How to sail across the Channel and cruise northern France (Sailing to France/ how to sail to France)

Do you want to expand your sailing to include sailing across the English Channel and cruising the coast of northern France? Is Sailing to France on your to do list? But you’re worried about how to sail to France?

This webinar has everything you need to know (we think!), and it’s all in one place! Our expert Bob Garrett, Joint Channel Secretary at the @CruisingAssociation covers everything you need to know.

For a full transcript of this webinar (coming soon)
For useful document links – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D4xz7UbhO9GgcKm_3LcdUfn9XVm6QXqA/view?usp=sharing

Timestamps
00:00 // Introduction
00:53 // About your expert, Bob Garrett
01:52 // What we are going to talk about in this webinar
02:33 // Common Concerns when sailing across the English Channel
03:17 // What time of year should I sail across the Channel (English Channel)
04:18 // Which areas of North France coast should I cruise?
05:02 // Planning your trip
05:33 // Boat & Equipment
08:09 // Boat & Equipment – electrical navigational aids
08:42 // Should I have AIS?
09:34 // Do I need a radar reflector to cross the Channel?
09:42 // Which route should you take to cross the Channel? (English Channel)
11:33 // Which French port should I arrive at after sailing the Channel? Ports of Entry
12:04 // Which ports on the English Channel can yachts check into
13:10 // Do I need to consider tides when sailing across the English Channel?
14:45 // How long will it take me to sail across the Channel. What time of day should I leave to sail across the English Channel?
15:34 // What crew do I need to sail across the English Channel?
16:53 // What weather considerations do I need to think about when sailing across the Channel?
20:24 // What navigational resources are there for crossing the Channel?
21:30 // Victualing your boat prior to crossing the Channel
22:51 // What paperwork do I need to sail across the Channel?
27:22 // What flags do I need to fly when arriving in France? Do I need to fly the Q flag when arriving in France?
28:01 // Passage Plan for sailing the Channel and arriving in France
28:48 // Sailing across the Channel – making the passage
28:56 // Before you set off to sail across the Channel
29:43 // Filling in your log book whilst crossing the Channel
30:49 // Navigation points when crossing the Channel
31:30 // Shipping when crossing the Channel
33:44 // Sailing watches when crossing the Channel
34:52 // What to do in an emergency when crossing the Channel
38:20 // What to do when you arrive in France after crossing the Channel
38:54 // How to book a marina berth in France
40:50 // Berthing in French Marinas
42:59 // Paperwork needed when arriving in France
44:26 // The PPF form – checking into France
45:33 // UK Entry and Exit procedures when sailing
46:14 // The EU EES/ETIAS future regulation
46:55 // Do I need to speak French to cruise the northern French Coast?
47:37 // What to expect – the French culture
50:12 // The return leg – France to the UK across the Channel
51:22 // Cruising Areas – The Cotentin Peninsula
52:31 // Key attractions – Cotentin Peninsula (East)
53:44 // Key attractions – Cotentin Peninsula (west)
54:37 // Cruising Opal Coast – Seine
56:06 // Cruising North Brittany
57:48 // Channel Crossing Summary
58:13 // Final tips for crossing the Channel

Hi everyone I am Paul Knox-Johnston from Haven Knox-Johnston, the friendly boat insurance providers and welcome to this the latest webinar in our from the helm series. We have covered all sorts of varied topics on our webinars from sailing round Britain to living on an Narrowboat with YouTubers Fran and Rich,

From Floating our Boat, to installing lithium batteries in your boat. You can watch all of them on our YouTube channel. With tonight’s webinar, we are focusing on helping people to get the most out of their boats. If you’re used to sailing around the coast of the UK,

As beautiful as it is, you might be ready to push yourself and have a whole new adventure. And this is just where this webinar comes in. We want to give you the confidence to cross the channel and cruise North France and hopefully this webinar will give you that confidence.

So without further ado, I’d like to welcome Bob Garrett. Bob is one of the current channel secretaries of the Cruising Association, so it’s safe to say he has a wealth of knowledge on this topic. So over to you Bob. Thank you, Paul, and good evening everyone. So first a little bit about me.

My wife and I have sailed a Dufour 365 which is a 36 foot yacht from Chichester for about 12 years. Before that we had a Maxi 1000 which we also sailed from Chichester, often across the Channel. On our current boat we’ve sailed some 22,000 miles so far

And have cruised not just the English Channel, but also to Ireland, to western France, to northern Spain. And we also spent six months in the Baltic going as far as St Petersburg. We’ve also chartered boats in Greece, Croatia, France and the Caribbean,

As well as crewing with friends in the Med and the Caribbean and up to Bermuda. My wife Sue and I are Joint Secretaries for the Cruising Association’s Channel section, which means we collate and distribute information and advice to CA members, as well as organizing events such as rallies.

Because of rallies and other commitments, we have on a few occasions actually cross the channel some six times. But let’s get on and talk about France on what might take you there. New passage making experiences is something that we all enjoy, visiting new and different ports,

Friendly and cheaper marinas different and interesting scenery. Be that in the coast or inland, the culture, the history and the events that you can experience there. Plus of course, being France, the culinary experiences in restaurants and indeed what you can cook on your own boat.

Maybe slightly better weather being a little bit further south. But before we look further, where to go and why, let’s just talk about some of those practicalities. Now, for many, crossing the Channel would seem pretty routine, but for some, particularly if it’s the first time, it can be a big step.

Now, from leading a number of rallies over a number of years, it’s been interesting talking to some of those crossing for the first time and hearing what their concerns are. These might be the length of the passage. It might be being out of sight of land or worries about big ships, worrying

About foreign marinas and the processes or not speaking the language and even what to do on a longer passage than usual. So in this presentation, I hope to allay some of those fears by setting out what you should consider and also why crossing the channel to cruise to new places is so attractive.

