Dear All
I hope you are enjoying the summer heat in various summer houses, the zoo, work etc. RR arrived at Camaret Sur Mer this morning. A real French summer town with pavement restaurants, a beach and cosy French houses. We can stay in the harbour despite the tide difference, but that means we have to walk a long way along a pier to get into the city. We have taken some long stretches of about 24 hours along the European coast. Then we have had one or more layover days in the towns we have come to. It has worked well in terms of tides and we had an equal amount of current and counter current. This has also meant that we have sailed in the good weather windows with a tailwind or very little wind. There has thus been little seasickness. We have divided the day into 4-hour shifts. So we have all been able to sleep a little (very little). When we arrived in port, we just spent a few more hours lying down.
In Zeebrügge we took the train to Brügge, which is a very interesting city with old 14th-century houses. We got to taste the famous Belgian Frites. The next day we had a nice sail to Fécamp (21 hours). In Fécamp we got quite a surprise when Lise called and told us that she is expecting twins. It’s wild. Mette is looking forward to being a nanny for 3 little boys.
We spent 3 days in Fécamp before we got the right weather window for Cherbourg, then that city was also seen. Between Cherbourg and the island of Alderney, there is an incredible amount of current up to 9 knots. This water is called the Alderney race. It should preferably be passed in co-current. As we approached Cherbourg we could see that we would pass the Alderney race with co-current if we continued, so we did. We continued to Guernsey. We docked at St Peter Port in Guernsey in the morning. It is a harbour full of moorings and pontoon bridges which can move the 6-8 m required by the tide. However, we managed to find the waiting pontoon and were cleared and assigned a place. In the city, there was a town party and amateur singers had set up pavilion tents on every other street corner. We went for a walk and kept our ears open. In fact, the city is very interesting, hilly and has small fine passageways, stairs, etc. The next day, cheap diesel, and a one-day trip to Camaret Sur Mer, where we are now. During the morning shift, Jeppe and Mette were visited by dolphins and tried to wake me up. It didn’t work.
The next step is the Biscay crossing. It will be a trip of about 4 days, so we must have bought and prepared some food. Mette wanted buns in curry, Susanne wanted chicken, I decided on spaghetti carbonara and Jeppe wanted a lump of meat.
Hugs to everyone.
Kirsten
Knus til alle. Kirsten