Poole to Cherbourg in September.

[andyjcox1]

Originally Posted by SteveHall

Can I have a copy of the passage plan? Just for information about your trip?

PM your email and I will send it over.

[andyjcox1]

So one last summary for those going or thinking about it tomorrow:

I will be launching at cobbs about 8:45am
Trimix, I will see you there and you will decide on the day if your crew are keen or not.
Cgf10, I will meet you off RMYC about 9:30am and we will head to Cherbourg
We will text Trevg when we leave, and stay in radio contact on ch08 to arrange a rendezvous on route.

Here's to a good trip

[paulbrown22]

Have a great trip guys, sadly I'm over in La Rochelle for the boat show and a quick visit to Ile d'Oleron, otherwise would have loved to do this.

Another time, once we've all been persuaded with videos of this trip hopefully!

[Nick Hearne]

Have a great trip, can't be as bad as last years run!
My crew of two where compleat novices and I think I managed to put them off for life

[cgf10]

Forecast still holding nicely. Hope you decide to come Trimix.

[cgf10]

Great crossing today, nicely tied up about three hours after leaving Poole. A coffee, some retail therapy and restaurant selection for later on ensued..

[cgf10]

And just to prove we are really in France here are some typically French things we saw today

[paulbrown22]

Excellent news - enjoy your stay in Cherbourg!

Hope the trip back is good.

[andyjcox1]

I thought I would add a few more details about the poole trip.

In the end myself, TrevG and Cgf10 headed out, after meeting Trimix and his great RIB. He made the sensible call to not head over as his crew were pretty new to boating. This turned out to be the right call based on the lumpy trip back.

We met Chris and his wife (cgf10, hope we are allowed to use real names!) in poole harbour and left at 10am. The sea was calm , being kept down even more by the foggy conditions. A great run over, saw very little traffic. 3 hours later we were in Cherbourg where we met Trev, who had managed to get ahead of us. I was also pleased to have only used 60ltrs of fuel for the 70nm travelled at an average of 25knts so did not have to stop midway to refuel.

Cherbourg is a nice harbour, easy to find and use. Having taken every document I had in case checked, a lovely young lady welcomed us in a rib, gave a 20% RYA discount and that was it for formalities, not even the passports were needed on this trip.

We all found a cafe and coffee and beer was consumed, followed by a nice wander around Cherbourg.

Myself and my crew Iain found the el dorado pub and can recommend the beer selection, we had to try a few just to be sure.

Everyone met for dinner at le pizza, a good recommendation and the moules frites and pizza were enjoyed by all. A quick night cap and then back to the hotel chantereyne for me and Iain. Can highly recommend this hotel as a clean and pleasant option right in the harbour itself. Trev, Chris and Sandra spent the night on their boats, the facilities from what I saw were very clean and new looking in the marina office.

Waking up the next day and looking out of the window, hoping the forecasted F 4-5 was wrong, it seems the weathermen had it right for a change. Under grey skies and a building wind, we fuelled up and headed out. Being the smallest rib, my ribeye a600 seemed to be the perfect size to be dropped into every trough and we took a bit of a pounding, but it handled the large seas very well considering. I estimated the wave to be a couple of meters, at least it felt like it as we climbed up each one and dropped down after it. We got drenched as quite a lot of the spray was blown over us from the NE we were heading into but actually were thoroughly enjoying it in some weird way.

Eventually the pounding took it's toll, and the console started to move about which lifted at the front each time we took off and landed heavily. This slowed us down to about 10knts just to be on the safe side. Having inspected it at home after, we would have been ok and unlikely to come off, but in a f5-6 it certainly played on our minds. That's the beauty of cruising in company though, as at no point did we feel in danger as the other 2 boats very kindly kept with us all the way and provided a much needed safety net.

We crossed the midway point and the weather improved, we realised the console was unlikely to come off completely and picked up speed to about 20knts for the rest of the journey to Poole in sunshine but still a small swell. Trev peeled off to head to Southampton and I presume he got home safely.

I put the boat on the trailer at cobbs about 5 hrs after leaving Cherbourg, having had a great adventure and very pleased with how well my little RiB and her crew coped. If it had not been for the console, which could not have been predicted and will now get reinforced, the boat was great and fuel consumption better than expected, still only burnt 70 litres on the way back while constantly adjusting the throttle.

My main disappointment was my new musto BR1 kit, as I was soaked down to my under crackers from top to bottom when I took it off. Time for a dry suit, and to be fair it is only meant for Coastal cruising and not a continuous soaking for 3 hrs.

A great trip, will try and post some pics. Will leave it to the others to comment on their adventure.

Thanks to Trev, Chris and Sandra for a Great weekend. Alderney next spring anyone :-)

Ps, I must admit to a bit of boat and engine envy, those shearwaters look the business and I have already been googling ones for sale, the new extension now looks unlikely :-)

[Trevor G]

Great write up Andy.
For a comparison, on the 8.6m Shearwater with 275 Verado, from Southampton I used 127 Litres for the 87 miles there (in 3Hrs 43 mins according to the trip log) - running at typically 28 Kts, and on the way back used 130 litres - but the return trip was 5 Hrs 49 mins. No wonder I was knackered by the time I got home!

My only photo is of preparing for the return trip.
Trev

[cgf10]

I was going to write my own trip report but I think Andy's is so good it probably explains it all nicely. Thanks Andy. Although I'm not certain I think some of those waves were a little more than 2m early on our return crossing. I have some photos and video which I'll post in the next 24 hours.

[paulbrown22]

An excellent report, sounds like a great trip, with a few challenges to make it more interesting - well done all! Hope your console's okay Andy - does it just need some additional fixing points into the deck, or reinforcing the console itself?

Look forward to some more photos/videos!

[SteveHall]

Sounds like a brilliant trip - and really good to see a 6mtr do the crossing!

[IainR]

Thanks for a great weekend 😎 so glad I packed my drysuit

[andyjcox1]

I think you are right, some of those waves were probably 3m plus in reality.

The console will just need a few more fixing points, structurally it is sound. I had 40litres of contingency fuel strapped to it which I think contributed to it coming loose. Lessons learnt.

[Trevor G]

Originally Posted by IainR

Thanks for a great weekend �� so glad I packed my drysuit

Great Photos!
Now I can see why I lost my lunch that was in the coolbag somewhere en-route home!
Trev

[paulbrown22]

Excellent photos - definitely some challenging conditions if you had a few hours of that on the way home!

[Trimix]

Great write up, looked fun

Im think I did make the right decision not to come, given my inexperienced crew. (one of whom had not been on a RIB before)

I figured that any hint of a 4 or more in the forecast was the line to draw. But you never know with forecasts and it was tempting to go anyway.

We went off to Chesil Beach and back via Swanage, Lulworth, Durdle Door, Weymouth for Coffee on the way out, Portland Bill. Then on the way back we stopped in Weymouth for lunch and in Lulworth we stopped for a swim.

The weather was great - flat seas and warm all day. I will stick some pics up when I get a moment.

If you guys fancy another go Id be happy for you go come along with me on my boat so I dont have to worry about crew

[Trimix]

Ready for the off:

[Trimix]