Monday / Tuesday 23rd / 24th July
Hot and Sunny.
Got the bike out and explored Fecamp - very busy - lots of holidaymakers - another pebble beach.
People swimming in the sea.
I did two lots of washing - expensive - 7 Euros a load - it's done - dried in no time.
Boiling hot - I tried to buy a beach brolly - I couln't find anywhere selling beach stuff - can you believe it.
I had a couple of hours sleep got up at 11pm and set off for St Vast.
My idea was to miss the industrial area of the Seine estuary and to miss the Normandy beaches which don't have much in the way of marinas and besides I had seen the war graves and paid my respects on a previous holiday a few years ago.
Perfect preparation prevents poor performance!
Or something like that.
I motored out of Fecamp and out to sea a bit - the realised that the tiller pilot was not on deck.
I stopped - went below - got it plugged it in - fiddled with the plug - got it going - then looked around and realised the tide had pushed us North of the harbour entrance - ROCKS!
I immediately got out of there and saw someone flashing a powerful light from the cliff top at Blazer.
Then the coast guard made contact and asked if we were Ok.
You think no one is watching in the night - Wow.
I had failed to check the cross tide at the entrance - we had to motor very fast to make 2.5 knots to safety.
I got away with it - not by much!!
I was a bit shook up but calmed down and settled into a chilly night passage under engine - no wind.
It was slow going against the tide but I calculated that we had all on to get into St Vast before they closed the gate that keeps the water in the marina at 4 pm local time.
It got light around 05.30 and started to warm up about 08.00.
This container ship came at me at 15 knots and I didn't even try to work out who had right of way - We circled round a bit to let him pass.
The AIS system on the pc was great - giving his course and speed - 15 knots -(no wash?) and 295 degrees.
I set the radar to measure the bearing from Blazer to him - 295 degrees - Collision situation.
Easy to sort out - he was 3 miles away.
The great thing is that the instruments would have worked the same way in fog - always possible on night passages.
The AIS said he was bound for Southampton and had a draught of 14 metres and was 330 metres long -
That's around 1000 feet.
Clear of the lanes the passage fell into an empty sea, an odd trawler in the far distance, haze all around and boiling hot.
Loads of sun cream on - keep pushing - the tide turned in the night and we were doing 7 knots over the ground at one stage - but now the speed was dropping again in the complex currents of the bay.
I saw a Gannet fishing - wonderful how they spot fish from about 20 feet up - nose dive at high speed and just before they hit the water they fold their wings back.
The plotter did wonders again and we arrived spot on in the bay in front of St Vast - I picked out the long break water and we were in through the gate with an hour to spare.
Blazers engine has never worked so hard - near flat out for 14.5 hours - 68 miles - that re-build a few years ago paid off.
Completely exhausted I tidied up - paid up for 2 nights and crashed out for 10 hours.
We are moving on.
Mike.
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