Csárdás

When my mate Paul emailed me to say his pal and colleague, Robin, had just passed his Day Skipper, and would I like some competent crew for a weekend in August, I suggested they take a day off and we aim to go cross channel to Cherbourg. I’m pretty bored with the Solent right now and it’s a bit limiting when friends from London, thwarted by weekend rail works or westbound M3 traffic finally make it to Hamble at lunch time on a Saturday and have to be back home on Sunday evening. Lunch in Cowes is becoming a bit dull. Also I figured Robin, having done his Day Skipper in the Solent, might also appreciate a trip a little further afield.

So it was that I picked Paul, Robin, and Robin’s girlfriend Ester up from the station on Thursday evening. After dinner and a few beers in the Ketch Rigger we were in bed by midnight ready for an early start the following morning.

Lines were slipped at 0638 on Friday morning while Paul washed up and prepared bacon and eggs for breakfast. The tides predicted a route down the Eastern Solent. So with a light Westerly wind the spinnaker was called for. Neither Robin, Ester and Paul had ever experienced a spinnaker, so here was my chance to demonstrate how easy these little sails are to use! I ran about the foredeck setting up the lines and calling out instructions to the cockpit and up it went beautifully. Robin helmed, Ester and I trimmed and Paul cooked breakfast!

Unfortunately to clear the submarine barrier south of the fort it looked like we’d need to gybe. Sailing as deep as we could with the wind dead aft I popped down below to check the chart. Just as we did so we gybed unintentionally. Oops. I rushed up and made the mistake of trying to snuff the spinnaker without gybing back first. The spinnaker collapsed and rotated round the fore stay and before I knew it we had a wrap around the furled genoa getting tighter and tighter. I called on Paul to help me get it down and released the spinnaker halyard. I feared it would tighten up and ruin our weekend, but just as I was about to loosen the Genoa furling line a gust of wind in the right direction combined with a winning tug from Paul had the spinnaker unravelling and dropping to the deck. Phew!

Once round the fort and heading South with the wind on the beam I decided to try the spinnaker again. The forecast of a NW3 suggested we may get a nice spinnaker reach all the way. Typically however once the spinnaker was up the wind went South of West and gave us a reach too close for the spinnaker. We rounded up a couple of times trying to see how close we could sail it and finally a gust brought us over, unable to bear away. I’m not sure if Robin was exactly enjoying this new helming experience but hopefully it was a valuable one all the same! I quickly blew the tack, powered up the engine to help us bear away a bit and then Paul was able to snuff the spinnaker with no drama.

In the lee of the Isle of Wight the wind died. I figured the wind would pick up a bit once further south so rather than waste time I powered up the engine and we motored south for half an hour or so. Sure enough the wind picked back up to a W/SW 3 and gave us a close reach all the way to Cherbourg.

The tide carried us West from our rhum line and then back again as we approached Cherbourg. The strong Easterly tide off Cherbourg and the Westerly breeze combined to make the water very slightly choppy, or so I considered. I found it amusing that Robin and Ester considered it rough.

We arrived in Cherbourg 13 hours after leaving Hamble. Not bad. A very enjoyable sail across. It was busy when we arrived and I wasn’t sure we would find a space as we approached the visitor’s section of the marina. But an extremely helpful harbour master approached us in his rib and went off to find us a space. He came back to check our width, double checked another berth before deciding it would be too tight and then moved some dinghies around at the end of one of the visitor’s trots to make some space for us. I then followed him in and he even helped us moor up. Very impressive service.

By 10pm local time we were sat outside La Cala, a very nice restaurant near the marina which I have been to before, and enjoyed a superb three course meal with plenty of good French wine. A perfect end to a great day’s sailing.

