Royal Air Force Yacht Club

Cherbourg Part Deux - 

Monday morning - I was woken up suddenly by a loud crash - I thought Stargazer had been rammed by the ferry!!!

There was an enormous explosion and the noise of a fire hose being aimed at the hull, falling out of bed at 06:30 to manfully save the boat I looked out of the windows to see thunder and lightning, a howling gale and horizontal sheets of rain. On the pontoon next to us were two characters, completely unrecognisable in waterproofs leaning into the weather shortening lines on Thetis Dolphin in preparation for departure. Although it had been hours since sunrise, the darkness required navigation lights. From the pontoon we watched the stern lights as they and a number of hardy types headed out into the Petite Rade homeward bound.

Before the kettle had boiled, those same stern navigation lights were replaced with red port bow lights as a number of boats including. Stag Knight, Thetis Dolphin and Whistler returned . Whistler called us up on the radio amidst the chaos of the howling wind.

The conversation with Stephanie on Whistler - "we are coming back" - "it's horrid out there over " - "where are you -over" say I (with my tea in hand) - "we are looking at you from the visitors pontoon drinking coffee" says Steph.....

The thunder storms and torrential wind and rain died out as quickly as they (apparently) arrived, leaving a grey and daunting perspective of the harbour and we all wondered whether this was the lull before the next storm. There was plenty of animated discussion on the pontoon with figures in wet gear weighing up the possibility of leaving the next day in better conditions while they were helping to tie up the returning boats.

My research on the web had shown that a thunder storm off the French coast was working its way up towards Cornwall and that theoretically the wind would stabilise to an easterly force 3 before dying and going to the North (of course) with stronger winds returning later that night. This was all only a forecast - not a guarantee, but in my experience UGrib is normally reliable, and just in case I did check the French Meteo and the UK Shipping Forecast which was useless in such conditions as they were forecasting for Thames, Dover, Wight and Portland, an area which was far too large and variable for our benefit. We calculated  that in 9.5 hours we could be at the Needles for the tide gate. So having first double checked the sky to be sure that all of that nasty Nimbus cloud was heading away from us.We set off at 07:45 into the grey and now at least dry, second dawn of the day with a force 3 to 4 easterly.

As Paul Oliver later pointed out to me, this is one of the major benefits of the rallies - can you imagine being on your own sitting in harbour wondering what decision to take? The support and common sense gathered from the experienced members of the group was worth a fortune in building confidence. If you have never thought of a better reason to join in on the Rallies then I propose this should be near the top of your list.

The sea was grey and choppy but we motor sailed out into the weather among a flotilla of 10 or so similar minded folk with navigation lights on.

Breakfast was delayed as the chop stirred up by the wind was still significant and the adrenalin levels a little too high, but by 09:00 the sky was showing signs of lightening which sounds and looks much better than lightning, after capturing some photo and video of Katswiskas coming past us with great style we were able to relax and slow down for a more civilised breakfast.

As the morning went on it appeared that the UGrib forecast was spot on, the sun came out and at 11:30 the wind suddenly backed to the north and dropped to zippidy zip. We had to furl the genoa and motor on in the bright sunshine. What a difference to the appearance of the channel from a grim grey to a terrific turquoise - such is the wonder of cross-channel crossing.

The rest of the trip was uneventful and even (by comparison) a little boring- we arrived at the Needles spot on time for the changing tide and motored up the Solent in the most picturesque conditions with the beautiful evening light. We arrived in the Hamble having been called by Odell 2 (Teg and David Whitehead ) who called to let us know that the Bosuns were hanging on to give those of us who arrived before 21:00 a lift back - Thanks guys! You saved us multiple trips in the rubber dub! We moored up at 20:15 having taken exactly 12 hours 45 minutes to do the whole trip experiencing three seasons in one day!

Thanks to ace crew for the weekend Jonathan Markowitz for being such great company (Channel crossings now logged - 4) .

Ian Redsell Stargazer