Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure
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@Giles 5-6 days of cider sampling each way?
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Unless we decide to stay in Paris, or go all the way down to the Med, which is possible (though I would need to check whether SAKURA could do it - I spoke to a guy who had done it in a 47' boat, so I think it can be done.)
The speed limit on the Seine is 10knots. So say, we average 8.5knots, dicking around with locks and getting caught behind slower boats. It's about 160nm from Honfleur to Paris. So about 20 hours of motoring each way. 3 is easily doable, even 2. But part of the adventure will be taking our time and enjoying the ride, booze, food and part of France I have never seen, certainly not from a river. Taking let's say 3 or 4 to get there, then 5 or 6 or 7 to get back.
In both cases how slow or fast we have to do it depends to a great extent upon our channel crossing. For 100nm across open water, we need the weather to be kind....And we have a had have-to-be-in-Paris date, my sisters birthday party.....
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said in Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure:
About a year ago, Paula and started to discuss life after SAKURA. Unless we buy second hand, anything that we would want, would be a 1-3 year delivery. We think that by then, we'll want something a little smaller, with just 2 cabins (we have 3 on SAKURA) and possible an outside helm as well as an inside one.
In September, I happened across a tiny little boat builder on Wales, who make the most sublime boats I have ever seen, functional, fast, seaworthiness off the scale etc etc. We went to see them and do a sea trial.
This the one we trialled (not me at the helm
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It was gobsmackingly accomplished in seas that I thought the trial would have to be called off for. We got very excited, started speccing one for delivery in late 2027 (they make just one or two in total across all models) per year. The following morning we woke up and reality had kicked in, we simply could not afford one. Bugger.
On Tuesday, I was contacted by Dale. The very one we had trialled was coming onto the market (owner moving to Australia), and Paula and I were the first people to be approached. It was launched in February and has 90 hours on the engines. It's basically new. It is massively specced, and we were offered it for 40% off list.
Initiate cat-amongst-the pigeons mode. I met with the Sasga rep on SAKURA this morning, and he believes we can net ($'s) what we need, to buy the Dale.
So basically it's a stonkingly good deal, we think we can afford it, but we may run out of time waiting to get an offer on SAKURA.
Initiate what-will-happen-will-happen mode.
It's a wait and see.
For those of you who would like to see more, click below....
Selling SAKURA has been a struggle. What I did not realise until we decided we wanted the Dale and needed to sell SAKURA, is that it is rather like buying and selling a house. You get caught in a chain, unless you have cash and/or find a cash buyer. The Dale sold to another buyer this week. He took her out for a sea trial and said yes there and then, and he is a cash buyer, so Paula and I are shit out of luck. Well, we love SAKURA, so we aren't really.
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And we have moved SAKURA to her new berth. 3 mins walk from our house. and 4 mins from the office......
Suitable protection in the background....
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Paula and I like to have fixed pontoon mooring warps on our home berth. We usually moor the boat with just the two of us managing the operation, often because it is just the two of us on board, but actually, we really know what we are doing and sometimes "help" from others, is not actually help
So to make things easier on Paula, who manages the lines, having permanent warps in the right place and of the right length, makes her job so much easier. Of course, now we have moved marina's, the pontoon cleats and bollards (did not have bollards at the last place) are in totally different positions relative to the cleats on the boat. So I essentially have to make new ones, and/or modify sections of the old ones.First up is the stern warp. this is the first one that Paula attaches to the boat when we come in. Once that is on, we are attached to land and all should be good, then we can be a bit more relaxed about sorting out the rest. If I need to, I can put the port engine on slow ahead (we moor starboard-to) and we are pinned to the pontoon, which I sometimes do if we are being blown off the pontoon hard.
As a general principle, I like to have Dyneema attached to the cleats on the boat. Dyneema does not stretch, so we do not get annoying squeaking as the boat rocks about on the pontoon (waves, wakes, currents, wind etc), as there is no rope to metal movement in the cleats, but we need a stretchy rope for the main warp. This reduces the shock load on the cleats if the wind is strong and gusty.
Here is the start of the new stern warp. I use 21 or 26mm Polyester double braid for this part of the warp.
I have reused the Dyneema part of the old warp. It is faded, but is showing zero signs of wear, and sewing the leather chafe guard on was a bitch, so I'm happy not to have to do it again.
I spliced an eye in some new 26mm double braid and cow-hitched the Dyneema portion to it. I'm now going to pop down to the boat and work out what total length I need, and what size eye to splice on the pontoon-end part of the warp. The pontoon-end will go over a bollard, so I want the spliced eye to be a tight fit over the bollard head, to minimise the risk of it bouncing off. I think the chances of that tends to zero, as we are very protected where we are berthed, but no harm in belts and bracing.....
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Change of plan.
After buying a load of books and guides and getting deep into the planning for Paris, we have decided that our cojones are just not large enough to take SAKURA up the Seine to Paris. My primary concern is that the airdraft of SAKURA is 5.1m (as measured by me and P with a piece of string, a bamboo cane and a fishing weight), and the bridge under which we need to pass to get into the Parisian marina is 5.2m. No one can tell me if that is measured when the water is at the highest it can be, or the normal depth. So if there has been large rainfall upstream of Paris, 5.2m may become 5.0m. So, we risked knocking off the steaming light, I just don't need the stress.
We have a hard date when we need to be in Paris, so Paula is more concerned about the unknowns, How fast will we be able to travel, the speed limit is 10knots, but what if we get stuck behind a slower boat for ages? Commercial vessels, quite rightly have priority over leisure craft, may have to wait ages to get into locks, and there are 6 lock systems between us and Paris? It is virtually impossible to plan where we will stop overnight, because we don't know what distance we have covered etc etc. Those and a few other small details fill someone who plans shit to the nth degree, full of dread
So, the new plan is to cross the Channel to somewhere like Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue on the northen Cherbourg peninsular, spend a day or two there, then muddle our way south, stopping as we see fit, possible stops are , Cherbourg. St Malo, Port Dielette, Barneville, Carteret and Port-Bail-sur-Mer. At any of those we can leave the boat behind, and get to Paris overland and get to the party on time.
Coming back we will likely stop at any or all of Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney. Fuel is tax and duty free in the Channel Islands, so would be stupid not to take advantage of that.
We have plus or minus a couple of weeks, so should have a blast.
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