Bimbling about in Normandie

Our route (see the animated journey here)

Crew:

Dave - Skipper at sea and Cabin Boy ashore

Sally - First mate, Ship's Medic and Galley slave

Polina - Events Co-ordinator

Lexi - Entertainment

Bea - Ships Cat

With a summer reminiscent of being in the Caribbean we readied Doris for our first electric adventure to France. After something of a delay due to a dodgy fuse on the Raymarine (hat tip to Tom from Berthon for his amazing help) we leapt on an ebb tide hoping for a 'slingshot' out of the Solent to set us on our way to Honfleur. However, the glorious broad reach (wind from behind for our friends not embracing the salty sea-dog lingo) we thought so perfect, soon proved a little too much for the daughters. Sally found herself applying scopaderm patches and a lot of reassurance whilst still in sight of the Isle of Wight. This led to a rapid re-evaluation of the holiday plans, it certainly looked like Amsterdam was out! Better enjoy Normandie.

Honfleur

After a fabulous overnight crossing we rather nervously tackled our first lock. We were accompanied by darkly glaring french fishermen unimpressed at having to share with an English yacht who seemed to be copying what they were doing. Our lock-passage style is now that of a Normandie trawler, but without the muttering in French and drooping Gauloises dog-ends.

We spent a glorious 2 days exploring the beautiful town of Honfleur. Magnificent dinning was organised by Polina (also by far the best French speaker in the crew) and a trip to a local calvados house made Sally's day. We really struggled to tear ourselves away from this exquisite medieval town but on day 3 the hyoscine patches were slapped back on and Doris headed west.

Beautiful Honfleur

Ouistreham

After navigating the Honfleur lock like pros, the light airs meant we had more of a drift west to Ouistreham than a sail. It was a beautiful day nonetheless and the deck fluff topped up their tans and ate lunch with not a second thought. The wind that eluded us all day decided to pick up rapidly just as we arrived at the entrance to the Ouistreham lock. Fortunately, Doris danced in circles like a debutante, kicking her heels up in the wake of the Brittany ferry that nearly gave Sally a stroke and happily waited her turn to glide into the lock.

Flustered by a somewhat fruity exchange with a French yachtsman, Sally then amused the Marina staff by mistakenly parking in a space barely 2 feet longer than Doris herself (I could have sworn thats where they told me to go). She did it like a pro despite the resounding wind and ongoing muttering regarding a certain Frenchman.

In the next two days, while we waited for the winds to subside, supplies were bought (an excuse for Sally to peruse the giant Carrefour), a French Spa was visited and the girls explored Caen by day (beautiful) and night (not as much fun as the Greek ports they previously frequented on sailing holidays).

Catching some sun in the foredeck hammock

Caen cathedral

The Ferris Wheel on Ouistreham sea front

Port-en-Bessin-Huppain

The wind quietened enough to continue our jolly along the coast fabulous. We anchored for lunch off Arromanches-les-Bains surrounded by the remains of the Mulberry harbour installed to hold the beach head after the D-day landings. This made Dave distinctly nervous, he was convinced the anchor would come up with some WWII memorabilia that our fire extinguisher would not cope with.

Lunch was so fabulous we dawdled too long (rookie sailing error!) and made it to Port-en-Bessin just before the lock closed. Our arrival caused knowing sideways glances from smug French Fishermen looking forwards to us ending up on our side as the tide went out. They hadn't counted on the magnificent Doris' ability to tuck up her keel and rest gently on the grounding plate under her bottom. She did look somewhat incongruous against the considerably smaller vessels in there though.

On the way there Lexi had achieved her sailing holiday ambition of catching a mackerel. I've heard they are incredibly dumb fish but they seem to have done a great job of out-smarting an Oxford undergraduate. Sally was grateful though as she reported getting a lot more respect for the remainder of the holiday after swiftly dispatching it with a mallet to the horror of the assembled onlookers. They seem to have not realised what has to happen after you actually succeed in catching your prey. It was delicious.

Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue

The journey to our final French port was broken by anchoring for lunch and a swim. Egged on by encouraging cheers from the Belgians anchored nearby Sally and the girls ventured into balmy warmth of the Channel. Dave felt the need to stay aboard check the anchor and prepare the space blankets for the first hypothermic to make it out alive. It was bracing.

St Vaast did not disappoint, a beautiful French fishing port with a welcoming marina surrounded by oysterbeds and a short walk at low tide to l'Ile Tatihou. We discovered that the much celebrated shop Maison Gosselin was every bit as exceptional as described. A veritable tardis of a shop you can buy absolutely everything here from windup musical boxes playing the Star Wars theme to jars of gourmet cassolette and fine wines. Doris now has glorious rose hand wash in the aft heads, a sealed ice cube tray (so you can make ice no matter what angle Doris is at) and a pot scrubber as a reminder of St Vaast. Told you you can buy anything there.

We made wonderful new friends in the owners of the next door yacht, Namib and had a relaxing last couple of days.

THE ONE AND ONLY MACKEREL

She'll never fit in there!

Who says the Channel is cold?!!

Finally a yacht the same size as Doris

Saint Vaast by night

Heading for home

Our Diesel/Electric Experience

As we didn't yet have the solar panels this entire journey was powered by regeneration when sailing and electric shore power (available everywhere except Port en Bessin). It was surprisingly easy.

Typically we used less than 15% of our battery capacity leaving port and the regeneration enabled us to put a little back while we were sailing (~10% of the battery when we crossed the channel each time). We use another 15% getting into port. The batteries are easily fully charged in a few hours when plugged into shore power. In two weeks sailing around Northern France with a fridge and freezer permanently on, and 3 young women using everything electrical they could get theis hands on with gay abandon, we only used the generator twice for around three hours in total. One of those occasions was arguably unnecessary and born of inexperience (arriving at Honfleur in the early morning with no idea how much battery power we needed to manoeuvre in a lock).

Our main holiday discovery is motor sailing is fabulous with electric propulsion. It appears that 1.5kW to 2kW of power is sufficient for us, which means we can motor sail for many hours before any diesel is required. Moreover, the lack of noise makes it a real pleasure.

The generator is also much quieter and pleasant to use for charging than the engine ever was. Not to mention the efficiency.

Roll on our full solar panel installation.

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