Newhaven Yacht Club
NYC Rally to Fecamp - August 2006
Newhaven Yacht Club "French Rally" 12th-19th August 2006, by Mike Price (Moody Blue)
I have jotted down a few words on the above as far as taking "Moody Blue"- attending my first foreign trip organised by a Sub-Committee led by Nigel Cooper. The original intention was for all of us to converge at Fecamp first, then to all proceed together Eastwards along the French coast visiting Le Havre, Honfleur, Deauville and if time permitted - ending up at Oustreham. Oh dear- how things changed on the day.
A total of 6 Yachts finally found enough Crew to go, being "Salido"-Jane Twyman with 1 Buddy sailor (Peter Rovery-Gray) plus Andy, a Motor Boat owner and Valerie; "Zander of Wight" - Karl Love plus 2 friends setting out from Brighton Marina at 0100, "Zeta" Nigel Cooper, with our Club Commodore Alan Cranmer plus 2 members on board (Brian and Janet Tapping) setting out at 0001 to sort out Berthing ahead of the rest of us; "Amie" Graham Irving our Vice-Commodore - with 2 Crew (Bernard Irving plus Jackie) setting out at 0400, and myself on “Moody Blue”with Buddy Sailor Richard Neal p1us 2 old friends of mine who served with me on HMS President in the ANA, who set out at 0230 - all on Saturday the 12th August.
We all met up the night before in The Harbourside at 2100 to chew over the plans for the last time. Each of the Skippers came armed with Weather forecasts and all on the face of it looked OK to go. Moody Blue duly arrived outside Fecamp at 1500 and the lights were green at the entrance and we surfed in with both jetties packed with on-lookers. The weather for all of us was wild and gusty - thank heavens it was astern of us. Everybody was very ill on all the boats. Very bad forecast as it was stated it would only reach 16 Knots at odd times of the day. It was a tight squeeze getting all the boats onto a pontoon as it turned out that many boats already there had been sheltering for the whole week.
We happened to all meet up on the quayside in the early evening and started to realise that the only Yacht missing was "Zeta" – quite rightly Jane was showing some real concern as no Radio Call-ups were answered during the Channel dash. After some quick calls on Mobile back to UK Coastguards and Graham Jones, Tony Fortnum on Coast Watch said that he had a call earlier in the day from Nigel to say that he had diverted to Dieppe. Whew. . .
Sunday was still wild and now raining so the plan of campaign was to all do the Benedictine Abbey Tour – but disappointingly only a small Benedictine sample received in the end. We found a restaurant that read well at the top of the hill in the old part of Fecamp ~ all of us turned up. Trouble was that the Restaurant that we sat down in was NOT the same one as scouted earlier! If only we had walked out some stomachs would have been better - the food was rubbish.
Graham was brave enough to say so and had his main course cooked all over again - but still was pathetic. He got his bill reduced and we all made sure not a single Cent more than required was left. Not funny and apologies again for my mistake to all of you.
Monday saw the arrival by Bus of Alan Cranmer and Janet Tapping as neither of them felt any real use to poor old Nigel - who took ages to come down the coast. At 1730 I went around the other Yachts saying a Party was going to be held to celebrate "Zeta" arriving at 1800 on board ''Moody Blue" Photo is enclosed to show us all finally relaxed. Two-hours later people started to feel hungry again and would not trust me a second time.
Tuesday saw the departures of: "Amie" back to Newhaven, "Salido" with only Andy left to help Jane as Peter had cracked a rib coming over, and Valerie was not feeling up to it, ''Zander of Wight"-pressed on to Honfleur, and we decided West was best, up-to St Valery en Caux, with Nigel not decided. He eventually left later in the day for Brighton.
To slot in with the strong tides we had to leave at around 0830 in order to arrive off St Valery for HW. Once again the wind blew up from nowhere and duly arrived ahead of schedule. We called up Harbourmaster but on looking at our watches realised it was the big break for all France to shut down -sacre bleu.. Realising it was also time for us to eat, entry was delayed until enough water could let us shelter on one of the Town buoys to await return to work. On entering tried again on VHF to now be informed the Marina was FULL! We pressed on and tied up to the nearest buoy to the Harbourmaster and proceeded to tuck into our lunch on deck for all to witness. After a while called up again, to now be told that a space had been found after all. Excellent news. British Bulldog attitude!
Due to Festival of Sail, Harbour was jam packed. Spent 2 very pleasant nights there. Was also a French Public Holiday. Richard was clearly not up to another potential battering and left us to go by Bus to Dieppe and catch a Ferry home early on Wednesday morning. As we were also planning to go as soon as the lock gates opened at 0500 on the Thursday we decided to have the last supper on board. None of us spoke much French and the poor old Butcher struggled with us asking for lambs liver. After a series of 'Moos' and 'Baas' he found what we really wanted. Then it was realised the only thing not priced up in the whole shop was our liver. After scratching around he waved a pricetag and we settled up. What a disgrace we Brits are! It was delicious. Melted in our mouths.
Had a very pleasant sail back flying our Cruising Chute nearly all the way back to Newhaven. Thoroughly enjoyed the trip - pity about the weather. Well done the Sub-Committee getting it all up and running.
Where are we ALL off to in 2007 please ???
Mike Price - Skipper "Moody Blue"
Note from Nigel Cooper, “ZETA” re the French rally
Yes, as Mike says, it did become an interesting run across the Channel on Saturday 12th August. The wind strength became much greater than forecast, but having got nearly half way across before the weather worsened, there was no point in turning back. An attempt to contact others on channel 77 was unsuccessful as it seemed likely we were out of range. Outside Fecamp we called up on channel 12, which is the channel shown in the Almanac, but there was no response. We called up the Marina office on Channel 9, and found the harbourmaster to be sharing that channel with the Marina! His advice was not to enter Fecamp in the prevailing conditions as it was considered too dangerous, and Dieppe was recommended. Hence, having looked at the rough weather over the entrance, our decision to sail on for another 7 hours to Dieppe, under Genoa and with help of the engine. On safe arrival at Dieppe we logged a telephone call to Solent Coastguard to notify our change of destination. I have to say that the food in Dieppe was probably much better than that encountered by our colleagues in Fecamp!
After catching up with the others in Fecamp on Monday, and an interesting, and very “different” Chinese meal, we rose later on Tuesday morning and studied the weather forecasts for the remainder of the week. Tuesday was in fact a lovely day -force 3 to 4 westerly, and dry. However, the bad weather forecast for the rest of the week decided it for us. Alan and Janet were still suffering some after effects of the crossing from Newhaven, and decided to go back on the ferry. We set off at 0945 back across the Channel, arriving in Brighton at 2300, having enjoyed a steady Westerly force 4 most of the way, and in fact that sail, with Brian sharing the helm, was probably the best channel crossing I have known.
I have to thank my crew, Alan Cranmer, and Brian and Janet Tapping for their good humour in spite of the onset of sea sickness.
Page last updated: 27/05/2009 7:33:43 PM