So let’s start off by talking about when to go. Well, as I’ve said, the weather is fairly similar to the south coast of the UK. Maybe a little bit further south, so it may be a little bit warmer. Maybe the depressions that sweep across the Atlantic will be a bit further north.

So it can be similar but maybe a little bit better. The marinas themselves are open all the time, but bear in mind French holidays are roughly from mid-July, which Bastille Day being the 14th of July to mid-August, which is 15th of August, is Assumption Day. Now, at one time,

France was fairly rigid in terms of when people would take holidays, but it’s much more flexible now, so you don’t get that sudden cut off. So going during the summer periods of that busy four weeks, you will get better weather and more events to entertain you, but it will be busier.

I always think personally the best time is just before or just after that French peak period, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go during that peak period. Now, what about cruising areas? Well, in this presentation we are talking mainly about short breaks. So perhaps a couple of weeks

And depending on your style of cruising and the weather, this does limit the size of the area you might cruise to in such a period. So later on, I will focus on some of the main cruising areas as being the Opal coast going down to the Baie de Seine,

Which for a short cruise I would then recommend splitting in two. That’s the Baie de Seine splitting in two halves; west of the Cotentin Peninsula, which includes the Channel Islands. It may be a bit further away but possible in a short period with some longer passages, then North Brittany.

But we’ll come back to this later. First let’s talk a bit more about the planning now in terms of planning. The key is developing that passage plan, it being one of the few things that we British sailors have as a legal requirement placed on us.

Though what’s in that plan and how it’s documented is not formally described, but let’s go through some of the likely elements. So we’re going to talk about the boat and its equipment, talk about the routes, talk about tides, the crew, the weather, navigation, pilotage and berthing and paperwork.

So let’s start off on the boat and equipment, things to think about first of all, your capabilities of your boat, what is your experience and where you’ve been and what sort of situations can you comfortably cruise in. Think about the checks that you should be doing on the boat like the engine.

Has it been recently service? Reliable? Have you got the right spares and tools on board? Have you got sufficient fuel? All the typical things that you might do for a longer passage. It’s not to suggest that in France there isn’t the availability of engineers or anything, but you don’t want to

Interrupt your holiday for some sort of repair that’s necessary. Think about similarly the rigging, the sails, standing rigging and the running rigging. Batteries are important for a longer passage. Maybe you’ll be sailing for 12 hours, ideally without running the engine. Can the batteries keep your instruments going for that longer passage?

And if not, do you plan to say, “well, I’m going to run the engine for half an hour or an hour just to charge things up a bit more”? Think about all the electrical things like lights. If you’ve got a longer passage and you arrive a little bit later

Than perhaps the daysail you’d planned, are all your navigation lights working, what about radio? Navigational instruments? Autohelm and so on. We’ll talk about those in a bit more detail later on. Think about what safety equipment you should have on board radar reflector, VHF, flares, lifejackets, safety lines,

Maybe an EPIRB or PLB, radar or maybe AIS. A life raft, first aid, man over board equipment, torches, all these sorts of things. And we’re very lucky in the UK that we are not tied down by particular requirements. But one of the questions that often comes up is when you travel to France,

What do you need to have on board? What might the French expect? In France, they’re far more regulated and the image on the right hand side on this particular screen is leaflets that is available to French sailors setting out the equipment they should have on their boat,

Determined by how far offshore they’re going to be sailing. And it presents a very useful table. It’s something worth looking at, but it’s all very sensible advice. But it is not a requirement for British sailors unless you have a second address or residence

In France, in which case it is then applicable to you. But one of the particular things to be very aware of is other French regulations say that you should not have on board out of date flares, a life raft that is not within its service period,

Or indeed fire extinguishers not within their service period. So that is something to be aware of. Today, we carry a lot more electronic aids to navigation and communication than ever before. All of them have some value, but it doesn’t make them essential. But nor does it make it wise to go without.

So VHF, I would say, is something that you really wouldn’t want to do without. For general communications, perhaps between ships and ship to shore, maybe calling up the marinas, maybe calling up the Coastguard. But you also get the latest forecasts and talking to shipping, maybe using DSC,

AIS is something else that people say, well, should I have it. Well receive is very useful because it gives you much better idea of the names of other ships and their closest point to approach which we’ll talk about later. Transmit is even better because it means those ships can actually

See you more easily and understand what your course and speed is. If you do have AIS, make sure it’s been installed correctly to show you if you have a yacht i.e. a sailing vessel, that it actually does identify you as a sailing vessel. We’ve come across a number of people on rallies who,

Even though they’ve had an AIS installed professionally, the installer has left it in the default setting, which is pleasure, which means ships will assume that you are a motor vessel and therefore, of course, the collision regulations will change. On the topic of radar. Well radar is not an essential requirement,

But a reflector is legally required because you can come across fog even in the summer. So what about routes? Well, I’ve divided the Channel up over the next couple of slides into three areas. Things to think about are your starting point. Is it a convenient place to leave from?

Are you going to get stuck behind a lock gate or something when you want to leave? And similarly the landfall points. Is the port that you’re going to one that you can get into at the time that you’re going to arrive? Is it a port of entry?

Is it one that is, let’s say, sheltered from winds, that the prevailing winds might be causing some extra swell in the entrance? Most channel crossings are going to be day sails. So you’re going to be having more sailing in the open sea, perhaps longer distances so you’re going to maybe think

About the points that you would have as alternative points of arrival. So, the Eastern Channel, we’ve got fairly short distances. We might be starting off from Ramsgate or Dover or Eastbourne, and you might be heading across to Dunkirk or Calais or Boulogne.

So we’re talking about distances of maybe 25 miles and a bit more. So we’re probably talking about quite easily a day sail, maybe even half a day. But if we then look at the central channel, we’ve got much greater distances.

