Sunday 2 April
Mate stood a long watch, in the middle of which she was startled by a flashing light ahead that she hadn’t noticed previously. She realised that Jeanny’s track was not allowing for the tide pushing me too far South, and too near the Casquets rocks that lie just Northwest of Alderney, so she made some adjustments and kept a more alert eye on my progress. She was spooked by a vessel appearing on AIS that we seemed to run over, eventually deciding it was our own signal, that is not supposed to show on the chart plotter screen. Needless to say, this caused great hilarity for Skipper when he took handover at 0500.
Mate stayed on deck to watch the cycle complete, from sunset through moonset in a beautiful orange, like a softer sunset, around 0100, to daybreak, an almost imperceptible lightening of the sky, and dawn, before sunrise. By 0615 she couldn’t stay awake any longer, and was suffering stage one hypothermia, in spite of a warming ginger tea thoughtfully provided by Skipper. She shivered, fully dressed and tucked into a winter duvet and blanket, for quite a while until finally falling asleep. Skipper allowed her to sleep until we were a couple of miles from the entrance to Cherbourg’s Grande Rade, the outside harbour, and we enjoyed a lovely last stretch of sailing along the French coast.
Inside the huge fortified walls it was very calm and sheltered, so the sails were dropped and furled, and lines and fenders prepared for my docking. Skipper manoeuvred me neatly into the last Allures berth on the H pontoon of Chantereyne marina, and my crew did ‘happy hour’ to tidy me up before they slotted back into a domestic routine. Later they were surprised to discover that the Capitainerie (harbour office) was closed, as they were still on winter operating hours until Easter. Just as well I have such a lovely shower onboard.