Following a memorable cruise from Gosport Cruising Club to Honfleur and onto Paris in my fist boat ANGELINE, a 23ft Falcon in July of 2009,http://andyonangeline.blogspot.com/ we were inspired to buy a more suitable boat for extended cruising of the french canals. We now own "DOUCETTE" a 33ft Birchwood GT. 
We are about to take her over the channel for our first French canal shake down trip, a 3 week adventure in the company of our chums "sexbomb" Stevie Smeds, his long suffering better half Jacqui, the "old sea dog and heavy drinking" John and his much better half the gorgeous Aileen on Sexbomb`s Gulfstar 36 "LADY BRENADE"
affectionately known in some quarters as the old Taiwanese Tub although I personally feel this a tad derogatory and a name I distance myself from. Our potentially over ambitious plan is to travel to Paris via the Canal de la Somme and through the champagne region along the Marne to Paris where we hope to be joined by a couple of club youngsters Cornwalls finest the dapper tee total shoe fetishist "r we `aving a drink then" Jerry with his even younger and certainly slimmer "size 8 for me girls" Julie and Fabulous at Fifty (and thats just her chest size) our cracking Commodore, Barb. They will stay for the trip back down the seine and returning to Gosport from Honfleur.
Anticipation and weather watching is now at feverish levels and final preparations are in hand for our summer holiday in France.
This then represents my account of our trip. I will endeavour to post on a regular basis with a few pics but this will much depend on Internet availability and my ability to cope with the technical hurdles I fully expect to face.
We are about to take her over the channel for our first French canal shake down trip, a 3 week adventure in the company of our chums "sexbomb" Stevie Smeds, his long suffering better half Jacqui, the "old sea dog and heavy drinking" John and his much better half the gorgeous Aileen on Sexbomb`s Gulfstar 36 "LADY BRENADE"
affectionately known in some quarters as the old Taiwanese Tub although I personally feel this a tad derogatory and a name I distance myself from. Our potentially over ambitious plan is to travel to Paris via the Canal de la Somme and through the champagne region along the Marne to Paris where we hope to be joined by a couple of club youngsters Cornwalls finest the dapper tee total shoe fetishist "r we `aving a drink then" Jerry with his even younger and certainly slimmer "size 8 for me girls" Julie and Fabulous at Fifty (and thats just her chest size) our cracking Commodore, Barb. They will stay for the trip back down the seine and returning to Gosport from Honfleur.Anticipation and weather watching is now at feverish levels and final preparations are in hand for our summer holiday in France.
This then represents my account of our trip. I will endeavour to post on a regular basis with a few pics but this will much depend on Internet availability and my ability to cope with the technical hurdles I fully expect to face.
Our departure plans are loosely Gosport to Newhaven on Friday evening 1st July, grab a couple of hours and set off across to St Valerie sur Somme at 3.30am. Unfortunately we will have to punch a bit of tide but at 8knots we need to arrive at the sea lock by 1200BST so options are limited.
Forecasts are looking more promising but a week is a long way off so we look, we wait and we look again as anticipation rises to fever pitch.
