When we go to sea from Blighty we normally turn right and therefore head West.
Time to see if she will go East.
During The Great British Heatwave of 2018 the wind generally came from the North East. This wasn't ideal for our expedition but we would cope. We had an engine.
16 July 2018
Taxi from our secret hideout to Kingswear. Yacht taxi to our Albatross. A pleasant night on the mooring.
17 July
We re-fuelled and set sail for Brixham. As it was a flat calm hot day we motored.
Dinner aboard entertaining D and S.
18 July
To Braye. We had a pleasant quiet night in Braye Harbour and the boat didn't even rock as much as is normal for Braye. We enjoyed watching other yotties fight over the last available moorings and felt smug that we had arrived earlier than them.
19 July
To Cherbourg.
20 July
To Grandcamp Maisie
An odd name for a french village. Something to do with The Normandy Landings, I believe.
We had a nice walk around the village, along the beach and looked at the church. It was pleasantly warm. (The village, that is)
Albatross berthed in Grandcamp Maisie
22 July
Eastwards to Le Havre.
The entrance to the Marina was shallow. The depth read 0.00 metres under the keel in the marina entrance. We survived..
I read something that said that Le Havre is the third biggest port in Europe. I doubt it, but there were some huge ships passing the marina and a massive ship parking area in the bay.
We swam on the beach. It was hot. (The beach, that is)
Big ships in Le Havre
Old and new ships outside Le Havre
23 July
Eastwards to Fecamp.
A nice marina but with a rather glum girl at the desk with a sign glued down on front of her telling customers to be courteous, or else. The showers were a little smelly. But it was hot. (The day, that is).
We had a nice swim on the beach, before the fog came in.
24 July
We motored to Dieppe.
Dieppe used to have the reputation of being a rather industrial (perhaps even smelly) extension to Newhaven and simply somewhere where the British could park a ferry whilst recovering from a trip across "La Manche". Far from it. This might be a better description of Newhaven,
Dieppe is a little gem. We like Dieppe.
To Boulogne.
We berthed in "Marina Henry IV", which I thought entirely appropriate. Boulogne is a fine town with a fine church. I understand that Spaghetti Bolognais was invented in Boulogne as was the art of bread making (Hence "boulangerie"). Julius Caesar and William of Normandy both used Boulogne as a base from which to invade Blighy (but not at the same time)
Julius Caesar
William
26 July
To Dover.
We crossed the Dover Traffic Separation Zone with aplomb and spoke confidently on the VHF with Dover Port Control, using words like "Roger, Over, Standby, Starboard and So-you-want-me-to-go-through-the-entrance-when-the-lights-are-red?"
We had intended to berth in Granville Dock. (Presumably named after 1st Earl Granville (12 October 1773 – 8 January 1846), known as Lord Granville Leveson-Gowerfrom 1786 to 1815, as Viscount Granville from 1815 to 1833, and as Earl Granville from 1833 onwards, who was a British Whig statesman and diplomat.
However because of building works in the harbour (and the price) we eventually berthed in Wellington Marina, which I felt to be rather more appropriate in these troubled times.
We like Dover, the harbour and its beach. We had a swim. It was hot (everything was hot). We also had ice creams.
27 July
Back to Essex by train. It was the hottest day of the year (so far).
We had thunderstorms and revelled in the petrichor.
It was indeed hot (Putin, that is)
Next time. More about petrichor and "East to Holland".
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