En France 86

 

"Who knows where the time goes?

Sad, deserted shore,

your fickle friends are leaving,

Ah, but then you know,

it's time for them to go. . . . .

So come the storms of winter,

and then the birds of spring again,

I have no fear of time."

(from 'Who Knows Where the Time Goes' by Sandy Denny, 1967)

The seas mound high, in Fecamp's entrance. Vaulting the close-set pier heads, in their eagerness to reach the shingle. Stargazer will not be leaving yet a while. The metronome, of wind and tide, must decide our timing. As they have done all summer.

Within the shelter of the harbour, we can only ponder our options, patiently. Stargazer must decide where to cross the Channel, to the English shore. That decision now bound up with the, post-Brexit, requirement to book out of France ; and the limited ports at which that is possible.