High and Dry in Barfleur

Today was unforgettable. It was our first sail post orientation on Gerty.  We sailed from Cherbourg to Barfleur.  The wind was light at 5 to 8 knots W/NW. Our SOG remained about 6-8 knots. We sailed around the Cotentin Peninsula mostly downwind with the current.

After anchoring in a nice cove shared with an ever common French sailing school, we read the tide table (tides are up to 30 feet in this area) and planned to dinghy to shore. Our plan was to arrive at 1 pm and leave at around 8 pm as we thought the tides were four hours apart.

After our daily stop at the local boulangerie/patisserie and a long hike to the light house, we realized the tides were actually 6 hours apart!  Upon our return from the hike, the entire harbor was literally high and dry!

Although exhausted, the three of us found this error to be hilarious and thanked our lucky stars that we anchored Gerty in the cove ‘next door’ that remained wet.

That said, Gerty is a ‘beachable boat’ as she has a center board that can be raised and she is designed to stay upright on the sand.  Needless to say, we had a very long and luxurious French dinner, complete with all the local specialties- muscles, crème Brule, and espresso.  All three of us, Joshua included (he had an espresso too!) were wide awake for our 11 pm journey home in the dark.  Did I mention, we forgot our life jackets and flashlight.  Next project- laminated dinghy list.