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| Paris In Sites Newsletter Direct From France Edited by Linda Thalman Travel & Leisure Articles |
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Dieppe - Isle of Wight - Dieppe
By Linda Thalman November 2008
I said to Pierre "I'm a bit scared" just before setting off. Little did I know.
In the end it wasn't so much fear as it was being sick at sea.
Sailing from Dieppe to the UK on the first day was spent being horribly seasick in high seas during our 14 hour crossing
of the English Channel.
I've never been seasick before in my life - not even off the coast of Oregon as a kid.
Thankfully, I had a day to recover at port in Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK.
We continued onward and took just a couple of hours to sail from Cowes to Gosport which is just across from Portsmouth
before our 3 a.m. departure for our home port of Dieppe.
Amazingly I was not seasick on the return trip, but wow oh wow were the waves and the wind amazing.
Do note: Five of our crew of nine admitted to being sick sometime during the voyage, so I wasn't alone.
The fourth and final day offered us even higher seas with at least 2-meter waves - which looked like at least
4-meters or more to me.
There were gusts up to 65 knots. That sounds ok, but then 65 knots times 1.8 equals 117 kilometers per hour.
Something like Gale force 12, which is when you should stay at home by the fire.
That final day I just rested in our cabin to avoid being ill or soaking wet. It had basically rained
for the entire trip.
The transmanche [crossing the English Channel or la manche]
experience from Dieppe to the UK and back was memorable.
Our skipper, Christophe, has years of experience and boy was I glad he was a professional.
Our sailing group besides our 'team leader' included Christophe J., Myriam, Olivier, Philippe, Jean-Pierre, Simon,
Pierre and myself.
With only two women on board, the men "put up with us" as Philippe jokingly said.
(I promised Philippe I'd quote him, and so be it.)
If only I could be as gung-ho as Myriam - and all the others on Ange 2, too, who braved the continuous rain
on deck while I huddled in a corner on deck or just tossed and turned in my bunk.
But, I really hadn't expected four days of treacherous, stormy seas and a continual downpour.
We'd wanted to visit a bit more of the Isle of Wight than just the high street, which is charming and
quaint and ever so British.
Being a Sunday, not many shops were open, but we had a nice English breakfast on dry land.
The skies were grey and it kept drizzling but we enjoyed our walk along the main street wishing we'd
had more time to explore the island.
We enjoyed a drink later that evening in a pub with local beer and gin tonics.
I do wish we'd all had fish and chips for dinner... my favorite British pub food... but then again,
I'd be facing the pounding waves the next day...
A more extensive visit of the port of Cowes and the Isle of Wight will have to be for another visit.
I asked a local where the name Cowes comes from. She said it was from 'castle' and it has nothing to
do with cattle or dairy cows, but it is pronounced like 'cows'.
After sailing 13 hours on the return voyage, we gladly arrived in Dieppe. At least I did!
From the press and cellphone calls we heard that a boat had capsized with all aboard safe and sound
just near where we'd come from and the gigantic cruise ship Elizabeth II had run aground on a
sand bank near Southhampton a few hours after we left the UK towards Dieppe.
My, oh my, was it nice to be back at our apartment in Dieppe with no more tossing and turning.
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Ange 2, our 43 foot mono hull boat, was 'home' for four days.
We knew this wasn't a cruise in the Indian Ocean with blue skies and warm waters.
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Paris
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General Information
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Linda Thalman
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Email – Linda@wfi.fr
Web Address – http://www.parisinsites.com/
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