Day 14: 27/06/17 Hornfleur to Rouen

So today was a day that I had been particularly nervous about. The trip up to Rouen was about 60 miles but all the books say we need to do it in one day as there are no real viable stopping points along the route. The book also says the tide only flows in for 4 hours in every 12! Luckily on further inspection of the Fluviacarte, the tide flows at up to 4 knots and we could carry the tide all the way to Rouen assuming we start at Le Havre LW+1 at Hornfleur. Guide books and Cruising association advice say that Hornfleur is now a viable starting point with 24 hour access so we decided this was preferable to Le Havre as it was a few miles further up the Seine. I have to say I was somewhat concerned about 4 knot tides and had visions of us surfing up to Rouen! Regardless we planned to lock out at 9:30.

In the end the most traumatic experience of the day was exiting Hornfleur lock and Patrick pointing out that the water looked VERY low on the other side. A quick calculation said we would have 1.5m of water the other side.... we need 1.65. A hurried radio call to the lock keeper just gave us a "we do not understand English" and so as the tide was rising the best we could do was dilly dally a bit in the lock and proceed with caution. In the end by the time we left the lock at about 10am, my Navionics app on my phone said the water had risen another 20cm so we should have 1.7m. Still a bit close for comfort but out we went, Patrick thinks we might have touched the bottom, we definitely saw 0.1m on the depth gauge indicating we only had 10cm of water under the keel. The stress levels were so high at this early stage that I called for the emergency chocolate biscuits!

Once out on the Seine our speed started at about 6 knots, it was a somewhat miserable day and the kids hid down below for most of it. Although we have the new Raymarine es7 chartplotter we still prefer the iPad with iNavx for AIS.

By noon we were approaching 10knots, and Patrick was to be heard saying the bends were "a bit interesting".

















In fact the weather was so miserable we ditched the Tuna Pasta Salad I had planned for lunch in favour of 2 of the many tins of Heinz Ravioli we had bulk purchased at Asda when it was on special offer in February!

There was much flotsam about which needed to be avoided, and also any turns to avoid
buoys needed to be executed well in advance. There also appeared to be some strange eddies which would catch you by surprise and send the boat motoring off into a random direction.

On the flip side though, the scenery was rather beautiful and a lovely change from the flat banks of the East Coast Rivers.

There was less rain in the afternoon and we were getting used to travelling at almost double our normal speed. We had been warned about the size of ships going up and down the Seine, and were surprised that we didn't see more. However one in particular coming towards us gave off so much wash that Laurin was slamming over 2m high short waves for almost 10 minutes as they reflected off the banks.

As we passed into the industrial areas of Rouen we called the kids on deck to help us in, and as usual AJ was there in a flash. We tried to raise Rouen Port de Plaisance on the Radio but no response so we motored in slowly. Luckily there were some fellow Cruising Association members, the crew of Growltiger who said to come alongside them and took our lines. After a visit to the port office we settled down to Corned Beef Hash and Beans.... need to go shopping tomorrow!