And of course we have a lot of British sailors based around the Solent and Poole. But equally there’s a lot of sailors down in Torbay and they’ll be crossing maybe to Cherbourg or Guernsey, which is a distance of about 75 miles. So again, we’re probably talking about a day

Sail, leaving early in the morning and arriving early evening. But if we go further west, then we’re talking about a much greater distance and probably a distance that can’t be achieved during daylight, in which case you’re probably going to think, well, I want to leave in the afternoon

So that I can arrive in daylight the following day. Now checking into the EU after Brexit means that our first port of call must be a port of entry, just like any other country we would have visited all over the world. In France, the port of entry is called PPF.

You don’t really need to know that term in detail, but you might see it on forms and wonder what it means. The reason you have to do this is you’ve got to have your documents checked to ensure you allowed entry and not overstayed and to have your passport stamped. Now, very few

Ports on the north coast of France are actually designated as ports of entry. This particular map from the CA’s application, CAptain’s Mate, lists them. So it’s Dunkirk, Calais, Boulogne, Dieppe Le Havre, Hornfleur, Caen which is actually Ouistreham, Cherbourg, Carteret, Granville, St Malo, St Brieuc and Roscoff in the West.

And then just around the corner, which I put on there as well, is Brest itself. These are all basically ports which have or used to have ferries arriving there. Quite often though, you will find the actual office for leisure sailors to go

And check in is going to be in the ferry terminal itself. Quite often that means those offices are not close to marinas and may not be open all the time because some will be manned just for the ferries and in some cases the local officials also cover a local airport.

We’ll talk about this a bit more later, but it does influence your choice of landfall. So what about Tide? Well, we’re talking about some pretty big tides. If we go down towards the St Malo area all around Cap de la Hague, we’re talking

About tidal streams of up to eight knots and ranges of nearly 11 meters. So be very aware of the headlands and tidal gates. So, for example, the Needles on the UK side and Cap de la Hague on the French side or the Little Russell around Guernsey.

Be aware of the coastal stream, For example, at Cherbourg, you should always plan to arrive upstream of the destination because you don’t want to spend the last hour or two just fighting the tide to do the last few miles And remember not to expect or indeed try for a constant course overground

You really should be describing the sort of curve that you will see on this diagram here because the tide is going to take you one way first and then for another 6 hours, it’ll take you back the other way. If you try and fight that, you’re probably going to do an extra

Five miles and maybe take you another hour to get there. But we’ve talked about ideal landfalls. And of course, the other thing to bear in mind is a tidal height for many ports. With that range of nearly 11 meters, be aware that there are lots of ports in France that have limited access

So you can only get in and out a few hours either side of high water and they will often have sills or rocks or entrance channels that you can’t enter until the tide has reached a certain height. Which takes us on to overall timing for your passage.

You need to make allowances for the weather, the wind strength. Maybe if there’s not much wind you’re going to be motoring and therefore not going as fast. Or maybe there’s a good, decent wind and therefore you’re going to do good speed. The direction, if in the

Example we just showed you going from the Solent to Cherbourg. If you’re going against the southerly winds, you’re going to be tacking all your way across and it’s going to take you longer. And equally swell will slow down your boat. So be aware of what the swell is going to be.

So make allowances for the tide, the stream and the height. Make an allowance for your boat performance in the particular conditions that you’re likely to find. And it is best to arrive at new ports, in particular ports you’ve not been to before, in light, not at night.

So the next thing to consider is your crew. How many people are going to be with you on your boat? What experience and qualifications and skills and strengths may they have? Somebody might be extremely qualified, but maybe their strength is not sufficient that they can raise the sail.

Maybe they’re very strong, but their experience of steering is not that great. So you need to make those sorts of decisions as to who should be doing what and being aware that if somebody is perhaps a little bit seasick, then all they’re going to be useful to you or not. And on

Topic of seasickness, make sure that you know about the health of people that are coming on your boat and what medications they may have. And if they are somebody that’s susceptible to sea sickness, it is always much, much better to give them seasickness tablets

Well in advance rather than once they start to suffer. I’ve always found if I’ve got somebody who might be seasick, it’s a good thing to put them on the wheel to steer. A) because it gives them something to concentrate their mind away from feeling seasick. And secondly, because it means they’re looking

In the distance, they’re looking at the horizon, and their brain is better able to cope with the motion of the boat. And in particular for your crew, keep them fed! Eating constantly across the channel is something we’re very good at on our boat! So weather, what about the weather?

Well, again, you need to consider it for yourself, for your boat and for your crew. What is acceptable in the conditions? What are the prevailing winds for different crossings and landfalls? Consider not just the steady wind and the direction. Think also about the gusts. Think about the sea state.

If there was some very strong winds the day before, then there’s going to be more swell and maybe people are going to feel more uncomfortable and it may also slow you down and also consider visibility. And as I say, think about all of these things, not just from your own personal perspective,

But think about it from your boat and from your crew. So what about whether I’m not going to tell you which forecasts to use? Nor am I going to tell you how to interpret them. There are much greater experts than me, and we all have particular preferences

In how the weather information is presented to us. But what I will say is do consider a variety of forecasts. There are those that are generated by a computer and there are those that are actually produced by people who are using those computers. Consider both the tabular and the graphical information.

So if we look at something like the Coastguard’s forecast from the Met Office in the UK or from Meteo France, then of course those are going to be interpreted by people and that gives you an extra piece of information about what’s coming. Things like XCWeather, Windy, PassageWeather and all these other things,

They produce the information purely from a computer model. And that means that maybe there may be some extremes in there that you’re not aware of or that a proper forecaster would actually say, no, that’s not the case. What I also suggest you do is you compare forecasts.

