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| Leaving cool and misty Cherbourg |
Weather and forecast are definitely more of the English Channel variety rather han the warm sun of S Brittany. However the wind looked more promising for our crossing, so we motored out of the outer harbour and found enough wind to sail, with the aim of going to Eastbourne. After a while we put up the cruising chute and kept it up for ages - on a deep broad reach with SW wind. The strong tide round the Cotentin peninsula took us torwards the East at a good rate. Around 4 pm we decided the wind was a bit strong for the cruising chute and so took it down with some difficulty. Later put a reef in the main as the wind was getting to F5.
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| We saw a lot of sea - not much else |
Just before dark we put the second reef in the main. Shortly afterwards the wind dropped off a bit and after a while we felt that the autopilot could cope again (we had stopped using it earlier in the day as it reacts a bit late to the effect of waves) so we each managed a bit of rest.
It appeared that we could get to Eastbourne very late or just carry on to Dover in the favourable tide and arrive in the morning, which seemed the better choice. We eventually ran out of wind between Beachy Head and Dungeness and motored for the rest of the way, having tide with us almost to Dover Harbour. A shame to have to motor at the end but this was more than compensated by hour after hour of fast downwind sailing for the first 3/4 of the trip. We found the AIS, even though the basic NASA model, quite useful for deciding when to avoid ships. We did one gybe to avoid a couple of ships.
Went into Granville Dock and settled down for a snooze. Fortunately the tides do not require an early start tomorrow.
Tomorrow we hope to get back home, hopefully avoiding the need to stop in Ramsgate, our least-favourite harbour of the trip.
