Honfleur and Le Havre

Seascapes Travel Log
Michael Grew
Sun 24 Jul 2011 17:03
Honfleur  14.07.2011 ( Bastille Day) 49:25:37N   00:14:054E
0855hrs left the mooring together with “Scoobydou” (a French boat, helmed by John-Marie and his extended family) and pulled out into the Seine into a strong head wind. John-Marie is a local Rouen man and knows the river extremely well. He was the one that said leaving at 09:00hrs would get us to Honfleur by 18:00hrs ( the lock gates open on the hour) I asked if he had taken into account a strong head wind (westerly) he said that he had but it would not be a strong wind so would be no problem (Yeah right!) Well you have guessed it we finally arrived into force 6 westerly wind just as the tide was on the turn, by the Normandy bridge at 19:00hrs. The wind (over tide) whipped up 6ft waves and it was a most uncomfortable end to the journey and caused us to hang about outside Honfleur lock, being bounced around like a rubber ball, for 40 minutes before the gates opened at 20:00hrs. Inside the outer harbour, we both tied up on the visitor’s pontoon. It was not as quiet and peaceful as I expected in fact it was a bit like being in a war zone. The visitor’s pontoon is by the park wall. Inside the park small boys (and a few bigger ones) were continually letting off bangers (fireworks) and some thought it amusing to lob them over the wall on to the pontoon. Fortunately none landed on any of the boats. In the town a rock band was giving it a lot of volume and a fairground carousel was trying to compete with the noise. Everywhere there were hundreds and hundreds of people milling about, the little children being bought flashing light toys by their families from street vendors. A real party atmosphere was in full swing. We were told there was to be a firework spectacular down on the front at the other end of the park. So at 22:30hrs we slowly joined the crowds making their way across the park running the gauntlet of teenagers dropping lighted bangers, in front of us. Then while we waited for the proper show to start, there was several, family run, impromptu fireworks displays to watch (H & S executives  would have had a fit) At 23:00 hrs the main event started and lasted 20 minutes, all done in time to classical music, very good it was too. Afterwards we wandered back into the town which, at way past midnight was still going strong with the rock band. I even had a ice crèam at midnight, which Maureen thought was unusual enough to take a photo of me eating it. We then walked back to boat and laid in bed listening to the disco until 01:30hrs.
 
Honfleur 15.07.2011  49:25:37N   00:14:054E
Awoke to a bright sunny day with blue skies and no wind. I left M in bed and walked up into town and bought a fresh loaf and croissants for breakfast. Afterwards we went off on a walking tour around the old town. I do love Honfleur (if you have never been you have missed one of France’s most beautiful locations). After lunch we climbed up the hill to a viewpoint, overlooking the mouth of the Seine. Then looked in at the old chapel that is a famous pilgrimage spot located near the viewpoint. It is where all mariners go before they set off on long journeys or when they return to give thanks for a safe journey. They have a rack of church bells in the open air behind the chapel that sound the hours. On the way back down the hill we stopped and looked at another place of interest, called St Simeon’s Hostel, now a five star hotel, which has lawns that have 180 degree views of the Seine estuary. From there we wandered down to the huge beach area where the fireworks were being let off from last night, and then back through the huge lovely park to the boat. The park has a number of small flower beds dedicated to various famous local people, in each one is a pedestal with a stone bust of the person to whom it is dedicated. In the evening we walked up into town and had meal (a smoked salmon crepe for me and M had a seafood salad) . There are hundreds of restaurants in Honfleur but thousands of visitors who all seem to eat out so it can be difficult to find a table. Then we went into St Catherine’s church (built to celebrate the end of the 100 years war by shipwrights so it is all in wood) where there was concert. Very good it was too, very popular father and son singers , the father was a Pastor so the songs were a mixture of popular classics and modern religious (not that either of us could understand a word) accompanied by a brilliant, blind, keyboard player. Afterwards we walked back to the boat to find that a French yacht had moored up alongside of us. There was nobody on board until gone midnight and then we were disturbed by them blundering across our fore deck to get on their boat. During the night the wind got up and we had the continually squeaking of the ropes between the two boats to disturb us.
 
