Barneville to Granville
After our short stay in Barneville-Carteret it was time for us to sail towards our last stop in Normandy which is Granville. The difficulty was that we now had to time our trip with two tidal restrictions: the tidal sill (remember the tidal gate keeping the water locked in the port) at the leaving marina in Carteret and at our destination. Hence, we would have to leave on the last possible window to arrive not too early in Granville.
Eventually our plan had worked out, and we made it just in time. In fact, we were a little too early and waited another 15mins to have a bit more margin. Waiting here, means sailing around, as there is no way to just “stop” a boat. That’s probably the biggest difference and challenge when compared to a road trip. On the road and if something goes wrong, you just park your car on the side. On the seas, that’s not easily possible.
Back to the story, we passed the sill with roughly 50cm below our keel which the captain felt was save enough. There must be a reason that the German’s wish every sailor always a hand wide of water under the keel (eine handbreit Wasser unterm Kiel). Obviously, Lisa and André were furiously debating what a hand wide means not being able to agree on who is right – as usual.
On our way we had to dodge a minefield of fisher buoys. Every time the water got a little shallower, the odd 8-10metres rather than 20+, the local fishermen and hobby fisher must have started planting their crab traps. It was about then when we again saw school of dolphins. Truly magical. However, they were in the distant and unfortunately not interested in us and our boat which is why we could only wave from a distance.
Granville as such was a rather functional stop. The marina had seen better days, and due to the grey weather the town was not as welcoming as sunny Carteret. Hence, we were a little spoiled and decided to leave the next day for St. Malo after restocking our basic supplies and waiting for the next tidal window.
