Fwd: A day off in St Vaast

> Vendredi should have been the last race from Cherbourg to St Vaast - but with the fleet bar 1 yacht(!) still holed up in Dielette and the it still blowin' well, Fri was declared a day off! After a late start it was decided St Vaast did have to be done - only this time by bus! The 2€ bus was the best 2€ I've spent in ages - the villages and scenery east of Cherbourg were impressive - very reminiscent of western Cornwall & worth a rtn visit. St Vaast it's self is an archetypal French fishing port that's developed to accommodate leisure boating. The tidal range is impressive and parking your fishing boat against the wall outside the harbour needs to be done with care - unlike this skipper who used his guard rails as frangible fenders as he settled against the wall - oops! The town is also renown for it's oysters - and despite there nit being an 'r' in the month - I can vouch they taste good with a verre du vin blank!!
> Just off St V is the small islet and fort of Tatihou (http://www.tatihou.manche.fr/) My grasp of French wasn't good enough to give a complete history but it appeared to be a fort from years gone by and despite being only a click of 2 off shore it has its on micro ecosystem and a Nature Reserve. It's worth a visit - if only to experience the floating bus!
> Friday was also our last night in France so we celebrated with a trip to La Scuba bar with it's almost legendary (with prev crews on this yacht) sticklebric darts board. The pic below shows Chris - prev Prime Evil Sticklebric darts champion getting friendly with the locals...!?

The morning after the night before...

The Bastille party went on well into the night - the disco was a blast from the past (80's to be precise) with some French euro pop thrown in. Outside the wind was whistling throu the rigging and luckily most of the yachts were alongside rather than the traditional TDP 10 x 10 raft. The morning dawned bright but still blowin' - the TDP organisers aka Le Committee decided to bin the racing for the day on grounds of weather. This had several outcomes - namely the final leg would now be up to Cherbourg And if we wanted to make St Vaast we'd have make our own way there. As Dielette was more of a 1 horse village that had lost its horse we decided to make a break for it and sail to Cherbourg... This decision was met with much shaking of heads by the French sailing sages - big seas, strong tides and 20 kts of blow were tres formidable et tres tres dangerous. The reality was that by having wind and tide in our favour it would mean it would be lumpy, but ok. Our departure (prob the only one today) was watched & filmed by plenty of peeps - once out of the harbour the first few waves did make me wonder if we'd made the right call - 3m waves sound pretty innocuous until you're in a 12m yacht climbing up the front and tipping off the back of wave after wave after wave... Eventually it settled into a kinda rhythm - steer left, climb up, steer right, slide down, blink the sea water out of eyes, curse that wave that drenched you, steer right etc. Eventually we'd rounded the corner and it calmed down save for the odd evil wave that crept up and dropped in on us. Yet again the beer in Cherbourg tasted good & as the only TDP yacht to make Cherbourg we must, by definition, be the first yacht and therefore the winner of today's leg of the TDP!!!! :-)

Bastille Day

Mercredi dawned grey with a good breeze blowin' from the SW. Our course was from Guernsey to Dielette - a small village approx 10 miles down the western side of the Cherbourg Peninsula. After the usual start line faff we were off - with plenty wind from ( for once) a good direction. For non sailors - 'plenty of wind from a good direction' means speed & while 10 mph don't sound like much - in a yacht heeled over to 30 degs it's the dogs!!! Therefore, for the first time this week we finished a race - within the time limit!!! :-) Our only snag was Dielette & it's extreme tides... The whole of the CI/St Malo region has some very impressive tidal streams and heights - Dielette has 9m of tide today - and when you arrive at low water (cause that good wind means you get places early) all you can do is bob (bounce?!) about - and have a shower with a view of the impressive nuclear plant they are building here! Eventually we had enough water to get in - the raft up chaos ensued - with the added relish of a gale later tonight...?!?!
Now after the excesses(!) of Guernsey, Dielette could have provided a hotdog van and a stack of 1664 Bottles and stolen a march but they decided to put up this tent (see pic) and fill it with tables, sailors and seafood choucroute - no, I didn't know what it was either - try prawns, cabbage, spud, fish - it's tres bien and being Basille Day, I think that's just for starters...?!?

