The Raz Blanchard (Alderney Race), lives up to its descriptive French name: White Waves. At the Cap de la Hague eight knots of north bound current runs into the full east bound English Channel tide - and a force six westerly breeze. The result is a confusion of large breaking seas, literally coming from all sides.
Stargazer shoulders her way through, under and over the brutally square-sided seas. Taking it all in her stride. A few miles east, the confusion is gone. We are riding long powerful swells, with the wind on the beam. Sailing fast.
We enter Cherbourg on instruments, catching only the barest glimpse of Napoleon's fortified sea wall - through a white-out downpour. It is gone as quickly as it arrived, carried off by the wind. Stargazer swings alongside the cosmopolitan visitors pontoon. Helping hands appear, from neighbouring boats, to take our lines.
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