Channel Cruise: Part 2 - Cherbourg to St Peter Port

It was a fairly early start on Monday 30th July to get up and out of Cherbourg to catch the tide down to Cap de la Hague, the pointy western tip of the Cotentin Peninsula. We left our mooring without difficulty, raised the sails in the harbour and headed off into the Channel. It was motor sailing into a wind with a lot of west into it.

The sea was reasonably calm and we made good progress along the French coast, seeing the massive Joburg nuclear reprocessing plant high on the hill as well as a few small villages and the Cap lighthouse. As we approached the Cap the waves got bigger. Although we were a good few miles off shore we were clearly experiencing the effect of the tide rushing round the corner. Toucando pitched quite a bit, slamming down into the troughs between the waves. Eventually we got through it and were able to turn onto a more south westerly heading towards the Alderney Race. I had been through the race on Morwenna a couple of years ago. On both times the experience was similar... a lot of help from the tide, but no particular excitement. Unfortunately the wind still stayed on the bow so we continued to motor sail. Maybe next time I'll tack to windward, but on this occasion navigation and a timely passage was the priority.

We could see the other members of our fleet much of the time: Four Seasons, Sheena, Bianca, Siskin. We saw Alderney of to starboard, and the outlines of Sark, Herm and Guernsey ahead.

Alderney as we made our way to St Peter Port, Guernsey

We entered the Litle Russel, the channel between Guernsey and Herm. There are a lot of rocks about... mostly fairly close to one or other island, some more in the middle, but generally well marked. We made our way down to St Peter Port without any particular difficulty, lowered the sails outside the harbour, waited for Four Seasons to negotiate the mooring. We then rafted up alongside FS on one of the pontoons in the outer harbour (Toucando is too big and unmanoueverable to go into the marina.)

Roger helming us through the Little Russel

On Tuesday we spent the day sight seeing. My mission was to acquire a new Guernsey sweater. I had got one on my Morwenna trip, which had proved very good value: warm and very hard wearing. Roger decided to accompany me. The shop was on the western side of the island, although the bus driver claimed it had closed, a quick check on the iPhone established it was still operational. We caught the 7a - the bus which gowes round the island anti-clockwise. All fares are £1.00 - brilliant! The bus first winds through St Peter Port and St Sampson, then along the rugged north coast, full of cliffs and bays and forts. Eventually we got to Fort Grey, next to which the sweater shop operates. I was able to find one in a nice sea green. We had a cup of tea in the neighbouring cafe and walked out to the fort.

View from Fort Grey, Guernsey

We caught the next 7a to complete the circuit. We then went to a pontoon party on a couple of the SSC boats... bring your own crisps and ginger beer. Some of the fleet were going to continue south to Jersey and Brittany. Some had to go straight back home. Toucando, Four Seasons and Sheena were going off to Alderney. We said our good byes.

Castle Cornet, St Peter Port, by moonlight

We ate at the Swan pub that night. Fortunately it was not an early start for the north going tide so we were able to spend Wednesday morning having a further look around St Peter Port.

Channel Cruise: Part 1 - Southampton to Cherbourg

The crew assembled on Friday 27th July. Toucando had been victualled and prepared for the voyage. Roger of Southampton Sailing Club, and Colin who had sailed on Toucando recently both came to Shamrock Quay in the afternoon.

We set off shortly after 1700 towards Yarmouth, our chosen first night destination. Our voyage was to take us across the English Channel and to last nine days... Toucando's longest trip since her passage from Dublin last year. The cruise was in company with several other Southampton Sailing Club boats, led by Four Seasons.

We were able to sail some of the way down to Yarmouth, but needed the engine as well. We found a mooring buoy outside the harbour before darkness fell. We ate a Mediterranean chicken stew on board and got ready for an early start the following morning.

Our mooring buoy off Yarmouth

To get the best of the tide through the Needles Channel we aimed to leave at 0515 on Saturday 28th July. We actually slipped our mooring ten minutes later. We soon got the sails raised and were able to sail down the last few miles of the Solent, past the Needles before turning left and steering 185 degrees for Cherbourg.

We were on a pleasant starboard tack, with just the right amount of wind... an unusual experience. Toucando made a decent speed and we progressed steadily, making one (probably unnecessary) deviation for large shipping. As planned we arrived uptide of Cherbourg and were able to slide into the Western Entrance of the Grande Rade diagonally, to the astonishment of the crew who were slightly alarmed that we appeared to be heading straight for the harbour wall.

At 1703 we were the first to arrive, and had made an excellent time. It took slightly longer than we had expected to get the mainsail down. The wind had got a fair bit stronger in the final hours of the crossing. When we entered La Chantereyne Marina we had expected to be greeted by a lady in a red dory... but she was nowhere to be seen. We did a quick circuit before retreatring to the Petit Rade to await the arrival of Four Seasons. It seemed that the marina had not reserved places for us, so we wnded up distributed all over. Toucando finished up on the waiting pontoon... not connected to dry land (but we are used to that). We had a bolognese aboard.

Toucando in the sunset at Cherbourg

Sunday was a free day. We had established in a morning trip ashore that nothing much happens in Cherbourg on Sunday, and unfortunately the convenient Carrefour supermarket just by the harbour is being rebuilt, making any significant shopping difficult.

In the afternoon the skipper took advantage of visiting the Cite de la Mer, a major tourist attraction. Although it was only a frw hundred metres from where Toucando was moored it was a long (but not unpleasant) walk round the harbour to get there. It is based in the old liner terminal and one of the first rooms you go in is the baggage hall... quite impressive, I thought.

Liner baggage hall in cherbourg, now part of the Cite de la Mer museum

That room told the story of French emigration to America. Other parts of the museum were devoted to the Titanic (which stopped in Cherbourg for one and a half hours en route to Queenstown, and thence to its nemesis); diving and submarines (including a decommissioned nuclear sub), and a rather atmospheric aquarium.

Jellyfish

(I could post a few more like this.)

Nuclear submarine

I would recommend Cite de la Mer to anybody with a day to spare in Cherbourg. In the evening the whole Southampton Sailing Club part gathered in the Yacht Club restaurant where we enjoyed some French Cuisine... a duck and anchovy salad, a salmon steak, and creme caramel in my case. The following day we would be setting off towards St Peter Port Guernsey. (To be continued.)