Brighton to Le Havre

Well maybe the start date was meant to be easy to remember – 08.08.08, hence the delays? Friday morning I opened my eyes and reached straight for the phone to call Mike Stevens (the ‘Rigging Guy’) to arrange the fitting of the spinnaker pole eye to the mast.

When he finally arrived I couldn’t hide my expression as he says ‘Ah you have a SparCraft mast, I ordered an eye for a Z-Craft mast’. After some bending and for want of a better word, ‘Bodging’, it was on there!

Mike Green (the Sail Guy) called to say there had been a ‘Cock Up’ at the post office and the Genoa Cars would arrive around 2pm. Great! - Exactly the time I needed to be leaving!

Francois came over to say goodbye and he joined us for our last Bacon & Egg sandwich, the time now being after 1pm. Needless to say, by now I was close to either killing someone or having a heart attack caused by stress.

Finally the cars arrived and I raced back to get them fitted. Mike Green was around the marina and I wanted him to take a look at the new Genoa sail as I was concerned that it might have been cut too long. Sure enough, the sail had to come off to be shortened, back to the Sail Loft! We left Mike working on the sail and moved Doris round to the fuel pontoon. All I wanted more than anything was to leave Brighton marina! I am not sure a storm warning or even hurricane warning would have kept me there another night…

All fuelled up, I retrieved the sail from Mike and we fitted the original Jib (for simplicity) before finally leaving Brighton at 5pm exactly – only about 3 hours late!

Mike Green – many thanks for your patience and advice in sorting out the sails etc and dropping everything at short notice to shorten the sail, especially when I know you are already snowed under with work.

Outside the marina, we found that the wind had dropped off to nothing and what little there was, was coming from the North - straight up our chuff! This was all the excuse I needed to get the engine on and point her due South to try and make up some time.

About 2 hours into the trip I got a strange text message from Kat telling me to look in the bilges under the bed! I discovered a ‘Good Luck’ card, Sailing magazine and secret chocolate stash. Kat if you keep on you are going to have to inform Bisi & Angela what colour of hat to buy in the Carribean!

The delays meant we would be crossing the East going Shipping Lanes in the dark without radar or AIS. Daz loves his carrots so I was relying on his Mk1 Eyeball!

It’s amazing the effect a cluster of lights in the dark suddenly has on you when you can see both a red and green at the same time! After some very close encounters which tested our night light recognition skills (and nerves) to the maximum, we motor-sailed until clear of the Shipping Lanes into French waters. The wind by now had veered SW and was gusting to F5, so with a reef in the main and full jib we averaged 6+ knots with waves crashing over the bow in the steep choppy seas.

As it got light the wind speed continued to build as did the waves as we surfed off their backs making very fast progress. Upon approaching Le Havre at around 08:30am, Daz was ready to climb overboard! The shipping coming in and out of the port was massive!

Very scary with such a narrow approach channel and entrance to an unfamiliar port. Steve & Angela many thanks for the Channel pilotage info – it was invaluable.

I motored around just inside the less choppy water of the marina to allow Daz time to sort out fenders & lines before taking the easy option of being ‘blown on’ to the visitors pontoon. Boat tidied, French flag flying before the locals get nasty, we have officially arrived in France.

The journey has begun…

Pure Frustration!

Well Weds / Thurs ... not much to report!

I decided to look closer into the delay regarding the Genoa Cars required for the new Genoa sail. Genius! - The wrong parts had been ordered, so even if they had've turned up, I'd still be no closer to leaving. New parts ordered, 'No problem they are in stock, you can have them tomorrow (Friday) morning sir'.

For those wondering what I'm going on about - Genoa Sail.

Thursday we got the new Genoa Sail in place which resulted in me having to climb the mast, this was 'interesting' but had to be done sooner or later I guess. I have done all the route planning for Friday departure and we did a late night ASDA run for supplies. I have also paid off my outstanding marina bill, so from Friday (midday) I need to be gone!

