Wednesday, May 29, 2013

ups and downs

Finally, we were able today to slacken a little bit the sheets. We go faster and more comfortably, but we know that it won't last. But as long as it does, we are able to catch up a little bit with sleep.
The bad newsd, which I hope is temporary, is that the weather forecast is showing light north easterly wind as we enter the Channel. That means a lot of motoring and slower speed.
At this point, we lowered our expectations and no longer expect to arrive on June 5th at the mouth of the river Seines, which also means that we won't get to Rouen before the start of the event. All I have to do now is make the appropriate contacts to make sure that we still have available space for Papy Jovial. I will also try and contact Tom and Barbara who are coming on the 10th, wich is OK.
One of the beauties of Cloud Computing, is that you can only consult you new and old mail when you are connected. And since I have had to reformat my hard drive, I do not have email addresses and I have to recover them from my own memory. Very risky process.
It is still very cold, by our standards, with the temperature at 62 during the night. Both Karen and I are without cold weather clothes, Karen because she did not take any on the boat, and me because somehow they got misplaced and we can't find them. So, I put on as many layers as possible and so far, it is ok.
We are now thinking of possibly making a stop in Plymouth, England to top up our fuel tanks. So far, we have only used the engine for 8 hours, but if the wind does not cooperate, we know that we won't have enough to motor all the way to Honfleur and then up the river Seine. The only two reasonable options are Plymouthy and Cherbourg, but in case of a North East light wind, Plymouth is better as we will have even less wind on the south coast of england.
We hope that the forecast will change and that we will be able to reach Rouen without having to refuel.


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