St. Vaast-La-Hougue (part II)

The entrance to St Vaast is dominated by two forts: Tatihou and La Hougue. Ann is standing on the sea moat wall of La Hougue and in the background it is possible to see Tatihou. They are both Vauban forts and the latter is a nature reserve and maritime museum which is only accessible by amphibious vehicles. However, with the aid of our bikes to get us there, we were able to walk around the outside of La Hougue. It is still occupied by the French military but the original star shaped fort and sea walled moat is still accessible on foot - if you do not mind walking along a narrow wall.

A great afternoon out.

St Vaast-La-Hougue

St Vaast is a very challenging but interesting place to visit. The challenge is that the entry dries out totally below half tide. If you miss the tidal gate you do not get in. The weather at 6:30 am looked better than it had for several days. By 08:30 we were nervously on our way. Why nervously? For two reasons. Firstly, would the change of filters cure the problem? Secondly, if we had to slow down too much we would miss the tidal window.

Once we left the inner harbour I gave the engines maximum revs to see if they would hold up under load. They did so we continued. Needless to say, I was watching the engine revs nervously for most of the journey but we arrived in plenty of time and moored up at a visitors pontoon near the entrance. The lock gate can just be seen behind Jomima and our bikes.

St Vaast is a lovely place and well worth a visit if you are in the area.

A Stormy Night in Cherbourg

Sunday evening we all noticed that there were some unusual clouds in the sky and the wind was increasing. By 2:00 am we were in the path of a dreadful storm. A lot of people were up most of the night trying to stop their boats banging repeatedly into the pontoons. Little sleep was enjoyed by all. Sunday was still windy and, as you will see from the photograph, just outside the marina the waves were not at all friendly. Even so, some idiots in yachts decided to head back to the Solent. The RNLI had a busy night.

Monday morning Ann managed to visit a number of perfumeries - with better success than I had finding some diesel treatment! I am sure that she spent more time looking at perfumes etc than I spent in chandlers - but I am sure that she would argue that point.

Changing Filters at Cherbourg

The first two hours of the morning were spent changing four very large diesel filters. It is a problem that I have had in the past so I carry three sets of spares. However, it is not a fun job. All of the floor had to come up and, with the aid of a filter wrench, I had to get into some difficult places and get off the mucky old ones. This involves putting a plastic jug under them, or a plastic bag, so that any diesel that escapes does not end up in the bottom of the boat. Once they were replaced I had to bleed the air out of the system and hope that the engines will then start. Fortunately, they started after a few anxious moments and I let them run for a few minutes.

The starboard filter showed signs of the dreaded diesel bug. I spent the afternoon, without success, trying to locate some biocide fluid to treat the tanks. I finally located some on Monday. It now remains to be seen if the engines will now run reliably at sea.

Cherbourg - Saturday Night

That evening, after a safe passage across the Channel, the team went for an excellent meal at a small family run restaurant. Meals in France are rarely less than excellent and also usually good value. Amazingly our four course meal cost no more the a good main course would have cost in England.

Crossing the Channel (Part2)

The first part of the journey was good with us averaging 17-18 knots and, with the wind behind us, any spray was kept off the boats. However, the wind and waves increased slightly as we reached the half way stage. At this point I thought that I noticed a slight drop in the port engine revs for a few seconds. A few minutes later the port engine revs dropped from 2,100 to 1,300 and stayed there. This was worrying so I warned the other members of the team and we all slowed down. I altered the throttle settings and managed to get the port engine to run at 1,600 and the starboard one up to 2,000 revs. This gave us a speed of 14-16 knots with an ETA at Cherbourg of a further two hours.

My guess was that the rougher seas had disturbed some dirt in the tanks and this had reached the filters. As a result the engines were unable to draw as much diesel as they need at the higher revs. My hope now was that we would be able to continue at this speed for the rest of the Journey. Fortunately, Jomima got us there without further difficulty.

