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.