The last post....

Well, ten days, 585 miles, 3 new ports visited, ¹race abandoned, ¹cancelled, ¹race finished, awful boat parking witnessed and lots of laughs along the way its time to bring this blog to a close - and returning from Cherbourg to Gosport in ten hours berth to berth is doing it in style (average of 8.4 knots !). Time for a break before more adventures. Have fun folks - we intend to :)

Prime Evil wins Tour des Ports...

With no other boats making it to Cherbourg on the allotted day, and two of our crew making it to St Vaast on the correct day Prime Evil must have won the event overall - well done team :)

Tour des Ports no more

Well after 5 days, 250 miles, two races cancelled, 2 where the courses were too long - and one that we were able to finish! the Tour des Ports is over for us. We left the fleet in diellette this morning where they will have a bouncy night as the next low comes in and had a 6 hour trip round to Cherbourg by ourselves where we will have a quiet night before exploring buses to st Vaast tomorrow. Will we do it again? Probably not and certainly not on Prime - as despite being a great craic it really isnt aimed at boats our size. Never mind, we have had some good sailing, visited new ports and made some new friends along the way.

Breeze on!

Well we now know that the French can organise a race we can all finish - the only catch being the two hour wait for the tide so we can enjoy Bastille Day.
With winds averaging around 15 to 20 knots we had a great sail across from Guernsey to Diellette, playing with a couple of the boats along the way. With winds upto 27 knots over the last few miles we topped out at over 12.5 knots . Great sailing.

3 races and no finishes

But still a great event! With long courses, big tides and variable winds we have had one days racing cancelled, and failed to finish before the time limit the other two days you may think we would be downhearted? Frustrated maybe, but we have had some great sailing, more than a few drinks, great banter - and watched some awful demonstrations of how to park :)

The fleet leaving Carteret.

All the comforts of home ...

But some of the crew opt to practice hardship regardless

Mermaid?

Nope the mrs overtaking us! Even our boat needs more than 2 knots of breeze.

Half moon?

The Maginot Table

You can in round the ends but not through the middle.

Well the French tried to stuff us again - first they forgot the international maritime language - after forgetting the ferry time table!-then arranged for light winds and big tides, before shortening the courses ..... For all the classes but ours! Good speed despite the light winds meant being one of the sixteen or so in our class who failed to finish - by 20 minutes :( never mind more fun tomorrow.

The route!

The fleet assembled

Over a 100
yachts have made it St Helier ready for the start tomorrow. Which course we are racing has yet to be decided - according to the weather conditions in the morning. There is quite a buzz around the fleet - with plenty of good natured cursing and joking :)

Shit happens

Does it count as good shit when it lands on your shoulder rather than in your beer?

Discussing tactics?

Nope - skiing trips and geology!

An arduous motor across to St Helier gave the crew a chance to relax. Dom has just joined completing the team for the next week.

Ready for the trip to Jersey.

Steve the navigator.

Well what a day! After an early arrival in Cherbourg we left after a few hours for St Peter Port. All went well - until....

We discovered the replacement guage had a problem. Just north of the Little Russel with the tide turning against you and winds dying is not the place to discover this. Now some of you may be wondering just how a problem with a guage is discovered? Maybe it would help if you knew it was the fuel guage?.... An hour or two of practicing light airs sailing , stripping and re building the aft cabin - and a special delivery courtesy of Sir Peter Ogdnens crew on Jethou Flyer then Steve was able to put his pilotage skills to good use!

Time for beer and dinner ashore now, then start queuing at the fuel berth in the morning.

Arriving Cherbourg just before 5am

Well, despite the best efforts of the French weather gods with their light winds on the nose and VERY thick fog we have made it to France.
And the plan now? A breakfast beer of course before checkin the next forecast. Any sign of fog and we will be off again after a nap heading for St Peter Port.

Which way now?

Valerie checking the route from The Needles

Ready for the off...

Well, the (motley) crew arrived last night in the form of Steve B, Valerie, Helen and Chris W. After having had several cross Channel attempts thwarted by the weather Gods in the past its time for new tactics. First off we have Valerie skippering us across - if a French girl cant find France we're doomed! And just to make sure even the crew dont know where we are going today never mind the Gods!!
All we know is Jersey by Friday afternoon :)

More to follow.....

Tour Des Ports

Well a year after first discovering the Tour Des Ports while at Cherbourg we are nearly ready for the off. Just the shopping to get in, water to top off and the kites to put on board.
Crew join tomorrow evening, with us setting sail Wednesday morning. We need to arrive in Jersey by Friday evening -no rush then :)

Wetstuff - cruising,racing and training for everyone

Wetstuff is here to help people get out on the water - whether it be crusing, racing or training.

The aim of this blog is to give people a taste of what we get up to, and to help friends of our crews keep track of them.