So, for example, I particularly like the Windy app because I can get an instant comparison of the GFS computer forecast and the ECM WF forecast. If they’re very similar, then I think there’s a greater reliability that the forecast is going to be accurate, but it’s very different

Then the forecast maybe a little bit unreliable and therefore there’s some raw variation in there. GRIB files are also invaluable, especially because you can store the forecasts and review the forecast over the first few days before you sail. GRIB stands for Gridded binary file. Basically it’s a forecast of the wind

In a sort of a matrix format on top of a map. We can show one later on. But basically it’s a way of representing the information graphically on a computer. So perhaps this week beforehand I would start downloading GRIB files

And then each day look at them and compare them with the day before’s forecast for the day I plan to cross the Channel. If nothing is changing from day to day, from my passage day, then I know the forecast is fairly stable. If it’s changing dramatically, then it suggests

That perhaps there is some unknown weather coming along. So keep reviewing it right up to departure. And also while you’re underway, I’ll just mention as well here what it says on the slide about Meteo France. They have a very good app that you can load on your phone

Even without sort of particular French knowledge. It can be very easily interpreted. So think about navigation and references. Again, your personal preferences. Obviously you need charts, but electronic or paper, I think you need both. I know more and more people are using electronic charts, but having paper

Does give you that back up and it gives you a wider view of the whole area you’re sailing across. The Tidal Stream Atlas is invaluable, particularly if you’re going around Cap de la Hague or through the Channel Islands. You’ll need an almanac because it will contain all the port

Details such as marina layouts, tides, tidal access, limitations and so on. You might also visit some of the ports websites, particularly if they are ones that you can only get in and out of a particular states of the tide because their websites will often give you the detailed gate timing for each day.

And then pilot books and perhaps things like CAptains mate or other apps. CAptains Mate is a CA app which provides you port information as well as reports in this case from other Cruising Association members. So what about Food, victualing as we call it, on boats?

The first time we crossed the Channel, I remember my wife asking a friend, “What do you do for the, let’s say, 12 hours that you’re crossing the channel?” And her answer was, “Well, we eat!” And that tends to be what we do. We have a first breakfast, we have a second breakfast,

We have elevenses, we have lunch and then afternoon tea. Maybe we have dinner if we are arriving a bit late. And of course in between we’re having snacks. And so on passage, think about what meals you might want to eat, what snacks

You want to have handy for a long day, and maybe across the night. Have them ready prepared just in case it’s a bit rough and nobody wants to go below and start cooking things. Maybe have drinks hot and cold in a vacuum flask.

But also beyond what you’re going to eat on the way across the channel, think about what ships stores you might want to have. We’ll look forward, I’m sure, to French food. But what are the things you might miss that you might have difficulty buying in France?

Take those with you and maybe have some staples for an emergency like pasta or part baked bread, tinned meat or soups, things like that. But bear in mind, because we are no longer part of the EU, you shouldn’t take anything fresh, particularly meats ashore.

Yeah, you’re okay having them on the boat, but you should not take them ashore. So paperwork. We’ve always needed a set of paperwork to cross the channel, but now we need a little bit more and it’s more likely to be checked.

So you would need to be checking out when you leave the UK and you’ll need to be checking in when you arrive at the Channel Islands or in France. And for doing this, you need papers. Now I’m going to go through quite a long list of papers here.

You don’t need them all, but let’s go through them anyway. So first of all passports, obviously passports for all people on the crew. You need your boat papers which will consist of things like your ship’s radio license, your boat registration, VAT proof, RCD (which is the recreational craft directive). You’ll need insurance papers.

It’s a good idea to have evidence of competence for the skipper, maybe an ICC or another online certificate and radio certificate. There’s one certificate that is quite often asked about, which is the CEVNI, which is something for inland waterways of France,

But you do only need it for inland waterways and you don’t need it either for the canal up to Caen, nor indeed for the roads. Another bit of paperwork you should have is your logbook, you should have EHIC or GHIC. That’s the European Health Insurance card or now a global health insurance card

Issued by the UK government because you might have a medical emergency. And you should also think about other personal travel insurance. And bear in mind EHIC and GHIC may cover you for a lot of the expenses that you might come across for medical use in France, but it doesn’t cover everything.

And in particular, it doesn’t cover repatriation. So if you are taken seriously ill while you’re in France, you need to think about how that will be handled. And there are insurance policies you can get which will add repatriation to an EHIC or GHIC cover. You shouldn’t carry any

Diesel, any marked diesel, I should say, in cans. That’s a definite no no. And ideally you should have diesel receipts to show that you paid tax on them in the UK. Now all this paperwork, with the exception of passports, is rarely if ever asked for, but it is essential to carry it.

I think in all the years we’ve been going to France, we’ve only once been asked to produce some of those papers after passports. We suggest that you keep the originals because some of those documents are very important ones in a sealed folder in your grab bag

And keep copies in what we call the daybook. That means that if somebody does come on board and wants to look at your paperwork, you can have it immediately to hand. And if they ask for the originals, well, okay, it takes a bit longer, but it means that the important documents

You want to keep for many years for your boat are protected. Of course, all the things I’ve just talked for in terms of paperwork and processes, assume that you have a British registered boat and British crew. So other things you might have. Well, a passage plan, obviously, which we’ve talked about

And your logbook completed, which we’ll talk about in a moment. You should also think about shore contacts and maybe you would file your passage plan using the RYA Safetrx app. This is an app you can put on your phone.

You set up an account and then you say, I’m going to be leaving, let’s say Yarmouth on Friday, and I’m planning to arrive in Cherbourg that evening. If you don’t, then go into the app later on and say you have safely arrived, then it starts sending messages initially to you

And then ultimately to your shore contact to say that perhaps something is wrong and they should be checking. But think about crew briefing notes. It’s very important you keep your crew well informed as to what is going on because it gives them greater confidence and understanding

Of what the crossing is actually going to be. And of course, those notes should include things like basic equipment instructions and location; procedures – maybe for reefing or a man overboard or Mayday; it should cover what they should expect in the overall passage plan.

You should have a PPF, the port of entry form. This is the form on the right, and we’ll be talking about this in a bit more detail later on. Courtesy flag. So if you’re arriving in France, you should fly a courtesy flag, which is the French flag from your starboard spreader.