Le Havre 16.07.2011 49:29:25N  00:05:50E
Awoke to heavy dark clouds, rain, strong westerly winds and poor visibility (Terrific, we were supposed to go across to Le Havre today!) Ah well it may clear up ( I thought hopefully) but as the morning wore on, more and more boats came into the harbour with wet, bedraggled and tired looking crews on board. So I made an executive decision. We are absolutely not going out the harbour today! ( I was later to remember this ) We wandered up into town as it was market day – the best we have seen this year, fisherman selling their catch on the quai side and lots of stalls selling typical French foods. After lunch, boats continued to come into harbour and by now the visitors pontoon was oversubscribed and boats were being double banked. As the afternoon wore on the rained ceased, the wind subsided but visibility was still not very good. M remarked ( a couple of times) that we needed to be in Le Havre soon as (a) We needed more diesel for the channel crossing and there was no fuel in Honfleur and (b) We needed to catch the tides right. I said that I would show her why I was standing by decision to stay in harbour. So I walked her down to the seafront to show her how big the seas were and how poor the visibility was. Murphy’s Law prevailed yet again and when we got a good view of the estuary, the sea was as flat as anything and you could see clear across to Le Havre and all the channel buoys we would use to navigate. (Damn!!) We hurried back to the boat, slipped the mooring and got down into the lock just before it was due to open at 14:30hrs. We were joined in the lock by two of the small tourist boats and the German yacht that had been moored up in front of us. They tied up alongside us and told us they were making for the port of Fecamp. When the lock opened we followed them out down the buoyed channel. After we had been going for ten minutes the wind increased from a 4 to a force 7 (38 mph), the waves got up, the rain came down in torrents and within the space of a couple of minutes visibility dropped to about 200 yards. Then a huge passenger ferry came up behind us so I had to clear out of the channel. Just after he passed us a big commercial vessel came up the channel the opposite way, he was well over our side of the channel and we were almost at our turning point to head towards Le Havre, so like the German we quickly crossed over the channel but to our horror the oncoming vessel continued to aim at us. He seemed to be targeting the yacht in front so I turned and went behind his stern. By now the German yacht was well out of the channel and the commercial continued to slowly turn a 180 degrees to run a parallel course to me. I have no idea what on earth he was doing, but I was not about to hang around to find out, so I speeded up before he could fully complete his turn, crossed in front of him and got right out of the channel, so he could not follow me. That put me on the right course for Le Havre which was roughly NNE (North, North,East). Trouble with course was that meant the wind and the large rolling waves were on our port quarter (left back corner), making the boat roll horribly. We rolled along for about twenty minutes without seeing any sort of landmark at all and then out of the mist appeared the distillery tanks on Le Havre dockside and then the navigation tower at the port entrance. (phew!) When we got into the yacht basin it was still blowing a real “Hooley” and it made mooring up on the visitor’s pontoon very difficult and we could have been in a bit of a bother but for two good Samaritans that were standing out in the wind and rain and took our lines for us. One was an English guy and the other a Belgian. I’ve never seen so much water in our cockpit before and that was with the canopy up. How other helmsmen who are exposed to the weather in rear cockpits (ours is a centre cockpit) were able to see I do not know. I was very pleased to get the wet weather gear off and a cup of hot chocolate inside me. After a nice steak meal cooked by M we spent the evening trying to ignore the jerking of the boat and read. An early night is definitely called for and hope the wind dies down so we can get some sleep.
 Le Havre 17.07.2011 49:29:25N  00:05:50E
We both slept like logs until 09:00hrs and then woke up with the boat trying to shake off the mooring ropes and every other rope, halyard and sheet attacking the masts like starving woodpeckers. Outside the wind was howling and the rain was beating a tattoo on the cabin top. Lovely, sunny France in hot July. I thought they had a water shortage. Well they haven’t now. After breakfast when the weather cheered up a bit we donned our waterproofs and walked up to the Capitaineries office to look at the weather forecast. That was all doom and gloom, North Westerly winds force 4 to force 7 increasing to gale force 8 later. That’s a day in harbour then. We then walked up to the huge reinforced concrete church of St Josephs and had a look inside. Very unusual the main tower is completely hollow and all the way up it are small coloured windows, which at night are illuminated from the inside, making the tower shimmer with coloured lights. We  then walked to the boulangerie and bought a baguette and on the way back to the boat the rain came down in stair rods and we were forced to run back into the church for shelter, joining a number of other tourist all doing the same thing. When the weather paused for breath we made a dash for the boat. We almost made it too, but the taps were turned on full again as we got back to the marina. By the time we had walked the long pontoon walk back to the boat our trousers and shoes were wet through. During the mid afternoon the Americans, John and Alice arrived in “Ariel” and said that it had been a rough ride over from Honfleur. This had taken its toll on Alice who had been suffering for a few days with a bad back. That evening we had nice meal on their boat and swopped our experiences of the Seine (some might even say, Insane) crossing. We looked at the weather report on John’s laptop computer for the following 48 hours weather forecast, none of which looked at all promising. The decision was then made to stay in Le Havre until the weather changed. (Maybe we will have to buy a house here)