Guernsey - again...

Le meto pour Mardi said that the one component of sailing we'd not seen much of - namely wind, was due to make a guest appearance! :-) The raft break-up and start were much more British... The course took us to the NE corner of Jersey then over the top of Sark and into Guernsey. With good wind the first part went ok - unfortunately, as the tide built against us so the wind also dropped and it all slowed down. Some elementary maths concluded that we were not going to make the finish - again. We plugged on in the hope that the race might be shortened but nope so half way round Sark we binned it and took the short route to Guernsey. The reception there was overwhelming - 1 water taxi (the other one was broke) to ferry 800+ thirsty sailors ashore to the reception tent that was Punch & Judy sized & empty - the Reception had wrapped 2 hrs before we (& prob 70% of the Fleet) had got in - ce la vie or whatever the equiv Channel Islands expression might be!

Armagnac - the spirit of yachting

Monday dawned grey and breezy - the organisational brilliance continued with cafe by the urn & croissant by the crate + the aforementioned Maginot Tables. The race started with the usual spirited shouts - some was just psychin ' out the opposition - althou it was noticeable that the higher the pitch the more notice peeps took - so we just shouted higher!!!! The start also coincided with 2 other things - parting of the clouds and a reduction in the wind... Three hrs later we'd done 3 miles - and it was a further 20 miles to our next port of call. So, students of math (I hate Yank yuck spk) will be able to deduce that whilst we would make landfall - it wasn't gonna be anytime soon. With the turn of the tide we started going backwards so that settled it. End ex, a radio call (that was not ack'd,) a swim for some and engine on. Half an hr later we were hailed by another competitor whose engine had overheated. A tow was organised and we headed north... Other than some dolphins and plenty rain, the run north was uneventful (tedious) to say the least. When we got to Cateret we cast off the other yacht and we joined the inevitable TDP yacht raft. 10 mins later the skipper of our toe rocked up with a bottle Armagnac - it seems the the yacht was an Armagnac and he had a fine bottle of the same to say thx!!!! :-))) the rest of the eve was spent hoovering snax, drinking free booze and shooting the shite about sailing!?!

PS when we got back on board the Skipper had hidden the Armagnac so we had an ad hoc opportunity to do a compare and contrast with the cooking brandy!?!

The First Race

Sunday dawned grey and drizzly - so much for Jersey being the sunshine isle. At about 8:15 the raft of some 100 yachts broke up - using the tried and tested continental approach of every yacht for himself... At around 8:30 the Harbour master closed the exit to the sea to let a ferry in - this resulted in approx 99 yachts milling about in small inner harbour - at least it gave ample opportunity to rebuild relationships that were strained at the raft break-up!!!
Once free from the harbour, we all milled around the start - being a French organised event - all radio calls were made with typical Gallic indifference! The start was fun - well it was in hindsight - and it certainly made the raft break-up seem like a teddy bear's picnic!!!
The race went well IMHO - becalmed and (almost) bobbing - the Committee shortened the race for every class but ours - how considerate!! Wind did pick up and we completed the course under sail - unfortunately, we 'crossed' the finish line approx 20 mins after it had been towed in - ce la vie.
The Committee then displayed a rare display of organisational brilliance cider, bottles of vin rouge, paella and a row of tables not dissimilar to the Maginot Line for 800 peeps - ok, not quite biblical loaves and fishes but pretty damn good!!

Chris' new friend...

