Boulogne

[muddyfeet]

-or more accurately Poologne! Just a warning for those proposing a visit as the odour (never good at best) is now of open sewer proportions - combined with a marina with very narrow double berthing, resulting in one boat only accommodation between short finger pontoons. This waste of space means long,difficult and damaging rafting on the short end fingers - there are no hammerheads and innadequate cleats!
I was there a few days ago and it is not nice....

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[vyv_cox]

Agree. We arrived late on July 14, just as the fireworks were in full flow and the outer harbour was solid with small boats either anchored or motoring slowly for a good view. It made finding the correct channel something of a problem; it's not often that I have needed to set a waypoint inside a harbour!

The smell on the following morning seemed far worse that when we were last there three years ago. The sill below the weir was heavily covered in foam, presumably indicating something quite high on the pollution scale. We and the boat inside us were driven out by the smell, departing an hour earlier than intended.

Can't really comment on the berthing, which looked much as it was three years ago. Arriving late we rafted on the outside but there can be a problem with fishing boat wakes, so be careful to misalign spreaders to prevent clashing. The Capitainerie and clubhouse have been rebuilt, so are now a big improvement on the portacabins that were their predecessors. In common with all the French ports we visited this year, berthing costs were much higher. 20 - 24 Euro per night is probably the norm now, as I recall a lot more than three years ago.

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