East Meets West

Gently strummed guitar chords and sweetly intoned lyrics drift across the Vieux Port, in the still of the evening. America's 'horse with no name,' followed by Neil Young's 'heart of gold.'

A crescendo of chimes, from the clock on the Hotel de Ville, momentarily upstages the performance, before the sotto voce rendition resumes. 

Stargazer is in the heart of Honfleur. (Centre boat, with red ensign flying). We are in a petite stone built rectangular basin built four centuries ago. The town surrounds the harbour. Once it brought Honfleur wealth through fishing and trade. Now it brings wealth through leisure and tourism. 

We sailed from Fecamp this morning. The wind in the north west. Round a couple of points since our arrival. Enough to enable us to sail out through the entrance canal, close hauled on the starboard tack.

We set course for Cap d'Antifer. Still close hauled, in sixteen knots of breeze.

The limestone promontory is sculpted, by the sea, into arches and spires to rival those of the Palais Benedictine.

Stargazer rounds the Cap, frees sheets and reaches down into the mouth of the river Seine. As we do so we cross the Greenwich Meridian, where east meets west. Our position plots now reading off in degrees west, instead of degrees east. 

The Seine ebb is against us. We have made good time and have arrived two hours before the start of the flood. Stargazer runs upriver, out of the channel, cheating the tide (which runs more slowly in shallower water).

The lock is opening as we arrive off Honfleur. I drop the sails and take Stargazer in.

Beyond the lock, the Avant Port's visitor's pontoon is rafted three deep, with Dutch and Belgian forty footers. Stargazer stands on, chancing her arm a little. The lifting bridge into the Vieux Port is about to raise. There may be space inside for a thirty footer.

We are in luck. Stargazer squeezes into a berth of her own, in the centre of historic Honfleur. Tomorrow our exploration begins.