Food became the theme for this weekend! Well we were in France, and weren’t going to be there for long so I guess we figured we pack it all into one day and make the most of it. I decided it would be best if we left late Saturday night rather than early Sunday morning in order to ensure the others could get back to London at a decent time on Sunday. The building high pressure to the SW of us also meant the wind would keep moving North and by Sunday evening we could have northerly winds anyway. So it was decided that we would eat early on Saturday evening and get away immediately afterwards. The various forecasts suggested anything from SWly to NWly winds of anywhere between 4 and 6 beaufort. The French meteo even mentioned winds locally 7-8. This put grimaces on a few faces but I insisted all would be well.

On Saturday after a bit of a lie in and coffee on the boat we went for a walk around town and found somewhere for a late breakfast. More walking round town and then some R&R on the boat. Later on Robin and Ester went for a wander and Paul and I got out the bikes. One of the bikes bit my thumb as I was assembling it and took a large chunk of skin off the end. Ouch. Interesting that the first aid kit on board has never been needed whilst sailing and never used when out of harbour. Most accidents appear to happen on land! After a late lunch (yes, more food) of pizza, Paul and I cycled over to the City de la Mer, but didn’t bother to go in. Just looked at the submarine and dockside.

Dinner was had in a restaurant that Paul and I had found. This was a good find (I shall try and remember what it was called) although Paul didn’t much like the sheep’s stomach he had ordered. What did he expect? He didn’t even have the excuse of not knowing what it was as he had had a perfectly good translation from the waitress. Still, when in Rome …

We got back to the boat at around 2230 and prepared to leave and discovered that the Simrad combi display in the cockpit failed to power up. Oh dear - no speed and depth. I fiddled with the connections for a while and tested that power was getting to the back of the unit. It was. Unit must be broken. Was about ready to have to abandon the passage - I can’t really leave harbour with no log/depth facility - when I realised that log/depth was showing on the ICS repeater. The transceiver was working - just the LCD display in the cockpit appeared duff. That meant we could safely leave even if it meant we couldn’t see speed or depth in the cockpit. It had been raining heavily while I was trying to find out what was wrong and had stopped once I realised we could leave. So I guess if it wasn’t for this equipment failure we would have got wet anyway.

So we left Cherbourg at 0030 into a W5-6. Put two reefs in and several rolls in the genoa. Probably more reefed than we needed but it was dark and a reef could always be shaken out. We shot out of Cherbourg like a cork out of a bottle doing 8-9 knots through the water. The clouds gradually cleared and the stars came out. Lots of shooting stars were seen - probably the Perseids Meteor Shower. I had a great time helming and sailing by the stars. The Great Bear was vivid in front of us and I could keep us on course by lining the right hand edge up with the port shrouds.

I was amazed to be able to see St Catherine’s lighthouse right after leaving Cherbourg harbour - about 50 miles distant. At first I wasn’t convinced I hadn’t imagined it. But I was seeing the lighthouse light up the low cloud cover as it arced round. So all the way we could see the Cherbourg lighthouse and the Isle of Wight. And the stars. Who needs GPS?

Well I thoroughly enjoyed the sail back. I was in seventh heaven. It was more bouncy than the crossing over and the others, less used to clambering about a heeling boat, looked less convinced about the whole affair. Considering Robin thought Cherbourg was rough as we entered in a force 3, I suppose he must have thought we were in a storm on the way back. In fact it was a fairly gentle 1-2m swell. In fact a bit more wind from further aft would have given us better surfing conditions on rounding the Isle of Wight. We averaged 7 knots over the ground and entered the Solent 9 hours after leaving the marina in Cherbourg. That’s quick. Even with a beat against wind and tide up the Eastern Solent we were back on the mooring 12 hours after leaving Cherbourg. Marvellous.

I think everyone was glad the spinnaker stayed in it’s bag for the rest of the weekend. No complaints except from Paul regarding having to sleep on the dog’s bed with the bikes. I said it’s not the first time he’s been known to sleep with dogs and bikes! Of course that’s not true though. And Robin and Ester look like they’re looking forward to their sailing holiday in the Med even more than they were before the weekend. But that may just be because they know they’ll get flat water, light winds, shorter passages and no spinnakers!

Apparently the Simrad units are still under warranty so should be no trouble replacing the faulty display.