How much fun crossing the Channel

One tip I can offer is that you leave Gosport about two hours before the sun is coming up.

Then you will cross the shipping lanes and make your landfall during daylight.

Coming into Cherbourg for the first time at night is confusing with it lit up like a Christmas tree, and you will be tired.
 
It's also worthwhile if you are tired, and unfamiliar with Cherbourg, to anchor just outside the marina breakwater and get a good night's sleep. Then go in next morning when there are plenty of berths being vacated and you can choose a good one [and save a nights berthing fee].
 
If its a Weekend trip it can be a bit exhausting around 15 hours each way and don't forget whether crossing during night or day..... Take a Bearing on aproaching Ships every few minutes to determine if it'll hit you or not, some of them think 'after the Dover straights they can stand down lookouts and increase speed to 25Kts', which gives you very little time to decide what to do.
 
On my last trip over, the windfarm atop the cliffs behind Cherbourg was by far the most "conspic" thing I could see and NOT on my new chart (it is now). /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
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