Calais — Caen

Having taken a break from the sea in Calais, we’re underway again. To rock on the English Channel swell and raise the Russian flag at yet another festival in Caen, France, situated in Normandy. 

It’s going to be a more substantial distance than the previous leg, but, to our taste, not that awfully long either. So there will be time for lazy sailing passages and sightseeing in small towns along the route, sail training and night watches by the wheel with brilliant stars to steer by, and music in the main salon after we dock at a French historical waterfront of some such.

After the lock from Calais to the English Channel with its’ tidal currents, we set a course South, towards Dover. Ahead of us are 140 action-packed nautical miles to the estuary of Seine. Here, in the English Channel, you can see just about anything: from huge tankers and high speed ferries to tiny sail and fishing boats. Endless fields of windmills stand on the shallow bars among all that mess. To bring order to that turmoil the strait is divided into traffic lanes, sternly observed by dispatchers from both sides. After the Strait of Dover (Pas-de-Calais) the English Channel becomes some wider, giving us more room for maneuver. We’ll keep left, closer to the East coast, to have a choice of stopping by a few small towns along the route. It might be our well loved Boulogne-sur-Mer or Dieppe, but we might also discover a place we’ve never been to before.