To St Valerie-sur-Somme – 17, 18 June. 36 miles

The tides were right to enter the Somme in the late afternoon; Ann and I love St Valerie; and we wanted to show it to Luke. We left harbour at 0815 to find a good F4 dead on the nose. Had a great sail for about 4 hours. But the wind helpfully veered until we could lay the course, but unhelpfully dropped until we were stationary. We then had to motor most of the last 10 miles to the entrance, but at least Luke had some luck with the mackerel spinner. At Nr 1 buoy we stopped so that Luke and I could dive over the side into the surprisingly warm sea, then motored on the flood into St Valerie.

Luke and Ann by the Mairie	Looking across to the town from the marina

Next day we got out the bikes, hired another for Luke, and cycled round the bay to Le Crotoy for lunch. Back on the boat, Luke, who is 6ft 6in of pure muscle, winched Ann up the mast to send down the masthead light. I changed the bulb for a new-fangled LED, and Ann refitted the light, and came down. However, we found I’d got the orientation wrong, so Luke had the pleasure of winching Ann up again so that I could have another go.