Crossing channel in late September/early October

[matt1]

Don’t beat yourself up about weather anxiety…when you get to Cherbourg you can normally see a crowd of folks huddled round the weather screen in the marina fretting over their return passage it’s kind of normal

The metro France app is free and very good. It gives a few days outlook not only for the northern French coast but also the “antifer” (sea area “wight”) zone and is really good for planning a passage. Forecasts of a day or two ahead tend to be pretty accurate. There’s a good guide on their website in English so even if your French isn’t great you can quickly work out the translation

 

[ashtead]

Once you have sorted out the anxiety over the canine return (curious to know how the car is at Cherbourg for return?) then I think if you leave early morning -if leaving now you would be setting off around 5.30 I guess then arrival would be easily achieved by say 6pm . Don’t forget to have a full tank of diesel plus say a spare 20 litre can stowed in an unreachable position deep in a locker plus one of those jigger devices to transfer. The other investment s you might consider if you don’t have are a liferaft -cheap seago variety say- an AIS send and receive unit ideally plus some form of back up to chart plotter eg handheld Garmin or navionics on an iPad or other android pad type device. I would stock up on food for arrival meal but by sept you might find space in one of 2 onsite restaurants . Read the pilots books by say Tom C and buy a set of paper charts just in case of IT failure. Watch out for lobster pots on arrival as after a days sail the anticipation of entering the Rade can distract even seasoned crews. Good luck and if weather good do take a few photos as you approach to remember your first crossing

 

[laika]

how likely is fog would you think? Is it something that’s common on the channel?

Less chance than in June? I am happy to be contradicted but channel water temperatures peak in September and at the beginning of October the water will be no colder than July. That’s really not a recipe for advection fog when the air is getting chillier.

If taking sailingmartin’s advice to do the trip as much in daylight as possible you’ll save yourself some time by heading to studland the night before rather than faffing around getting out of Poole. Obviously tidal current is a factor in getting south from Poole / studland so that may affect your choice of departure time or day of departure.

Give me Studland to Cherbourg over crossing the Dover straight every time…

 

[Daydream believer]

Only true coming back to the UK. Perfectly legal going the other way - have done it many times.

So how many have you left there now?

 

[sailingmartin]

So how many have you left there now?

None, as you would expect. Once flown home from the US after boat sold in New Orleans following crossing to the Caribbean and beyond. Otherwise, come back via Ireland, again perfectly legal if a bit of a long way around. Dog, now 10, has Portuguese pet passport which helps.

 

[Daydream believer]

None, as you would expect. Once flown home from the US after boat sold in New Orleans following crossing to the Caribbean and beyond. Otherwise, come back via Ireland, again perfectly legal if a bit of a long way around. Dog, now 10, has Portuguese pet passport which helps.

So with a Portuguese passport the dog can stay in the eu whilst you have to bugger off home at the end of 90 days
sounds like a plan. We should all change our name to Rover &tell the authorities that we want to be treated not as male or female regardless of sex at birth, but as labradors

 

[LittleSister]

We planned from Poole to Cherbour. Dover to Calais we would prefer, but the mass amount of ferries in the area is something we don’t have a lot of experience with and so it puts us off. We’ve had to dodge our fair share of ferries, but never in the red zones! I imagine it’s much heavier.

husband was considering getting a thermal camera for any potential fog, so we might do that immediately just in case.
We do have something that shows other ships, though we’ve only used it when going through the Solent - we will definitely get that on!

how likely is fog would you think? Is it something that’s common on the channel? i Think that if it gets to mid october and there hasn’t been a good chance, we will likely just change our plans until next year

Fog - For a first cross-channel trip, if it's foggy, or a significant risk of fog, just don't go. Simple as that. Wait until it's clear.

Dover-Calais -
The ferries are not so much a worry. They're pretty predictable as they don't wander about but almost always trek along the same path, one after another. You'll see the line they follow if you have AIS or radar, or even by eyeball. At Dover you should ask permission from the (v helpful) Harbour Control to leave (or enter), they will hold you until it's clear of ferries and other traffic, and probably also send you out of the Western entrance and the ferries usually come in and out of the Eastern entrance, IIRC.

From Dover they pretty much head straight across IIRC, but on the French side there are offshore sandbanks running up and down the channel just offshore, so the ferries can't approach Calais directly but turn behind a sandbank and run parallel to the shore before entering. I can't remember the detail now, as it's been a long time, but it should be pretty clear from the chart (you could also have a look in advance to see the current ferries on an internet AIS viewer to see them following their regular route.) The channel these are wide and very well buoyed (once you've distinguished them from the various other buoys scattered about), and you can either take a different route yourself, or plod along just outside the channel they are using, in which case they be passing you not far away, but along a very predictable path and won't get any nearer to you.

Another advantage of Dover- Calais, in addition to the shorter trip (= more certainty re weather) is that you have the Traffic Separation Scheme through the Dover Straits, and it's narrow at that point, which makes it all very predictable - all the big traffic you are crossing will be trudging along in a tightly defined line, even though they can be a bit tightly packed one after another there on occasion. (Do follow the TSS crossing rules!) You'll cross them going in one direction, and then the other one direction. (For the crossing Poole - Cherbourg much of the traffic will be in a line between the two TSSs, one eastward and one westward of there, but they will be a bit more spread out, and some traffic heading to/from other directions.

Enjoy your trip!