Still in Cherbourg

When we arrived here, we paid for a week in advance. At the time, we thought that we’d go from here to Le Havre and take a train to Paris. Since then we’ve learned a lot about the prices of things here and have changed our plans. Next we’ll go on to Nieuwpoort, Belgium, and save our trip to Paris for the off-season.

The public market in front of the theater

Umbrellas of Cherbourg for sale here

This statue of Napoleon survived the WWII bombing

But first, we have to have a repair completed. Last week the wind in the harbor kicked up, and we needed to adjust our dock lines, so we tried to start the engine to back off the dock a little. But it wouldn’t start. It had been difficult to start since somewhere between Florida and the Azores, and we thought it was the battery. This time John checked the battery and it was good, so it must be the starter. We’ve been carrying a spare starter, so it wasn’t that big a deal when the mechanic told us the astronomical price to replace the one that died. We said use the spare. Pleased that the labor costs for the mechanic were very reasonable, John turned on the engine yesterday to warm the oil prior to changing it, and smoke started coming out of the engine instrument panel. Nothing burned, but some wires melted, so we got a mechanic back to the boat to fix it. It was their error that caused the problem, so there was no charge to us. However, as they were running the engine to be sure that everything was OK this time, they noticed a small fuel leak. The high-pressure fuel hose had chafed through in a spot. So now we’re going to replace that, but the shop is closed Sunday and Monday, so we’re here until Wednesday. (John still has to change the oil after the repair is complete.)

Since our last post we’ve been to the public market, had dinner in a nice restaurant, and visited the museum of the liberation. We’re walking a lot to make up for all the baguettes and Camembert we’ve been eating. The weather has turned a little rainy, so we’re hanging out on the boat at the moment. Nothing very exciting to report, but maybe John will get another photo page or two put together soon.

Exploring Cherbourg

Since our last post at the end of the crossing, we’ve been quite busy. Much of our time has been spent exploring the old town around the marina, looking for an inexpensive café the first day where we could have café au lait and croissants. (We struck out on that but brought pastries back to the boat to have with our tea and coffee.)

Next we went in search of customs and immigration to find out if we needed to clear in. When we arrived at their building, they were closed for lunch, but it was near the La Cité de la Mer, a huge maritime museum, so we went there. Afterwards we found some people in the customs office who were totally confused by our question but arranged for officers to come to our boat the next day.

Our next quest was for a French-English-French dictionary and phrase book for me (Shirlee). My high school French has been amazingly useful, and I’ve confirmed that I still know more French than I’ve managed to learn of Spanish or Portuguese, but it’s nice to have a dictionary.

There’s a huge supermarket that’s quite popular with the Brits within walking distance of the marina, but it’s a hike and we haven’t been there yet. We thought it would be more fun to find little butcher shops, bakeries, and green grocers in the old town. And there’s a farmers’ market every other day. Yesterday we found the farmers’ market and tried a second bakery, not being thrilled with the baguette from the first. I think we’ve got it figured out now where we’ll shop, and it is fun to do it this way. There’s a supermarket near the farmers’ market that look big enough for our purposes. We still have canned food from the Costco run that Mom and I did in Fort Lauderdale, so what we mostly need is fresh stuff. Oh yes, and there’s a big discount wine store right at the marina.

Eating in restaurants here is relatively expensive. Even the blue plate special that most offer (plat du jour) runs at least 6€. With shopping being fun and John being such a good cook, we’ve decided to pick a restaurant for just one dinner out. We have a little restaurant guide, and we’ve been reading the menus posted in the restaurant windows as we explore. When the customs guys came to inspect us, we also asked for their recommendations. We think we’ve found the one, and we’ll read its menu when we go to the tourist office to find out how to get to the D-Day memorials; it’s on the way.

About clearing in, we learned from the customs officers that we don’t have to do it here in France. We cleared into the EU in the Azores, and that’s good enough for them. The procedure is to check in with the marina, and customs and immigration will look us up if they want to talk with us. Another cruiser on a discussion board said that’s what they did in Belgium and the Netherlands too. But since we contacted customs, they were happy to do the most thorough inspection yet of the boat.

Finally, John got lots of photo pages together, and I got them posted on the website. (Look under Recent Updates.) Enjoy!

Atlantic Crossing 2nd Leg Day 14 - We Made It!

We are on the dock in France. Time to break out the bubbly and relax.

All is well aboard Solstice.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Atlantic Crossing 2nd Leg Day 13 - Crossing Traffic Lanes

This afternoon we started getting close to the outbound big ship traffic lane. As we approached within two miles of the traffic lane, we decided to cross the traffic lanes to get to the small vessel side. As we crossed we had to divert course for three freighters. They were heading out in a steady stream. At times we had six ships tracking on radar. After five hours we had crossed all lanes and resumed our course to the NE.

Today has been a warm and sunny day with no wind. We have been motoring all day until 8:00 p.m. The wind has come up and with the favorable current, we are now sailing at 4.6 knots. This is our last night of the Atlantic crossing and we are feeling pretty good about it.

All is well aboard Solstice.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Atlantic Crossing 2nd Leg Day 12 - I see England, I see France

Since it's dark out, we really can see the light at Lizard Point in England. Boy, there sure are a lot of boats here! Many of them are commercial fishing boats, but there's freighter traffic too. A few hours ago, we had five freighters in sight at once. Just an hour ago, there were too many fishing boats to count, maybe a dozen, all around us. In the afternoon we saw two sailboats crossing toward France, but they didn't answer our hail. We're motor-sailing up the middle of the channel now to minimize the effects of the current. There's very little wind, we're tired of going so slowly, and we have enough fuel to reach Cherbourg, even if we have to motor the whole rest of the way.

All is well aboard Solstice.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Atlantic Crossing 2nd Leg Day 11 - Good wind arrived

Today the wind is back in our favor. It clocked to the south, and we are on a close reach to our final waypoint before entering the English Channel. The current weather forecasts should have us in Cherbourg in three days. However, we received a conflicting forecast from Herb this evening which calls for east winds in the channel in two days due to high pressure over Ireland. At any rate, we are getting close and making good time now.

All is well aboard Solstice.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Atlantic Crossing 2nd Leg Day 10 -Crossed the Continental Shelf

Today we crossed the line the marks the continental shelf. On EU charts it is the 200-meter depth line; on US charts it is the 100-fathom line. When we approached the line there were two large fishing boats working the line. In stormy weather the seas can build up rather large breaking waves at and inside the 100-fathom line. However, today was easy with 15 knots from the SE driving us toward Europe.

Today has been a tacking drill. Our desired course is ESE and the wind has been SE most of the day. So we have been tacking back and forth over our rhumb line to get east. Our northerly tack had us pointing at Ireland early in the day. Later in the afternoon the northerly tack had us headed to Wales. The wind is now backing to the NE so our southerly tack has become our favored tack. Eventually the wind is to back to westerlies.

All is well aboard Solstice.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com