Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure
-
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.
-
Crossing the channel on Saturday, possibly could have departed on Friday, but weather is a bit better on Saturday, and anyway, P is currently running around like a headless chicken and is mega stressed (not trip related), so an extra day to run around in ever decreasing circles is apparently a good thing.
Three nights booked in St Vaast harbour. It is a tidal harbour, with a locked entrance. The lock opens at 19:12 CET, so we'll leave here at about 09:00 BST......
-
Safe travels G and hoping the weather works with you. Bit worried about the extreme air temperatures you guys are experiencing and the potential for squalls. I've been looking at predict wind and it looks like it's fairly stable for now and shouldn't be an issue.
What's the exposure time whilst transiting the channel?
-
@goosehd I'll time when we lose sight of land and when we see land again. It'll be an interesting data point. Thank you.
BTW, think I'll get oysters in St Vaast
?