And maybe if you want to go another step, you could fly the regional flags for France, but it’s not necessary. You should also be prepared to fly the Q flag. Now arriving in most countries, you do fly the Q flag until you have passed customs to be allowed into the country.

In France, you don’t do that. In France, their understanding is the Q flag means you have goods to declare, so don’t fly it. So your passage plan, write it down. All the usual elements, all the things we’ve been talking about here, you should review it regularly against those considerations,

You should also review it as the departure approaches, because maybe you’re seeing what the forecast is and you may need to adjust things. You should review it based on discussions you have with your crew and you should review it regularly while crossing, especially if things are not what you expected.

Maybe the weather has been different. Maybe you’ve had some sort of equipment issue, maybe somebody’s been seasick. Consider all of these things because maybe you will say, well, I no longer want to go to that particular port, somebody has been a bit seasick. So we’re going to do a faster crossing.

I’m going to go somewhere slightly different. So what about passage making? Executing your plan and enjoying the time? So let’s go through so the first thing is review your passage plan before you set off. Make sure nothing has changed that alters that plan. You then need to check out of the UK.

Now we’re going to talk about this in more detail later on. But it is now something that is very easy to do online and you might want to make a note of a URL which is SPCR.homeoffice.gov.uk and that’s actually the app that you will see on the right hand

Side of this screen naturally on my phone. And it’s an image from a few years ago actually. So that’s why there’s only four submitted plans. Brief your crew again, make sure they all understand what you’re going to be doing. Remember to fill in your logbook.

If you do have officials come on board, they may well want to look at your logbook to see where you have written down that you’ve come from and maybe where you’re going. So put in your boat status. So your speed, your heading course over ground, whether you’re sailing,

Whether you’re using the engine, the usual things, the weather in terms of visibility and cloud cover and wind direction and strength. And there on the weather, you’ll really looking to see if there is some trend over the hours of your passage that is perhaps different from what your passage plan assumed.

Put in your position in lat and long. If I go back well, few years, I used to plot my position every hour on an actual physical chart. I tend not to do that now as long as I’ve written in the logbook.

Then if all the instruments pack up on me, I can very quickly put those lat and long positions from the log book onto a paper chart. And also log any VHF use, particularly if it’s official sort of business in terms of contacting coastguards or ships. So navigation.

Well obviously review what you’re doing as you go against what your plan was. Look out for lobster pots. Lobster pots in France are generally better marked than they are in the UK, but with the stronger tides they can also disappear under the water or very close to the water level.

You’re also still going to come across lobster pots, even mid channel. So be aware of that. Keep a look out all the time. When you arrive in foreign waters where you may be flying the flag if you’re going to the Channel Islands and of course fly the courtesy flag.

Now, shipping is one thing that people are very worried about when they’re crossing the channel because they know that there are all these ships going up and down. And when you look at the sort of marine traffic diagram you can see on the screen now, it looks quite horrifying.

But actually they’re much further apart than they appear on a diagram like that. And the important thing is you’ve got to be making sure that you’re going to miss them or that they’re going to miss you. CPA Closest point of approach. I find it easiest to identify using AIS or radar,

But as I say sometimes, we’re not playing Space Invaders, it’s a real world. So it is also an eyeball task. So you should also have your hand bearing compass available to you to really compare that information. And in particular with a hand bearing compass.

It’s easier to work out if your instruments don’t tell you whether a ship is going to be going ahead of you or astern of you. My personal view is that, if necessary, do call up a ship to confirm your presence and action and you will often hear ships calling up each other.

Most ships turn early to avoid you. In fact, they will often turn so early you won’t even notice it. They may do it 15 miles or more away, but there are a few perhaps, who are not paying close attention and they don’t.

And that’s where you need be aware of what the collision regulations say and make your decision about what you should do. When you actually arrive in port, be very aware of other ships coming in and out because they will often be moving quite fast. In particular ferries.

Usually we’re going into a port of entry, which is a ferry port. So there are going to be ferries going in and out and equally fishing vessels. And remember, don’t just look ahead of you, look behind as well. And bear in mind, there are two traffic separation schemes in the channel.

There’s the eastern one up towards Dover and there’s the one north of the Casquets. And be aware of the different collision regulations that apply and your own course that’s required if you’re going through those two TSSs Now, if we take the typical sort of crossing from, let’s say,

The south coast around the Solent or Poole, and we take it sort of the shortest point from there, which is the northern end of the Cotentin Peninsula, so in effect, Cherbourg, you’re going to be sailing for 12 or maybe 15 hours. Now, concentrating for that sort of period of time is quite tiring.

So I really do suggest you let the crew take a turn at steering, particularly as I mentioned earlier on, if there’s a risk of seasickness. But have somebody else steering from time to time, that means you and others on the crew can relax for an hour or so.

And it means that when you come back on watch again, then you’re fresh and you’re ready to look out for things. The rule always, though, is if you’re wondering about calling the skipper, you must call him or her. And you can see in this particular picture,

You know, you don’t have to go below to relax. Just the fact of lying down on the on the seats in the cockpit just means that you’re a little bit off watch. You’re relaxing for a short period. So safety and emergency as well.

We know in the UK we have our Coastguards like Dover Coastguard and Solent Coastguard. It’s the same thing in France. There are three Coastguard control areas that cover the Eastern channel, the Central channel, the Western Channel. CROSS is the Regional Center for Operations, Surveillance and Salvage or sauvetage (Safety).

But Cross is actually pronounced CRO Yeah. So on the VHF on Channel 16, if you are listening, you will quite often hear a “Cro Joburg” which is actually CROSS Jobourg. And they may be announcing a weather forecast on another channel or something like that.

So if you have an emergency, these are the people to call. Channel Islands also has Jersey and Guernsey Coastguard and they all work together and you can contact all of them on VHF Channel 16 or DSC. And of course the other thing you might have on board is the RYA Safetrx

App which again provides that extra safety, particularly if you failed to arrive at the time you’ve predicted. So how would you signal that you need assistance when you might use the DSC button on your VHF? You might use an EPIRB or PLB if you have them.

