The Cruising Club voyage to Normandy got off to a brilliant start today as the fleet arrived in Cherbourg
The fleet is now in Cherbourg, and has just held its first pontoon party of the cruise.
It was an early alarm call for the crew onboard Blue Fin this morning. Neale was up at 4am to check the weather and half an hour later he sent out Claire and Richard aboard our Cobra 7.6 RIB, Time Flies, to give a first-hand account of conditions in the Channel.
An hour later, my bleary-eyed colleagues reported back that we were good to go and Neale then radioed the fleet to give them departure times.
Meanwhile, I managed a couple of half-awake conversations from my saloon bed, but really I was no good to anyone until about 6am.
By 8.15am the entire fleet was underway, en route to our first port of call – Cherbourg. On passage we motored on a slight sea beneath bright blue skies.
On arrival in Cherbourg there was a bit of a queue for the fuel pontoon and our boats learned the hard way that not everyone believes in a first come, first served system.
To lift spirits though (both metaphorically and literally) we held our first pontoon party of the cruise to give everyone a chance to get to know each other and celebrate our successful Channel crossing.
Tomorrow the plan is to go to St-Vaast to catch the afternoon tide, so here’s hoping the weather behaves.
