Boulder to London

Since I’ve been in Chi-town all summer, I haven’t really been able to do much sailing around the UK. To try and fit a few trips in before the season ends, I decided to book a cross-channel trip with First Class Sailing, the outfit that I’ve done most of my coursework with. I was a bit apprehensive about the trip as it is getting a bit late in the year and there is nothing that I would like less than to spend a full weekend freezing my ass off in the cockpit of a 36 sailboat whilst dodging ships and hoping not to get lost on the 80 mile trip. To top it all off, it’s always a risk taking a weekend trip in close quarters with four to six people that you’ve never met.

To my surprise, all of my fears and hesitations were for nothing. To start with, the weather on Friday was fabulous with clear blue skies and a warm 55 or 60 degrees F. I made it to the marina around 7 and enjoyed a beer and a burger with the skipper and one of the others whilst waiting for the other two. Eventually the other two arrived and we shoved off around 9PM for the trip south. The wind pretty light, so we hoisted the main sail and motor-sailed out through the needles around the west end of the Isle of Wight to take advantage of the tide. Unfortunately the wind never picked up and we ended up motoring the entire evening on auto-pilot with 3 hour rotating watches. I had the 1AM to 4AM watch which was absolutely beautiful with clear skies and a late summer meteor shower.

We arrived in Cherbourg about 11AM the next day without incident and proceeded to enjoy another full day of clear skies and warm temperatures (I had jeans and a t-shirt on, but we saw a group of guys out wake boarding). We walked into town to try and find some Oysters and were told by a local that you could go to a local oyster shop, have the oysters prepared and then take them to a bar where you could enjoy them with a bottle of wine. I was a bit skeptical, but the Italian guy on the trip, who spoke enough French, was convinced we could make it work. He went into the shop and ordered three dozen orders that were brought to us on a large platter, layered with seaweed for 12 euros. The oysters were fabulous and the pub we found had a great open patio where we could sit and relax in the sun. We followed the oysters up with a fabulous french dinner before retiring back to the boat for a few hours sleep prior to the midnight departure.

Unlike the way there, the sailing back was incredible. We sailed the entire way on a close reach with SW winds that probably averaged 18 knots. This allowed a boat speed of 6 to 8 knots the entire way and a speedy 12 hour trip back.