Two long days to St Vaast-la-Hogue – 20, 21 June, 77 and 44 miles

We’d been exchanging texts with some other club members, Gavin and Sue on Cygnet, and agreed to meet in St Vaast-la-Hogue in 2 days – a possibly tough target unless we had some kinder winds.

We set out at 0900, with the tide still foul and a fickle NW3. We were unsure whether or where we might stop for the night. In the event, we reached Fecamp by 1400, with still 3 hours of helpful tide, and a westerly F4, so we kept going. Off Antifer, we reckoned that continuing to St Vaast direct with the wind dead on the nose was a bit like hard work, so freed off for Courseulles, just west of Oistreham. We tied up at 2040 to find the capitainerie shut until after we would have left next morning which, given their pricing to rival Dover, was no bad thing!

Next morning we left at 0800 with more light headwinds. First we had a hitch-hiking pigeon, then caught some mackerel. By 1400 we were off Grandcamp, and the wind veered for a time to allow us to head direct for St Vaast, where we arrived at 1715, 2 hours early for the gate. Sue and Gavin arrived quarter of an hour later.

Sue and Ann on Tatihoo	Looking across to Tatihoo from the entrance gate

Next day in St Vaast we ate a lot of oysters, walked across the oyster beds to the island of Tatihoo, and then ate roast beef on Razzmatazz. And at last the wind was turning easterly! Brilliant for us, but tough on Gavin and Sue on their way back to Woolverstone.