Cherbourg to Lymington - Leg 1

A lot has happened since we last posted.  We arrived in London with all of our ten bags, each 50 lbs, all intact and most thoroughly searched by the TSA.  I understand that a few things in the bags may have looked a little funny in the X-Ray machine, EPIRB, sewing machine, hot knife, etc.  We piled all the luggage into a rental (hire) car and the wife and kids into Aunt Nicky's van.  The whole gang then went on to Granny Felicity's house for dinner.  All the cousin's were there, Nia, Lauren, Cai, Tabby, Ben, Charley and Jack which made up for us missing Christmas over here this year.  Everyone had a wonderful time, the kids slept until 9AM the next morning.  A couple of days later we took a taxi down to Poole and boarded the Brittany Ferry "Barfleur", for a 4 1/2 hour trip across the English Channel to Cherbourg.  Once settled into the hotel, we took a taxi down to the marina to checkout our boat, Arctic Monkey.  As it was Sunday, the boat was locked but we still had a good look into the windows and a walk around the deck to fuel the excitement for Monday's full first day aboard.  I spent the next 4 days on the boat going over systems and their maintenance with Zetty and the kids watching and learning too.  On Friday, March 6th, we officially became owners of hull #6 of the Garcia Exploration 45 series of yachts.

We moved aboard that night and spent the next 5 days personalizing the boat with coat hooks, bedding, galley items, tools and food.  France has a wonderful selection of "tinned" items such as Confit de Canard, (Duck Stew)... which we added to our stores for rough passages and easy to prepare meals.

We decided to change from our feathering propeller (JProp) to the fixed blade as we might not have another good chance before we get into the ice.  The Normandy Port Authority had just taken delivery of a new 300 ton marine travel lift and we became the first customer.  We had a little trouble getting the JProp off so we had to spend that night on the boat still in the sling.

On Thursday the 12th, the owner of hull #6 was in Cherbourg to test sail our boat.  He wanted just a little reassurance that he'd made the right move in buying a Garcia.  I think he was impressed as he took our boat out for a quick sail and came back smiling.  I looked at the weather forecast and asked Zetty if it was alright with her if we left right away that night as Friday was looking like 25-30kts into the wind.  If we left right away, we'd have light Southwest to Westerlies until at least 8AM.  Garcia was making some last minute fixes on the boat and as they finished at 7PM, we got under way.  Crossing the English Channel at night is quite a nerve wracking sail.  Basically, you cross perpendicular to the shipping traffic and try to avoid altering course or speed so that the shipping can maneuver around you as we sail. (Sailboat have the right-of-way over motorized vessels.)  At one point we had 12 ships in an 8 mile radius, some doing 22kts, passing as close as 1/2 miles from us.  It reminded me a lot of the frogger video game we played as kids.  Luckily we didn't get squashed.  As the wind turned into our face early in the morning around 8AM, we motor sailed the last 25 miles into Lymington,  Passing through the Needles and shingles bank was a real sight, see the video with this post.  The 10ft breaking waves were less than 150 meters away, a real shrinky dink, if you know what I mean.

We remain in Lymington getting the rest of our gear ready.  Harken UK is setting us up with the last of our gear including a new main sheet traveler and a few special blocks.  We'll be off again back to Cherbourg on Thursday to have all the last "punch list" items fixed and all the spare parts picked up and packed away.