It’s the usual Mayday and PAN PAN procedures in English. You can do them on Channel 16 if you want to contact the Coastguard directly in France, the number is 196. Now you send out that, let’s say mayday or pan pan the Coastguard that responds will depend on your location.

And they all work together. Sometimes when you’re crossing the channel, particularly at the eastern end of the channel, you will hear the French and the British Coastguard’s talking. And when you’re sailing near the Channel Islands, you will sometimes hear the Jersey or Guernsey Coastguard talking to the French Coastguard.

So you don’t need to worry about who you’re calling. You just put out that PAN PAN or whatever, and somebody will respond. Now, bear in mind, in the UK, we are very, very lucky with the RNLI because of the services they provide and it is all free.

In France there is a similar organization called the SNSM. They will come out and will equally rescue you or will tow you in but they will require payment and they simply pay a charge a certain amount per hour that they have been out for. They might even take you to a cash machine.

We know somebody who ran out of fuel and asked to be towed in and he had to pay, I think, a couple of hundred euros. And he was taken to a cash machine because he had no euros on him. Also, insurance know what the procedures are

And your paperwork, including things like salvage, so that when you get ashore, you can immediately do what your policy requires you to do. But the other thing I would say is we all help each other, don’t we? You know, if we hear of another boat that is in trouble,

We will go and assist them. And I think over the years we’ve probably certainly towed maybe three boats at various times for short distances to assist them. So we all help each other. We’re a mutually helpful hobby. So what about arriving?

Well, we’ve talked about the Q flag quite enough; courtesy flags should be up. French marinas. Well, that’s an interesting point here. French marinas are mainly, if not exclusively owned by the local town. They are there as a public service to the residents of the town and to bring in tourists,

Which means that they are a bit more helpful, I’m afraid to say than some marinas on the south coast particularly in the UK. They’re a bit more informal. So what about getting a berth? Well, it is rare to actually book a berth in a marina in France.

So first of all, you could call up on Channel 9. Not Channel 80 like in the UK. So you call on the marina on Channel 9 and you would say your boat name maybe the length and how long you want to stay and they may direct you to a berth

More likely, particularly in the summer, is you call up on Channel 9 and a marina dory will come out and welcome you and show you the way to a berth. Or it may be that you would arrive in the marina and there’ll be a dory hanging around in the entrance

And all of these people would generally speak a bit of English for you. Most French marinas, certainly the ones of any reasonable size, have dedicated visitor pontoons. So in fact the diagram here is of Cherbourg, Port Chantereyne and the red areas are for visitors.

So if you arrived in the evening and there’s nobody on duty in a dory, maybe they’re not answering on Channel 9, you can go to N P or Q and find a berth and you will find at the end of the pontoons it will say to you, if you’re over a certain length,

You should go on this pontoon, and if you are another length, you should go on another pontoon and you just go down there until you find a space and go into it. In the Channel Islands, if you go to Braye on Alderney, then you simply pick up a buoy and in Braye,

I think they allow two boats per buoy. When you go to St Peter Port you will almost certainly be met by a dory. But if not, there is a waiting pontoon. In St Helier you will raft on the waiting pontoon. So that’s the arrival considerations. So what about the actual marinas themselves?

Well, first of all, tying up can be a little bit different from the UK. Quite often on their pontoons they have hoops, not cleats. So you need to be ready to take a rope around a loop a hoop and bring it back to your boat. Their pontoon fingers are often quite short.

They’re called catways and they can be a bit bouncy. So when your crewman jumps down onto it, warn him that it may go down and then come back up again. And you can see here a picture actually of a loop on the end of one of the fingers

Where you are tying the line to the stern of your boat. When you’re paying, you will probably have to put in quite a few forms because you’ve got to prove or not prove. You’ve got to set out the name of your boat, its length,

Your namem maybe your UK phone number, something like that. They would often also ask you where you come from and where you’re going. That’s not because they’re noting information that perhaps you’d rather they not have. But it’s actually one of the customs in France is that if you say where you’re going,

It means that if you disappear or somebody says, where is that boat? At least the last Marina knows where you were going to. And if you’re not certain, I found it quite, quite happy for them to say, Well, where are you going? And I say, We’re going west.

Payment credit card is the norm. You’ll need codes usually for the facilities and for WiFi. Fuel is usually self service. So there will usually be a fuel pontoon and you simply go and berth up to it, put your credit card in and serve your diesel or whatever. In terms of language, most staff,

Certainly in the marinas, are proficient in English. Most of the I was going to say guys, but guys and girls in the dory are students, particularly in the summer, and they will speak good English. So paperwork. Ports of entry are the official route in. As we’ve said a number of times.

Some ports in France have had what is called either a derogation or a dispensation which allows entry but with restrictions. So, for example, in 2023 there were five ports along the Brittany Coast that are not designated as ports of entry, but for a limited period of time you were allowed in there

If you emailed that PPF form that we saw earlier, in advance. Now that information changes from time to time. There is a CA page that is available to the public which sets out that information. And you’ll see on the right hand side of the screen here,

The Cruising Association’s CAptain’s Mate app, which is available to members, goes into loads more detail about how these ports operate, and that is based on the feedback from our CA members who are going in and out and what they have found most recently, plus what we’ve actually discussed with the local authorities there.

But so in terms of checking to the marina, well, we talked about paperwork already. Going into the Channel Islands. If you arrive at Guernsey, you will be given a form that you need to complete, which includes things like your passport information. Jersey, if you’re a British citizen, they won’t give you any paperwork.