Crossing the Channel (Part 1)

At 8:30 am we left the shelter of Yarmouth Harbour. Frank & Diane had travelled down from Southampton on Tabgha (Broom Ocean 38) to meet up with the other members of the team. The weather forecast was good for that morning with F3 northerly winds predicted to help us on our way to Cherbourg. However, higher winds and storms were promised for the following few days. We past The Needles after a good passage into the English Channel.

Getting Ready for the Off

At midday we cruised the short distance to Yarmouth at the western end of the Isle of Wight. Here we were joined by two other members of the Broom Owners Club - Erika (Broom 415 OS) and Kelsie Jane (Broom 50 OS). The afternoon was spent getting ready for our trip across the Channel the following day followed by an excellent, but small, fish dinner at a local restaurant.
That night we slept nervously and were regular disturbed by the noisy ferry and the many other boats around us.

The Solent

For the first few days of this week we have been exploring the area around Hythe. Ann needed a shopping fix so she caught the local ferry to Southampton. This proved to be a pleasant trip up the river from the nearby pier. This was followed by a free bus ride into town. The weather has stayed fine so on Thursday we moved towards the western entrance to the Solent, past a number of sailing boats making very slow progress in the light winds. That night we moored in Lymington followed on Friday by a last shop in the UK in the lovely High Street of Lymington.

Folly Inn, Cowes

Good friends, a warm Sunday, a boat and a pub to visit. What more could you want? Today was one of those days. John and Brenda joined us at Hythe for a trip up the river past Cowes to the Folly Inn. Fortunately, we were able to set off early and arrived at the pub by 12:15. By 13:30 there were thirty people in the queue to order lunch.

Cowes is full of history and it was interesting to see Helen McArthur's yacht B&Q painted grey and waiting for its next owner. The weather was kind to us today. Let us hope that the sun will continue to shine on us for a few more days yet.

Queen Mary 2

It was very strange to wake up and look over the bank of the river to see that something as large as the Queen Mary 2 had "snook" in over night. As you will see from the photograph, compared to the fast catamaran ferry in front of her, she is extremely large liner. It was wonderful to see her leave, later in the day, with two tugs pushing and pulling her gently down the river.

Hythe Marina Village

We spent the morning in Lymington checking Jomima over and cleaning off the salt and grime from the journey from Brixham. We had been offered a mooring at Hythe Marina Village. It is owned by some friends and they very kindly have let us use it. We have not been to this marina before and miss timed our arrival. The tide was rushing past at 3 knots and we had to negotiate a narrow channel to get into the lock. It was a great relief to pass through and enter a very tranquil marina.

It is a lovely spot sheltered from most of the wind that had risen again to about F5 today. We are very grateful to be here.

Goodbye to Brixham

They say that patience is a virtue but I know that I am not very patient. However, if you rush to go somewhere in a small boat, when the weather is not ideal, then you may not live to regret it.



The end of April came and went. On the evening of the 15th May we finally saw a potential drop in the high winds that have plagued us for so long. This, we hoped, would enable us to cruise the 85 miles to the Solent. We set off at 7:00 am to catch the tide in the right direction and programed in to the GPS a stop at Weymouth. The weather was not perfect but good enough to keep going. After 20 miles you can't see land in any direction and we had reached the point of no return. It was as close to continue to Wemouth as turn back to Brixham - so we carried on. As we approached Portland Bill we could see a very large ship on our route, but not on the radar. As we got closer we could see that it was a Naval Warship. It did not actually appear on our radar until we were only 4 miles away, by which time we could see it very clearly indeed. I don't know what they paint them with but it makes them look like a small fishing vessel on the radar. We chose to go around it.



The sea had calmed down so we decided to head for the Solent in one hop. Five hours after we left Brixham we were mooring in Lymington; greatly relieved that we had finally managed to travel past Portland Bill without incident. If you have watched the air sea rescue program you will know what I mean.