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The flag of Normandy
The following photographs of the Seine Bay Cruise are a small selection of the 400 shots taken by the secretary, Brenda Harvey.
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Bay Cruise Photographs The following photographs record the 1999 Summer Cruise of the SSA to the Seine Bay area of Normandy. Click here to see pictures of the 2003 Seine Bay Cruise
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The flag of Normandy
The following photographs of the Seine Bay Cruise are a small selection of the 400 shots taken by the secretary, Brenda Harvey.
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| Brenda, the SSA secretary, helms our boat 'Zest' down Beaulieu river on Friday the 23rd July, on way to Yarmouth, ready for a Saturday crossing of the Channel. | Yarmouth at 5.30 am on Saturday morning. | Departure point for one part of the fleet. Another left from Bembridge. | Arrival point. Fort de l'Quest at the western entrance to Cherbourg |
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| The entrance to the inner harbour, 13 hours after leaving the Needles. | The impressive building of unknown origin on one side of the marina. | Ann ('Many Moons') and Brenda ('Zest'). |
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Seals a plenty. |
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Ron ('Maybe') modeling the Seine Bay Sweatshirt. |
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Some shots around the marina and nearby Cherbourg |
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Looking back towards the entrance. |
Looking towards the Hotel De Ville | |
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It was the intention to have a rest day at Cherbourg on the Sunday, but due to a forecast of strong winds on the Monday it was decided to sail for St Vaast on Sunday to get around Barfleur in favourable conditions. |
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The somewhat dilapidated Fort de l'Est at the eastern entrance to Cherbourg harbour. The fleet exited here on its way to St Vaast. |
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This photograph shows Parker 275 'Nosey Parker', passing the prominent
light at Barfleur - |
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The fleet arrived at St. Vaast on Sunday evening to find it very busy and all had difficulty finding berths. As a result the fleet was scattered around the harbour. |
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Here a couple of photographs of the entrance to St. Vaast at low tide from the sea wall. |
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Here are a few general shots of St. Vaast. If you look carefully you may spot the odd Seal or Parker yacht. |
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On Monday the strong winds arrived as forecast and the fleet was locked into St. Vaast for three days with everyone slowly being driven insane with its whining. There was an upside to this, however: |
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1 - An Oyster Party hosted by Walter and Chris Brown ('Ard Righ') |
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2 - A Drinks Party, hosted by John Coyle on 'Harlequin'. |
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There were 20 people on Harlequin, which is something of a record. |
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3 - A chance to visit Tatihou Tatihou is a small island just north of St. Vaast which is reached by a unique amphibious craft. The craft sails between St. Vaast when the tide is in and motors through the oyster beds when it is out. Below are a sample of photographs of the craft and Tatihou. |
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| The ferry on its slipway at St. Vaast. | This is a shot of Tatihou from the harbour entrance of St. Vaast which is to the right of the photograph. Immediately in front is the ramp used by the amphibious ferry. | The ferry aproaching its alternative pick up point at St. Vaast when the tide is out. |
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The ferry at Tatihou. |
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The following are general shots around Tatihou |
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Eventually the winds abated and we were able to leave St. Vasst. Unfortunately we were now behind schedule so a decision was made to miss out Carentan and head instead for Grandcamp Maisy, which is situated to the east of the Baie de Grand Vey. The welcome received by the harbourmaster was outstanding (if you could take the extremely strong Calvados he insisted on giving everyone). The one thing that spoiled the visit was weed. More on this later. |
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Here are a few pictures of the harbour and its entrance. |
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As with all the ports on this coast, except Honfleur, they are protected only by a single set of gates hence one can only enter and exit around high tide. |
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You can see something of the weed that was to be so troublesome the morning of our departure. |
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A tribute to RAF Bomber Command |
Part of the fleet in the harbour | |||
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The harbourmaster who gave us such a warm welcome. |
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Though we were only on GCM for one day we did manage to fit in two drinks parties and a very good evening meal at a local Logis hotel. |
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The first was on Shemar and Abacus, hosted by Martin and Clifford on arrival. |
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The second was on Nosey Parker to celebrate Guy's 21st birthday. |
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Grandcamp Maisy to Courseulles-Sur-Mer Some yachts had exteme difficulty extracating themselves from the 'sargasso sea' of Chinese weed that drifted towards the harbour gates just prior to departure. However, everyone eventually set off for Courseulles-Sur-Mer some 25 miles distance. As the fleet had become so widely dispersed, it was decided to make an unscheduled stop for lunch at Arromanches, anchoring in the wartime artificial port of 'Port Winston'. This made time for the last yachts out of Grandcamp Maisy to catch up.