I almost forgot about Chris and his new friend he met in Pizza Hut...!? He's doing the race too - he thought he'd dress up in a short little White and blue number and see what happened... :-)

St Helier & the race build-up

Plans to go for a spot of last minute training were scuppered as the raft of yachts grew. We were 3rd out on Fri aftie but by pub chuck out there were 5 other yachts out from us. On Sat more arrived and the only way to leave wouldn't have made us many friends so plan B was activated. St Helier is a small place that is remarkable for the small no of pubs and bars - so few I decided I could do a survey of WiFi coverage at each one!! By the time we returned to the yacht the raft was huge - approx 10 rafts each 10 yacht deep - impressive. Equally impressive was the race welcoming reception at the St H Raddisson - canapés and free flow vin! The speech went over our heads but we met the Prime Minister of Jersey in the post speech mingling! The rest of the night was spent in Pizza Hut networking with the Jersey 'lecy team & their the Brizzel born boss.

Dhobi Day...

Tradition says Fri is fish day but for me it was shower day and as water is a precious commodity on Guernsey - I thought I'd do my dhobi in the shower!? Afterwards some coffee & pastries set the crew up for the rigours of a tough passage to Jersey - 30 miles, calm sea, blu sky, sun, diesel in the tank(!) For once (or maybe at last...) the day went without drama! We rocked at St Helier and rafted up to some other yachts in the race. After some tidying and a beer, we set off for a more beer (this is a holiday!?) eventually we found a nice bar and we sat outside under a shady tree - such a pleasant spot, a pigeon thought it would be great place to see who it could hit... Now, it's supposed to be lucky if a bird craps on you, so tomorrow I'm off to buy a lottery ticket but tonight, i'm off to the gents for some more dhobi?!? :-)

Lies, Damn Lies & The Fuel Gauge

Well, after our fun in the fog we decided to hi-tail it to Guernsey at the earliest opportunity - so after 3 hrs kip we we away again to make the most of the (in)famous Alderney Race (Google it...) Progress was rapid and pleasant in the sun - only lacking wind - but hey we have a big diesel engine so roll on St Peter Port... The only snag with big (or small) diesel engines is their dependency on diesel!?! Yachts don't tend to have a fuel gauge but that means you run the risk of running out - which always happens at the worst time... So to mitigate this - we have a precise digital fuel gauge fitted. Now hands up all those of you who think precise means accurate???? Quite - accuracy and precise can be a million light years apart - I mean how could a tank with 4% fuel remaining be empty?!?!?! So you've prob guessed - our pleasant trip was 'interrupted' when the engine died?!?! Tools out change everything then check tank... Eventually after some drifting and a close eye on some rocks, a Samaritan came but and we acquired 5 gallon of diesel in exch for a bottle of malt! The rest was easy and the beer on the sundeck in St Peter Port tasted oh soooooo good ! :-)

Je suis au France

Question - Is there anything better than a cold beer at 5am? Answer - No!!!! A plan to head for Weymouth got binned at les Needles in favour of Alderney. Alderney got binned about oh-very-earlier o'clock when fog with 50m viz rocked up. Now fog in a yacht ain't fun - fog in a radar equipped yacht still ain't fun but at least you can see the other ships before they hit you... Its also good idea to go for a big port in fog rather than country backwater that is Braye, so Cherbourg it was - and at 5 am we were moored up beer in hand!! :-)

We're all going on a summer holiday...

OK so it's a yacht not a red London double decker but we are all going on a summer holiday, therefore right on queue, after weeks of sun that's split every paving slab south of the Watford Gap, I go on holiday and I wake to grey skies and wind from the south - the direction Jersey is... The plan for the day has yet to be decided - first bacon butties!!

Prime Evil

Prime Evil is my home and trusty companion for the next few days. For yacht geeks, she is a Sigma 400 who is 40 ft long - no idea why she's not a Sigma 40 - she just isn't!  I've sailed approx 2500 NM in Prime so I know her quite well and and she's an excellent yacht - just too much string...!

The Prologue

OK - so what is Tour des Ports de la Manche? Well, it's a series of yacht races - 7 days, 7 ports! The map above sums it up but for those who are geographically challenged it starts in Jersey - then across to Granville, Carteret, Guernsey, Port Dielette, Cherbourg & St Vaast.  Each day is a different race with a party each night to reflect, review and kick a*$e!!!!!