Around 2 PM on the 28th we departed Rouen for our sail down the Seine to the English Channel. The trip along this river is much prettier than the ride along the Garonne. The countryside of Normandy is lush and green and dotted with little villages and farms with half-timbered houses, pastures with happy looking cows, apple orchards where the apples to produce Calvados are grown, all divided by ancient looking stone walls and hedgerows. As we sailed along I was struck by what a different scene there would have been here nearly 82 years ago as armies faced each other after D Day. Something that not all of us know is that while there are many people in France whom we consider to be disdainful of us, the people here in Normandy aren’t among them. While they are several generations removed from June 6, 1944, they still honor the young men who came to liberate them on that and the days that followed.
In the early evening we exited the river and we began to feel the effects of the English Channel which can be pretty rough. I didn’t think it was bad, but some of my fellow travelers aren’t so lucky. I dined with another solo lady who is from Santa Fe, New Mexico. We went to the specialty restaurant Solis and had an okay meal. I learned later that we made a mistake because up in the Colonnade there was a Bordeaux Market dinner. The chef had evidently gone shopping and bought lots of local cheeses, pâtés, sausages and other local goodies. I’ll have to do a little more research before deciding where to eat next time.
We only had a short distance to sail across the Channel to our next port Plymouth in Devon, England. There are probably lots of other things for which Plymouth is famous, but there is one in particular which we Americans know. This is the place from which the Pilgrims set sail for the New World to begin the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. (Regardless of what they claim up there, we Virginians know we celebrated the real first Thanksgiving at Berkeley Plantation on the James River before the Pilgrims had even set eyes on North America.) The other thing I had read about that put Plymouth on the historical map is that the English fleet that beat the Spanish Armada in 1588 was based here. By the 20th century the Royal Navy had moved its major base for operations to Scapa Flow which is in the far north of the British Islands making it less subject to air attacks because of the greater distance. Plymouth did serve as a jumping off place for troops going to the Continent though in both WWI and WWII. At the entrance to the harbor I could still see a large fortress that had been built there. Because it was used as a staging place for troops to cross to France, Plymouth was heavily bombed during the last world war. It suffered close to 60 raids that became known as the “Plymouth Blitz.”
All of us had to go through UK Customs and Immigration because it’s our first UK port. That meant I had to get up earlier than usual so I actually made it to breakfast. This was a tender port and the wind was blowing between 20 and 40 knots which made for pretty iffy tender operations. I didn’t have a tour planned so I thought I’d wait and tender ashore after lunch and perhaps walk around a little. I waited down near the tender platform and as the people coming back unloaded and walked past me several looked pretty green around the gills and several told me they had waited for nearly an hour and a half for the tender because operations had to be suspended because it was so rough. I don’t mind rough seas but I do mind waiting so I decided to be a round-tripper. I was the only person other than the three-man Filipino crew as we made our way to the shore landing. They let me sit up next to one of the sliding doors and opened it at my request so I could take some pictures and feel the wind blowing. It was an exhilarating ride. When we got to land there was another crowd waiting to come back and the crew hustled them down the few steps to sit well away from the doors but they let me stay where I was so I had another wind-blown ride back. Friends that I talked to later told me that I hadn’t missed much ashore so I was a happy camper because I had a good ride. My idea of a fun time is different from other people but that’s what makes the world go round.
Oh, when the tender got back to the ship, I waited until everyone else got off and then had the three crewmen stand in the tender door so I could take their photo. They were tickled pink that someone paid attention to them and I told them they were the best tender guys on the high seas. As a matter of fact they did a spectacular job docking in really rough seas. That takes some pretty good small boat-handling skills.
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| The best tender crew on the seven seas! |
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