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These shots show something of what is left of the port. Unfortunately time, tide and the weather have done much to move the large concrete blocks apart. |
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'Saffie' the only Parker 21 on the cruise being towed to Arramonches by 'Tilikum' the only Parker 325. |
The town of Arramanches. |
Some of the fleet at anchor inside the 'port'. |
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Late afternoon, yachts began to make their way to Courseulles-Sur-Mer. As the gates would not open until around ten p.m., yachts anchored off in what was a very pleasant evening. |
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Next morning in the marina of Courseulles-Sur-Mer |
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And before we leave Courseulles-Sur-Mer, here is Ken Surplice ('Saffie') doing a little maintenance on the youngest crew member on the cruise - Paul. |
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Courseulles-Sur-Mer to Dives-Sur-Mer The next port of call was Dives-Sur Mer some 17 miles East of Courseulles-Sur-Mer. This was to be a two day stop with a lunch at Le Grand Hotel De Cabourg. |
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This shows the entrance to Port Guillaume. There was little opportunity to take photographs when we came up the river Dives as it was flowing out at 6 knots. |
However, here are a couple of shots of Houlgate that stands at the entrance to the river Dives. |
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| This is looking back down river at low tide, | and this is looking up river. The entrance to the port is left centre, | We followed this boat into the harbour. There was a Festival of the Sea' during our visit. | |
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There were now 13 yachts in the fleet with the appearance of 'Claire Louise' a Seal 26. Harry Wyatt in 'Ariel of Avon' was still in St. Vaast with gearbox trouble. |
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Sarah showing a novel use of a spinnaker pole. |
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| This shows something of the new development that is going on at Port Guillaume (from the other side of the river Dives) | The bridge we had to cross on our way to lunch at the Grand Hotel De Cabourg. | ||
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The next port of call was Deauville, some 7 miles East of Dives. This was just an overnight stop. One point of note is that the fleet crossed the meridian on approaching Deauville. |
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| As you can see from this shot of Rhayader, the trip to Deauville was undertaken in light winds and little visibility. | Approaching the coast between Deauville and Trouville | The Casino (with a very unstable looking fishing boat in front) | This is looking to the left just before entering the Deauville Yacht Basin (see the list on that fishing boat!) |
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Looking back to the entrance. |
The Basin was pretty full when the Seals arrived so the fleet ended up scattered around the Basin. Here are Clare Louise and Ard Righ seeking berths. |
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Next morning it was off to the high point of the cruise, Honfleur, some 10 miles from Deauville. |
| ..and after a disturbed night in the outer channel (caused by the fishing boats) so did the rest, next morning!. | |||
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Here now are a few general shots of Honfleur Vieux Bassin and surrounding area. |
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After two days in Honfleur, the fleet makes ready for the return journey by moving to Le Havre ready to cross the Channel early Friday morning. |
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| Its now 10.00 on Thursday the 5th August and the fleet departs Honfleur for Le Havre | |
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Approaching Le Havre. |
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On the pontoon in Le Havre. The weather was in stark contrast to when the fleet reached the Solent where 'the heavens opened'. |
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The fleet left Le Havre in groups setting off between 02.00 and 04.00. |
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| Sunrise over the Channel. | The majority of the Fleet entered Bembridge on Friday evening and left early the next morning. | Clifford and daughter Kate sailing 'Abacus', accompany 'Zest' back to Beaulieu River. |
Back on our mooring after an enjoyable Seine Bay cruise. |
