Becky
Well-Known Member
C\'bourg Trip, an early response to a very sucessful event
well, the Cherbourg part was successful. We had gone to St Vaast a couple of days early as the winds were favorable, and indeed had an excellent crossing. 12-15 knots on the beam, a smooth sea and being a night crossing, a good sleep in my bed on the way. Viz was soo good that we could see the lights of Barfleaur and St Catherine all the way across. Made the judging of the distances of the shipping a it difficult, but radar sorted that out.
The weather for our two days in St Vaast was calm, sunny intervals, and light SW winds.
So imagine our surprise to get texts from some Forumites telling of horrendous conditions mid channel and around the Needles making St Vaast impossible to reach from the UK. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
And us with restaurant bookings already made.
But we met other forumites, Oen (Tim) and StevenH on Matrix, with Tim, Judy and delightful 5 year-old daughter Sophie who had braved the conditions and sailed in to St Vaast, admittedly only from Ouistram. Finding we had the bokings at Fuschia's going unfilled, they stayedon an extra day and we had a grand evening. Food was excellent.
Next day (Saturday) we motored round to C'bourg as there was no wind and met up with the other 13 boats who had made the crossing and were in the process of watching the rugby or achieving an interesting level of inebriation (or both) or like us stocking up with wine pror to meeting up for early evening/late afternoon drinks on various boats, but mainly Jaynes Buoy at Roger's very kind invitation.
The dinner ran its usual boisterous course, five of them to be accurate, and a high old time was had by all of us. Cutter made a brief speech which amounted to introducing Tome. Who seemed to be more concerned by the state of inebriation being reached by his EBB's. Who he took home to his boat while they were still ambulatory (unaided) before the end of the evening.
Actually it wasn't like that at all. It was an excellent evening, enjoyed immensely by all who made the effort to sail across in extremely unpleasant conditions. Tome had sailed hard on the wind for 19 hours covering over 100 miles, so it was quite reasonable for his pretty tough crew to let their hair down a bit. Even when the paying bit came up, there was the correct amount of money, a great relief to the organisers, Roger, Tom and Richard, to whom I extend my heartfelt thanks for being brave enough to take on the responsibilities of setting up such a well supported event at such risk from the vagaries of the English weather.
It was wonderful to meet up again with stalwarts of the forum, like Big Nick, BobE, Fergus to mention just a few I can remember.
We left for home after the dinner, at around 11.30 and were nicely tucked up in Haslar about eleven hours later, having had another easy smooth crossing, but with little wind.
So, everyone, another great Forum event, and from all of us who took part I am sure, a very big thankyou to the organisers
well, the Cherbourg part was successful. We had gone to St Vaast a couple of days early as the winds were favorable, and indeed had an excellent crossing. 12-15 knots on the beam, a smooth sea and being a night crossing, a good sleep in my bed on the way. Viz was soo good that we could see the lights of Barfleaur and St Catherine all the way across. Made the judging of the distances of the shipping a it difficult, but radar sorted that out.
The weather for our two days in St Vaast was calm, sunny intervals, and light SW winds.
So imagine our surprise to get texts from some Forumites telling of horrendous conditions mid channel and around the Needles making St Vaast impossible to reach from the UK. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
And us with restaurant bookings already made.
But we met other forumites, Oen (Tim) and StevenH on Matrix, with Tim, Judy and delightful 5 year-old daughter Sophie who had braved the conditions and sailed in to St Vaast, admittedly only from Ouistram. Finding we had the bokings at Fuschia's going unfilled, they stayedon an extra day and we had a grand evening. Food was excellent.
Next day (Saturday) we motored round to C'bourg as there was no wind and met up with the other 13 boats who had made the crossing and were in the process of watching the rugby or achieving an interesting level of inebriation (or both) or like us stocking up with wine pror to meeting up for early evening/late afternoon drinks on various boats, but mainly Jaynes Buoy at Roger's very kind invitation.
The dinner ran its usual boisterous course, five of them to be accurate, and a high old time was had by all of us. Cutter made a brief speech which amounted to introducing Tome. Who seemed to be more concerned by the state of inebriation being reached by his EBB's. Who he took home to his boat while they were still ambulatory (unaided) before the end of the evening.
Actually it wasn't like that at all. It was an excellent evening, enjoyed immensely by all who made the effort to sail across in extremely unpleasant conditions. Tome had sailed hard on the wind for 19 hours covering over 100 miles, so it was quite reasonable for his pretty tough crew to let their hair down a bit. Even when the paying bit came up, there was the correct amount of money, a great relief to the organisers, Roger, Tom and Richard, to whom I extend my heartfelt thanks for being brave enough to take on the responsibilities of setting up such a well supported event at such risk from the vagaries of the English weather.
It was wonderful to meet up again with stalwarts of the forum, like Big Nick, BobE, Fergus to mention just a few I can remember.
We left for home after the dinner, at around 11.30 and were nicely tucked up in Haslar about eleven hours later, having had another easy smooth crossing, but with little wind.
So, everyone, another great Forum event, and from all of us who took part I am sure, a very big thankyou to the organisers
