July 2017 - USA and France
We continued our USA visit driving from NY back Chicago for a long weekend. Then we drove on to Minnesota for 11 days with family and annual checkups. We spent a weekend in Maple Lake with Al's sister Connie and Steve and his brother Dave and Julie. We have our home rented out in Burnsville and the city inspection wanted the deck flooring and rails replaced. Al with help from brother-in-law Steve and friend Mike got it done despite all that was going on. Glad we had fun times with Patrick's family in TN because between summer camp and interruptions we didn't have a lot of time together to visit. We did get to see my sister Maggie a couple of times and our friend Rich. We spent one afternoon with sailing friends Cindy and Bob (met in 2006 sailing the Med) visiting about crossing Atlantic and the Caribbean. We ended our USA visit with another drive back to Chicago and 5 more days with Justin's family.
Pictures Minnesota and Chicago July 2017
USA | Illinois | Chicago | Lake Michigan | Beach babes
USA | Illinois | Chicago | beach fun
USA | Minnesota | Cottage Grove | bonfire with Patrick
USA | Minnesota | Cottage Grove | Allie taking Josie out for a ride
USA | Minnesota | Cottage Grove | Emma and Josie decked out for 4th of July
July 19, 2017 - Travel down the Seine River from Rouen to Honfleur France
We returned to Rouen, France July 19 and took a week to get some boat projects done, provision and deal with jetlag.
France | River Seine | Sahurs | Eglise Sainte Madeleine
France | Seine Estuary | Honfleur | Vieux Port
July 28, 2017
Tuesday, July 25 our Cruising Season 2017 began in earnest. We motored down the River Seine to Honfleur in about 9 1/2 hours with beautiful sunny weather. Wednesday we Left Honfleur at 0630 lock opening and were merrily riding the tide out the Seine River by 0700. We had a great 60 mile sail across Baie de Seine until we reached Barfleur Pte noted for extreme tidal currents especially during spring tides. The next 30nm was tough sledding with over 30kts of wind on the nose and at times 5kts of tide with us which made for a wild rough ride. We made it to Cherbourg by 8PM. Long Day oh and I forgot to mention light rain most of the day. Thursday and Friday had strong winds from the direction we needed to go, big seas, and rain so once again we found plenty to keep us busy with boat projects and planning.
France |Channel Islands |Guernsey | St. Peter Port
July 31, 2017
Finally after 5 days of weather in Cherbourg we had an early morning passage to St. Peter Port, Guernsey in the Channel Islands. We had to motor into the wind and seas to reach the Alderney Race before the tide switched. We filled our fuel tanks with duty free diesel ($2.90 a gallon). It's $5.70 a gallon in the French marinas. We also decided to buy a new Zodiac 6man liferaft duty free. Our Revere liferaft was 12 years old and the cost of servicing it for only one year was almost what we paid for a new one. Part of that expense was shipping to Italy. Also because of the age after this service it couldn't be done again. We did watch them open the raft and glad to say if we had needed it along the way it would have worked. We bought two new inflatable life jackets too.
