Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure

[Giles]

Technically, we should be flying a Q flag*, and not leave the boat until we have had permission to do so by the French immigration guys. At St Vaast, the process is performed by the marina staff who then email all the info needed to the immigration office in Cherbourg. But the marina staff will have knocked off for the night (except the lock keeper) when we arrive. So they have told us where to berth and to pop up to see them sometime tomorrow.

The Marina restaurant closes at 21:00, I will be eating there tonight

• The "Q" flag (also known as the Quebec flag or Yellow Jack) is a plain yellow maritime signal flag. In international sailing and shipping, it means: "My vessel is healthy and I request free pratique [free entry] into port." It signals authorities that a boat has arrived from abroad and is requesting an official inspection.

[Giles]

Paula likes the refection of the clouds in the water...

[Giles]

Queue for the lock

And parked

[Tago Mago]

And now looking for cidre?

[goosehd]

Here’s one:

[Giles]

[Giles]

[Aetas]

Fleur-de-lis on the glass … absolute precision landing!

[ROman]

@Giles Looked like a great day an crossing.

[Giles]

Paula has assumed position number 2...

[Giles]

said in Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure:

Technically, we should be flying a Q flag*, and not leave the boat until we have had permission to do so by the French immigration guys. At St Vaast, the process is performed by the marina staff who then email all the info needed to the immigration office in Cherbourg. But the marina staff will have knocked off for the night (except the lock keeper) when we arrive. So they have told us where to berth and to pop up to see them sometime tomorrow.

The Marina restaurant closes at 21:00, I will be eating there tonight

• The "Q" flag (also known as the Quebec flag or Yellow Jack) is a plain yellow maritime signal flag. In international sailing and shipping, it means: "My vessel is healthy and I request free pratique [free entry] into port." It signals authorities that a boat has arrived from abroad and is requesting an official inspection.

Even better.

The guy in the marina office did not have the foggiest idea on how to process immigrants. So he told us to come back tomorrow, it's great fun being illegal......I actually think we could stay here for the whole 2 weeks and not bother formally entering the country. Needless to say, Paula won't let me do it, she does not want us to be banned from Schengen (one of our good friends has been )

[Giles]

Within 10 minutes of arriving here, we were welcomed by an old friend who used to moor next to us in Gosport, we did not know he was here, so it was a lovely surprise. What was even nicer was he gave us a care package…

And, yes that is a Saucisson

[endo]

exactly what I need right now

[goosehd]

…someone has mentioned oysters and I haven’t seen a pic yet. I can’t be the only one waiting

[endo]

If he starts posting pictures of oysters now, my envy will explode.

[goosehd]

Yep…sitting at a table, good company, a cold beverage or two, and a plate full of freshly shucked oysters…couldn’t be that bad

[Giles]

Yeah, sorry. Will try to correct that soon.....

We were taken out to dinner in Barfleur bt our old Haslar Marina neighbour. I have (just) 6 Oysters, followed by Tuna...

[Giles]

Tomorrow, we sail around the Cherbourg Peninsular, and through The Alderney Race to Dielette. Some of the trickiest waters in Europe to navigate, it will be a day off Spring Tides, so the currents will be strong, but luckily there should be very little wind to make things even more complicated....

This is current map at about 90 mins into our passage. Red is strong, dark red/black, extremely strong....Going to burn some fuel...

Later in the day, and at last we will have current pushing us....

[goosehd]

@Giles you get two free passes from me for that post! Old friends always is a plus in my book

[Giles]

And we are off.....

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/1205703905