Friday, June 7, 2013

Grand Finale

Papy Jovial wants to be certain that this crossing will remain a memorable one. Last night, we started with a severe thunderstorm that forced us to heave to under two reefs and genoa reduced to a working jib for more than two hours.
We resumed sailing under sail, until as usual the wind dropped and we had to start motoring. That is when the line between a fish trap and its floating marker got caught in the rudder. We fished the line with the anchor of the dinghy and then cut it with the big diving knofe that we keep on the steering wheel pedestal.
Then we reached St Peter of Guernsey at 11:30 and took more than 3 hours to cover the 4.5 miles of the Grand Russell channel. We got out of it around 4:30 and we are now waiting for the promised strong northward current of the "Raz Blanchard". We might make it to the Fuel Dock of Cherbourg before midnight, but our dreams of a nice dinner at the Yacht Club have evaporated and the best we can hope for will be a late drink at the bar, since it is Friday.After a good night sleep, it will be a day of cleaning, drying, shopping, before leaving for Rouen around 6:30 p.m.
At noon, we were by 49:26 N and 2:27 W, just outside St Peter. We still had 44 miles to go. Since we had already covered 1639 miles and there are 56 miles between Cherbourg and Le Havre, the total crossing will be a minimum of 1739 miles when the direct course was 1405 miles long. Papy Jovial loves adding miles.
Therer will be no blog tomorrow, but I wil try and conclude this voyage while we sail up the river Seine.


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