Winter Home

So we are finally here and getting ready to leave Erica for the cold winter months!! The anchorage from hell was a changed place this Tuesday - flat calm and gently rocking us to sleep. Up at 5-30 and a flat calm sea greeted us - perfect - or so we thought  until dense fog descended after 1 hour. We decided to press on but did not see the entrance buoy until 100 yards away. It was gong to be difficult negotiating the  channel in the canal. Fortunately fate was kind and, as quickly as it had descended, the fog lifted just as we passed the entrance buoy and we had a great sail down the 8 miles of scenic canal.

Carentan is very pretty and sheltered - though at present we are busy putting the boat to bed as we are leaving for UK then Portugal on 9th November to spend winter in the sun before resuming our journey in April.

We cannot use the electricity here as it is dodgy and our system is sensitive to dodgy as it is not good for aluminium. We are learning to use the generator - good practice for the voyage to come. We hope to explore the beaches here as the battle for Normandy took place here and there are lots of interesting museums and monuments. We have also bought more walking maps. Scruffbag has lost shedloads of weight but wine and cheese are having the opposite effect on me.

It's Only Rock and Roll

And last night on an anchor outside Saint Vaast it was rock and roll all night long and I certainly did not like it. Cupboards were stuffed with towels to stop tins, pans etc. from banging but then other things decided to join the choir and the rolling went on and on and on ... Sleep was not on the menu.

We had to anchor as we can only get through the lock here at high tide and then we have to await the next daytime tide to enter the river at Carentan 2 hours before high tide - even though the entrance is only 11 miles away. Anyway this morning Scruff bag got some fine blisters on his hand hauling up 45 metres of chain and off we set. It was always a close call as the winds had been blowing quite strongly  from the north all week and the pilot book advice is not to enter the river in onshore winds above force 5 due to the swell. The forecast today had been force 4 but as we pounded through the big waves and watched the pointer on  wind instrument climb to over 20 knots - with gusts of 25 we began to consider. that old adage "If in doubt abort the mission"
When Scruffbag pointed out that if we turned back we would be able to catch the open lock at Saint Vaast but if we carried on and then found the entrance untenable we would have to spend another night at anchor that was it.

Mission aborted - back in Saint Vaast - can't go again till next weekend as we need springish tides to get enough water in the river.

Car- Boat-Car

Actually not a cormorant that broke the wind hawk the other day - in fact it was a gannet. As you can see I have been amusing myself by reading up on bird identification in the wet weather we are having. We have both cormorants and gannets here apparently and they all seem to be great friends.

Saint Vaast is actually a very pretty place and we do plan some exploring as soon as this rain has  gone, It has an island just offshore, Tatihou, which is a world heritage site with museums , forts etc.so we decided to go there today on the strange craft in the photo. Is it a boat? Is it a car? Is it a boar? Is it a coat?

Anyway apparently you can get there every day on the hour from April until 4th October, when it all closes so we have missed our chance and are reduced to sheltering onboard reading novels and writing blogs, C'est la vie.

Cormorant City

Now in Cormorant City - otherwise known as Saint Vaast La Hougue, Woke up this morning and had to hose down our finger pontoon to prevent trailing  the contents of what appears to be a communal cormorant toilet into the boat. Came back from a walk to find one s(h)itting on the top of the mast.  Scruffbag tripped over a cleat and almost fell into the water in his haste to chase it off, We then discovered it had sat on the windhawk and destroyed it.
Not our favourite birds!!!

Round The Corner

Been in Cherbourg 2 weeks and most of them with strong easterlies, which prevented us from going to Alderney as planned, since the anchorage becomes untenable in strong easterlies. We have had a great time, chilling and doing some walking, visiting museums, chateau etc. but with the easterlies no longer in force, we are heading east round the corner tomorrow to Saint Vaast La Hougue,