting with the internet, we found that the winds are going to turn E-NE on Friday, staying there and freshening till Sunday AM.  The swells are also supposed to build to1-2 meters from the east.  So, with this sort of forecast, we will stay put for a while.  It will be good to stay in one place and do some boat chores.  There are 3(!) well-equipped  acastillages (chandleries) and several sailmakers, etc here, so parts will not be a problem.