I was invited by Lynn Davis & Richard Herbert with their friend Daniel Firth to assist crewing for them on their yacht Alia for a week cruising Normandy. My first question was where was the Autohelm. I was informed that there was no need as Lynn just loved helming and indeed WAS the Autohelm. With 4 on board, Alia performed superbly overcoming any sea & wind.
First stop Cherbourg blasting out their favourite tune (whenever they could) “I hate you then I love you” by Pavarotti & Celine Dion, then on to St Vaast, Ouistreham, Honfleur returning to her (then) home mooring at Wicormarine. Now, there was a smell on board that nobody owned up to but with a guilty conscience, Richard dunked them overboard in the hope of, well, freshening them (with little success). This seems a persistent problem with “Deckies”. Lastly in Honfleur at midnight after a rather splendid meal I returned to Alia’s cockpit and stripped as the temperature was still over 30 deg C.
We covered around 280 Nmiles and 10 night hours over 7 days and our weather could hardly have been better with fair winds and fine sun. Fog coming out of Honfleur didn’t stop us although with a possible fuel problem our emphasis was to sail. The venture gave both Richard & Lynn a boost to “Do it again”, and soon.
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