They’re not really bothered. So the PPF forms. These were originally introduced by the French government with the view that they could be used in any port, but they then realized that was not going to work because passports had to be stamped

To monitor the number of days that you were spending in the EU. So as we’ve said, there are official ports of entry and there are some with the special dispensation. Having this form on board for the port that you’re going to

Will save you some time because it means that you can fill it in when you arrive. Sorry, fill it in before you arrive, and then when you arrive you can go straight in with the passports hand it over they will check it quickly and stamp your passports as opposed to you

Having to fill it in or them filling it in while you’re standing around waiting. The process has become variable as different ports have had derogations or dispensations, but it seems to have settled down now. And I think our understanding of what will come this summer will be very similar to last year.

But we come on to something else about next year in a moment. So UK well, we used to use the old c1331 paper form for HMRC that we would fill in and post. Then as an interim solution after Brexit they introduced a spreadsheet that you filled in,

But now really the best thing to use is the Pleasure Craft report. It’s all online. You set up an account for your boat, you name your regular crew, you set out when you want to depart, and where you are departing from and where you’re going to arrive. You submit that plan in advance.

And it’s a very, very simple process and it’s easy to do even on the mobile phone. So 2025 will probably see the introduction of EES, although it may well come in in autumn this year, and ETIAS. These are part of an EU development that started,

I think back in 2012 or even before that 2012 was when they produced a document which said these are the things we want to do. It was agreed by the EU in 2016 and the UK government was very firmly behind it. So this will certainly affect our travels in 2025.

But for the summer of 2024, we believe the arrangements will be the same as they were for last year. So French language. We’ve met people on rallies who have not traveled to France because their fear is that they don’t speak French. You really don’t need to worry about it.

The marinas and the Coastguards use English. Restaurants will often speak English and elsewhere, especially given we’re traveling in tourist areas, people will try to understand you. But having said all of that, it is polite, I believe, and you get a better response if you can learn and use a few phrases.

Just saying bonjour when you meet somebody can make a huge difference to the way that they are likely to respond to you. Now, in France, there are some wonderful open events. If you see something promoting a “Fete Marine”, which means a maritime festival, that is really something that well,

Certainly my wife and I and many of our friends enjoy. It’s something that in a public place within a town, there’ll be food being served where you might buy moules-frites or ham and chips or something simple like that for 7, 8, 9 or maybe €10.

There’ll be drink being sold and there will be music. Often the whole of the event is free of charge. Outside the big towns people will greet you just like when you walk through a marina in the UK, people will say Good morning or good afternoon. In France that extends ashore as well.

Even youths will greet you with bonjour or bonsoir monsieur madame. In restaurants, a “prix fixe” meal is a great value way to go. So you will often see outside a French restaurant the menu which may say this menu for, let’s say, €25. And you will

Then see perhaps a choice of three starters, three mains, three desserts. You might find another one that says the menu is €30 for two courses, and you can have a starter and a main or a main and a dessert and maybe for an extra €5, you can have three courses.

All of these sorts of prix fixe can be great value and it simplifies your choices. Note that shops are often closed on a Sunday or Monday, so make sure you stock up on a Saturday. And even in the big cities you’ll find supermarkets will close on a Sunday afternoon.

French markets are great fun. They don’t just sell food, they sell clothing, they sell furniture, they sell beds, they sell tools and hardware. They are real experience to go to. So we quite often decide where we’re going to go based on what day the market is in a particular town.

There’s lots of history, lots of historic buildings, lots of museums to enjoy, and in many areas they have a huge respect for the British, particularly along the D-Day landing coast. So hopefully you’ve now had your smooth passage, you’ve arrived there, you’ve checked yourself into the marina, you’ve checked yourself into customs,

And you can now start enjoying all the different things that you might like, like the markets, the museums and so on and so on. But of course you’ve got to come back. So in terms of planning, it’s the same process. In terms of leaving France, make sure that you do check out,

Make sure your passport is stamped for exit, because otherwise your passport is going to continue losing the 90 and 180 days that we are allowed. And when you go back, they may well say to you, I’m sorry you’re not allowed in because you have overstayed a previous welcome. But for the UK.

Complete that pleasure craft report for the journey back before you leave France. Fly the Q flag into UK waters and maybe call Yachtline. What actually happens is when you submit the Pleasure Craft report for your return, you’ll get an email back telling you what you need to do.

Sometimes the email will say you are cleared for entry, just continue. Other times it will actually say you must phone this number to confirm that you are allowed to arrive. Okay, I’m over running slightly, so let me drive through a bit more. Let’s talk about some of the cruising areas.

So first of all, the Cotentin peninsula. All these chart links that I’m showing you here are from the Cruising Association’s CAptain’s Mate app, which sets out lots of port details, but it gives you some idea of the number of ports or maybe anchorages in each particular area. From the Solent, Cherbourg,

Which is in the center if I use my cursor here. If you can see that. So that’s Cherbourg there. It’s an excellent arrival point because you can get in in any weather and it’s a large entrance, very easy to get in and out of.

It’s a day sail away, it’s a full access port. It’s easy to check in and check out and there’s lots to do in the city itself. From there you could head east and you can go to Saint-Vaast, which is here, or maybe down to Carentan here, or maybe along to

To Ouistreham and Caen. Or you could go west, you go round to Dielette or Carteret or maybe to the Channel Islands, or you could sail onwards down to north Brittany So let’s just talk about some of the key attractions. So Cherbourg, Cherbourg has a wonderful museum called City de la Mer,

Which is a huge aquarium, a tour of a nuclear submarine and a very interesting Titanic exhibition. There’s a resistance museum up on the hill. You can hire e-bikes from the marina office and cycle along the coast. Lots and lots to do in Cherbourg. Saint-Vaast itself has a lovely marina.

It’s got a historical fort on an island slightly offshore, which there’s a sort of bus that takes you to it for the nature and the museum on that island. Carentan is a nice, quiet river, sorry, a quiet marina up a long canal, through a lock. Maybe there you can hire a car.

