Winter Madness?

With the normal succession of Atlantic depressions which sweep in from the west, sailing in the English Channel during winter is regarded by many as bordering upon madness, especially if you have any sort of deadlines to meet. Other than trying to get to Guernsey to be with family for Christmas, for once we had no 'getting back to work' deadline or essential appointments that would restrict us. We had also just picked up our mainsail from the sailmaker so after bending it on we wanted to get back out on the water sailing. BV had been in port too long!

Cherbourg's Visitors' Pontoon

On Tuesday 18 December there was a small weather window between depressions so at 0600 we set off to cross the Channel. The forecast had a strong south easterly wind which would hit us towards the end of our passage so we aimed to tactically position ourselves up-wind and up-tide of Cherbourg's entrance when that was due. We had enough time to cross to Cherbourg before the weather turned grim again.

The strong south easterly did not materialise so we ended up sailing a little further than we needed to but it was a good crossing. Strangely the visitors' section of the marina was empty apart from French sailing school yachts practising mooring and a couple of live-aboard yachts.

There was also a huge brand new Swiss flagged catamaran with a busy team of technicians finishing off commissioning her. The purple 'bling lights' all of the way up the leading edge her mast and matching floodlights for her boarding steps certainly make her stand out at night when in port; not an additon we intend for BV.

Consolations

Shortly after arriving our weather window closed firmly with the wind blowing very strongly directly from the direction of Guernsey for the next 3 days. We bravely decided to stay in Cherbourg and take advantage of the good wine, cheeses and seafood. Excellent consolations to make up for being held up in port.




It was not all R&R though. A recent delivery of sacrificial anodes for the fridge and the engine plus a handful of screws and the pieces of varnished teak ensured we were never short of a job or two. Changing the fridge anodes ended up being more troublesome than expected with some debris from the old anodes blocking the cooling pipes; we had to pull the water cooling circuit apart and flush it all through to get things working properly again.

We also used the time to fit the spice rack/shelf in the forward galley locker and screw the new teak kitchen roll holder into position. All successes from our labours the previous week. However, the one topic not to be mentioned in conversation at the moment is the wooden cabin doors. We have refitted them to check that they fit properly after being trimmed and having the drip rail fitted, it's just that the quick couple of extra coats of varnish to tidy them up have not come up well enough. We now have a New Year's task of stripping the old varnish right back on the inside of the doors and starting the varnishing again. Definitely frustrating but worth doing properly for both cosmetic and practical reasons.