‘Aliya’went back in the water in the rain on the same day the French were coming, so it wasn’t till during the week that I was able to get ready to leave, but with even greater motivation having had to watch them leave on Sunday evening in ideal conditions.
Lucky I checked the motor on Thursday, mind – no water! Lucky also that Dan Stuttle wasn’t far away and was able to clear what may just have been an airlock, though it wasn’t obvious what the problem had been – ‘a mystery', Dan concluded.
Friday was a fine morning with the promise of a breeze, and once off Portland I was sailing fast, even having to reef after a while and still making over 7 knots on a broad reach. Soon the shipping began to be visible ahead, though the weather was visibly changing, as it clouded over and the wind dropped – which was odd, since Jobourg began giving a strong wind warning for the coast, repeated every half hour to boot!
As I approached the coast, not quite knowing what to expect, the wind got lighter and lighter, and I was motoring into rain with the second half of the flood, under an increasingly menacing sky...whatever it was would probably arrive with little warning.
It was still raining as I arrived in the grande rade, and the wind veered a bit and began to rise. Not long after I had tied up in the first available place at Chantereyne, and gone below to put the heating on and dry off a bit, the wind got up a lot and it rained hard for the rest of the evening!
Next morning it was dry but freezing - January taking the place of November - although it cleared up and warmed up a bit in the afternoon, when I was able to inspect the rade in the sunshine aboard the vedette ‘Adele’, with my friend Wilfried, who had sailed with us the Sunday before at Weymouth on ‘Saskia VII’. Everyone had clearly enjoyed the Transmanche weekend, and it was very pleasant to be able to have feedback less than a week later in Cherbourg!
A northerly wind has meant that I’ve had the week to do all sorts of things ashore, including visit the archives, and cycle up the montagne du Roule, as well as visit the gardens here which are always at their best at this time of the year, with an impressive display of rhododendrons, camellias, etc. The hothouses of the Jardin Emmanuel Liais are open too, with their giant ferns and banana plants, which add an exotic dimension to a visit there.
I raced with friends on Tuesday evening at YCC, when we were first over the line in the slow class, and second on corrected, after a race using the whole of the width of the rade to give a beat all the way up to the Passe de l’Ouest and a run back down in the late sunshine to a buoy off the new industrial zone where they are now busy making wind turbines, which make an impressive sight stacked up ready for collection by ship.
The problem is that the Melges I normally sail on lost its main and mast in a confrontation with the cardinal buoy La Tenarde, off the vigie du Hommet, the week before, so it’s not obvious what’s going to happen, especially as they don’t make Melges masts any more, and for obvious reasons secondhand ones are rare!
I've been making preparations for our annual Solstice Rally, which is now only a month aaway - there will be the possibility of the usual activities, though it is likely I will be in the West Country with my mate Georges on his boat 'Crazy Goose' for a change.
Steve Fraser
'Aliya'
