| 22nd July 2009 - Le Havre to Rouen | |||
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Alarm went off at 12noon and I
can honestly say it was one of those moments when I had
absolutely no idea where I was! I could hear strange noises and
people talking and it was incredibly warm! After a couple
of minutes spent normalising my thoughts I soon remembered all
that happened just 5 hours earlier and peered out of my porthole
to see activity on a couple of yachts and more importantly -
sunshine! I popped on some shorts and ventured out into the
saloon and to my surprise the harbour looked completely
different - so much water than earlier - the tide was in and it
had risen 8 metres! Checked on everyone and we were all intact, Andy had not moved and my father had fallen asleep in the cockpit! So what now, we needed fuel (again!) so we would have to wander round to the self service fuel jetty and then the plan was to leave the harbour and venture round to the entrance of the Seine where just 5km upstream we could moor in Honfleur for the day and then push on first thing on Thursday. Self service fuel - what a palaver! The maximum amount we could put in at a time was 127 Euros - that was approximately 125 litres, we required over 600! This took an age, 125 litres at a time then pump back, swipe card, select pump, enter pin, remove nozzle.....than after filling the starboard tank the fuel hose would not reach round to the port tank! - so through the boat we went with hose using the forward saloon windows! Same process again except getting the hose back through the saloon three times was a pain! We requested permission to leave the harbour from Le Havre Port Control and before we knew it we were back out in a very familiar sea, rolling and bouncing as we made our 5NM trip round to the entrance of the Seine. The tide was ebbing so progress was slow and the weather had turned and it was now raining :-( |
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| Leaving Le Havre harbour | Crossing over to the entrance to the Seine | ||
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It was 1630hrs, we could get into Honfleur at 1700 or we could go for it and try and reach Rouen before dark. Non commercial craft are only permitted on the river between 30 minutes before sunrise and 30 minutes after sunset so this was going to be tight. We put the Lat and Long of Rouen in our Nexus weather station and it confirmed that sunset would be 2150hrs which gave us till 2220hrs to be alongside in Rouen. |
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| Port de Tancarville was the longest suspension bridge in Europe when completed in 1959! | |||
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| Weather not improved much but still very scenic | Cruising at between 12 and 15 knots (Speed Limit) | ||
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On we cruised passing numerous
commercial vessels, even though we were off our charts the AIS
receiver was still working and alerting us of approaching
vessels. It was going to be tight, just before 2130hrs we were approaching Rouen and cruising through the dock yards, we slowed up as speed restrictions are in force here and calculated the remaining distance, estimated time for being alongside at Rouen Port de Plaisance was 2215hrs! We took a river spur to port and the pontoons were in sight, not a lot of room though, in fact no room on this occasion but as we were starting to have a few concerns the man from the marina office came running out and directed us to raft up against a steel hulled cruiser. All fast we notified Port Control of our arrival and secure alongside at 2225hrs! |
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Electric on and mooring fees paid we set about washing down the cockpit, filling up with water and trying to get the boat back in order for "pleasure cruising" - holiday officially begins now, we can relax and enjoy the river Seine :-) |
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