Hiring cars in France from supermarkets is amazingly easy and economical. Or you could cycle and perhaps visit some of the D-Day landing sites. Ouistreham. You could take the canal up to Caen going through the famous Pegasus Bridge and the museum, both at the Pegasus Bridge, but also at Caen.

At Caen there is a war or actually more of a peace museum, which is an amazing place to visit. Going west from Cherbourg, you’ve got Carteret, which is a lovely small upmarket resort, very friendly yacht club. It’s clifftop walks. There’s a lighthouse with an exhibition and it has a superb sandy beach.

You might go to St Peter Port on Guernsey, a tour of the island on bus for £1.50. That’s got a lovely castle, a shipwreck museum, lots of other things to do. There is also Victor Hugo’s house, which is a fascinating visit. It’s a German World War two Signal Station, which is fascinating.

And again, there’s two friendly yacht clubs in St Peter Port. In Braye, you take a buoy in the harbour. You can go ashore and hire electric bikes to go around the island. You got some interesting World War Two monuments, a super local museum, and again, another friendly yacht club.

Going to the other end of the channel. So the eastern end, the Opal coast, broadly speaking, from Calais down to Fecamp, the best ports of entry are going to be Calais and Dieppe. Although Boulogne is designated as a port of entry, there is no office there for you to check in.

So if you actually arrive at Boulogne to check in, they will tell you to get the train to Calais. And if we are a little bit further south, there’s Le Havre, where you could check in easily. A very nice city, despite being flattened and rebuilt

During World War Two and rebuilt mainly in concrete. Visit the concrete cathedral! Some people love it and some people hate it. You then go on Honfleur, Deauville and Dives and you could sail along to Ouistreham and Caen, and maybe head back from there. So Dieppe. Interesting castle. Nice market.

Honfleur – Lovely old town where you can moor actually in the middle of the town, providing there is room and providing you are not too big a boat and you’re surrounded by restaurants. St Valery En Caux – also a small marina but a nice town with walks and clifftop views.

You can get a bus to Étretat for that marvelous chalky coastline, clifftop views and superb gardens. Or you can go to Fecamp, famed for its Benedictine distillery and finally an area of North Brittany. Huge range of ports, all with different attractions. So you might check in at St Malo or Roscoff.

I would not recommend checking in Saint-Brieuc, because you’ve got to cross a drying bay through a lock and into quite a small marina. There are really too many places to go through them on a map like this on North Brittany, but it is a wonderful place to visit.

I’ll just pick out a few like St Malo – great historical awards, cities, got museums, entertainment, restaurants. Roscoff – lovely small town, the tourist attraction and the ferry port. Ploumanach is unusual. It’s not really a marina. It’s dumbbell buoys, which while you look up in your pilot book, what that means.

But it has some terrific beaches, some lovely walks along the rocky coastline there, and it’s very touristy, which maybe a good or bad thing. St Cast – big marina, full access, 24 hours attracts lots of visitors. Very nice town. And it really does have a superb beach.

Treguier – I picked this is my best port of France a few years back I have the marina is in the river. It’s a historical town lovely, lovely place to walk around. But on a Wednesday they have a market which goes all the way from the marina down at the river level.

Right up to up the slopes, up into the town. So a huge market. And then in the evening they have music and food in the two squares there. So you can have a wonderful Wednesday full of entertainment and interest. So channel crossing,

Great experience, easier than sailing in the Solent I always tell people. But if you go through all these things that we’ve talked about, then you will have an easy passage. France, all these things that we’ve talked about. It really is a wonderful place to visit on a boat.

And the French love having boats coming in. They are very much, like the British, a maritime nation. So some final tips do plan your passages and in particular your arrivals. In high season, so those four weeks between mid-July and mid August,

Don’t arrive at marinas too late or you may not get such a good berth. Choose the destinations and the times or the days you’re going to arrive based on the history, the events, tourist attractions, the markets, all those things that are taking you there.

Do ask in marinas, in the tourist offices for advice on places to go. They will have very good information. Lots of leaflets, often in English. Busses in France are frequent and they’re very, very cheap. Many, many marinas will have bikes and often electric bikes that you can hire.

And they also have things like navettes. So a good example of that is Trebeurden where the supermarket is a bit of a distance from the marina. So they have a navette and basically you go into the marina office and say, I’d like to go to the supermarket.

You agree what time they would drive you there and they will pick you up an hour later and take you back. Do keep an eye on the forecast, especially for return. You don’t want to have to go across the channel in poor weather because you need to be back at work on Monday.

So keep an eye out and do keep your crew informed all the time with what your plans are and what they should be expecting. And the final advice is do travel in company if you can. If it’s your first crossing, perhaps travel with another boat, maybe some friends or acquaintances

In the marina that you’re in, or maybe join a club rally. There are lots of clubs that do rallies across the channel or maybe a race, you know, Cruising Associations, there is a picture there of one of our rallies across to Cherbourg.

Doing it in company gives you a greater sort of confidence about that journey. There we are. Thank you. All. So few words about the CA. I am speaking on behalf of the CA, so we’re a worldwide community of about six and a half thousand members

And we provide a lot of support to members. Things like events, lectures, forums, the app. We do, rallies, newsletters. There’s a lot things going on in terms of providing information to members and between members. In particular, I also want to highlight HLRs. We have honorary local representatives in many ports around the world,

And those people are there to assist our members with whatever problems they might have or just recommendations of restaurants. We have a crewing service. We have discounts. We have a clubhouse in London which members can use and actually stay at. We use that for seminars and other types of meetings,

And we have our regulatory and technical group who provide a lot of information to members and are working closely with governments and authorities and the EU on the information, the regulatory and technical information that affects us as cruising sailors. So they both provide feedback to those organizations like let’s say HMRC

And they take information from them for our membership and they would answer questions from particular members on particular topics So there we are. Thank you very much. And I should just mention, this has all been covered by the CA’s official disclaimer, which you can see at the bottom of the screen. Thank you.