Its now Friday morning and I am waiting for the rigging guy to come and mount the spinnaker pole eye on the mast and of course for that phone call to say the Genoa Cars have arrived.

All being well we can be out of here today... !!! Tick Tock Tick Tock...

Land Locked

This morning saw us making our usual walk to SMR for a status check on the remaining stuff. Mike from the sail loft let me use a Printer & Fax to send some work documents regarding my (possible) bonus - thanks Mike. I tracked down Mike Stevens 'The Rigging Guy' to pay for the Genoa pole and find out where it was, before ordering our daily Egg & Bacon sarny!

So where are we ...

The Genoa has arrived and is having the UV strip fitted and should be ready tomorrow - Great!

The pole is due to arrive tomorrow - Great!

The Genoa Cars are delayed and not due for a few days - Aaarrgh!

We cant leave without these, well we could - but we would not be able to use the new Genoa sail that has just cost me a fortune!

Got back to the boat and fitted the newly patched Mainsail (less wind than yesterday) and also measured the tack line required for the Storm Jib.

I finally got my PADI exams completed and sent off to Lance for marking. There is no chance of completing the 'Open Water' dives before I leave so this will have to wait until Kat joins me in October.

Paul, Karen, Steve & Angela popped by and Paul gave me my very own Brighton Football jersey with the challenge of sending pics of it in exotic locations.

We spent the evening chatting to Jerry of 'Sindur of Dart' in the cockpit drinking beer and playing with the mainsail reefing lines. The new Batten Cars make hoisting a lot easier!

There are a lot of visitors in the marina (possibly en route to Cowes) and a bit of a holiday atmosphere. Its getting really frustrating now and both Daz and myself are desperate to get going - lets hope for some good news tomorrow!

Goodbye Kat

After getting up late Monday morning I said goodbye to Kat for the last time until I see her again in the Med in October. She has been simply amazing this weekend being the 'hostess with the mostess' and ensuring everything runs smoothly. I do joke that she is my P.A. but I can honestly say that I wouldn't be anywhere near ready for this trip without her.

Daz and I then walked up to the SMR sail loft and Mike had finished the Mainsail and Storm jib. Only waiting for the new Genoa sail and its pole and some Genoa cars now. I also arranged for someone to come and drill a hole in the anchor bow roller for the storm jib to attach to.

Got the sails back to the boat and played around with the new storm jib before it started to rain, needless to say the mainsail remained on the cockpit floor!

Spent a few hours updating the Blog, and answering emails. My old boss sent me some good news regarding my bonus and the possibility of actually recieving it! This will be a 'God Send' if it all works out - watch this space!

In the evening I got the Sat Phone all charged up and working. I will be able to recieve SMS texts from people who can send them for FREE via the Blog or the Iridium website when I post the number.

We also plotted the first leg of the trip to Le Havre in France and IF everything is ready we need to leave around 2pm on thursday to make the best of the tides to clear the shipping lanes.

New Camera

The previous day Dave had told me that the Verizon posse had done a 'whip round' for my leaving present which was going to be a (much needed) camera - Thank you everyone, very much!

So ... Kat and I went into Brighton town centre to buy a suitable camera that would survive the rigours of life onboard while at sea. I finally decided to follow Mr Crute's suggestion of the Olympus SW1030 in black with a 2Gb Memory card.

Kat also decided to spend an extra night with me before I depart, so an emergency outfit for Monday morning at work was required.

On our return, we were greeted by the 'Costa Lotta' posse of pontoon 8 - Paul, Karen, Abbey, Steve & Angela.

My brother was presented with a gift wrapped bog roll as it was though that this would be required due to his higher than average fruit intake.

I was given a sizeable donation to my 'sailing funds' and 2 bottles of shamps. The first we consumed aboard 'Costa' and the other will be saved to celebrate crossing Biscay! I also had a new T-shirt with my next 'Topless Boat Cleaning' business venture slogan - Clean Boats for the Dirty Mind'.

Thanks guys, I will certainly miss you all very much when I leave.