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Rona arrives in France!

It's been a very busy 24 hours on Rona II. Docked in Gunwharf Keys and
staying overnight, the past two days have been filled with shopping,
showers, visits to the boat from family and numerous trips to Burger King
and Subway before setting sail to France. Many of the crew took advantage of
the big sale at the local Musto outlet, appearing back on deck with their
trendy new Musto Crocs. Thanks to the Normanton Grandparents, the crew
enjoyed a delicious sponge cake which of course did not hang around for long
after dinner on the second day of the back to back Normanton watch.

Rona II also had a visit from Milo's Grandma at Gunwharf who took the helm
by storm, despite the terrified look on her face as a ferry passed by and
caused the boat to sway...'I already feel sea sick!' she shouted. After
leaving Gunwharf the crew took a trip down the Solent to pay a visit to Big
Lizzie, the new aircraft carrier based in Portsmouth. We can confirm that
Big Lizzie is indeed...very big!

Today Rona II sets sail again as we head across the channel to France.
However, our original plan of heading to Caen has been postponed as we are
making our way across 'too quickly' and will arrive too early to make our
way through the lock. Seems like the crew still have their racing caps on
and can't wait any longer to take over the French beaches. With George
Hopkins as our navigator for the next couple of days we are hoping to arrive
in Le Harve tomorrow morning before heading off to finish the rest of the
planned cruise and back round to Le Harve for the final celebrations.

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Rona II blog 23rd Aug 2017

> Disaster strikes! After arriving in the visitor marina of Le Havre at
> 0430,
> Rona II drove over a stray rope which had been left in the water.
> This tangled around the propeller, causing the Skipper to call for the
> anchor to be dropped a mere 10 metres from our intended mooring position.
> The crew then had to inflate the rubber dinghy and set world class rower
> Theo Darlow to take a line to shore where himself and Dr Sam Wareing
> pulled
> the boat in.
>
> In the morning, the afterguard set off to find a commercial diver to cut
> the
> rope free from the propeller. They located a man named Patrick, who
> arrived
> to the scene of the incident at about 1500 donning full scuba gear; he
> quickly got into the water and began working away at the stern of Rona II.
> After roughly 45 minutes of fishing bits of rope from the marina water,
> the
> crew saw Patrick emerge victorious. Angus Elliman used his bilingual
> …
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A summary of the inland waterways of Normandy.
Rona II engages full holiday mode. After 24 hours in Le Harve we set sail
for the historic town of Caen on the morning tide. After a not-too-vigorous
motor sail to Oustreham, we took a trip through a lock, under the famous
Pegasus Bridge we arrived at our miniature pontoon (made for yachts about
half our size) set right in the middle of beautiful Caen. Upon our arrival
we were greeted by -- nobody. This level of service and general attendance
at work has become a common observation of the French for the crew. We
responded by posting lookouts in the cockpit to catch the marina office
attendants when they arrived for their ten-minute shift and to direct them
to the nearest Normanton to negotiate the terms of our stay.

We spent the following day on a trip out soaking up the rich culture the
area has to offer. We took a very fancy train to Bayeux and the whole crew
visited the ancient Bayeux tapestry. Other activities involved visiting the
ca…
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