Mont St. Michel - Thursday 30 April

[GJ0KYZ]

I had another great day at Mont St. Michel yesterday. I arrived early in the morning, dried out for the day and managed to get back just before it got dark. I've recorded a fews short video clips of my trip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el_cBe1wcnc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8s6SX6LYEA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1vG-MUyQgQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xighHpnfyo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2BhX50S0PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBFqoNKl1u4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c3_1kc2BsU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUbXJGZqO7A

I'll try and get these spliced into a video diary when I get a chance.

[tony t]

Originally Posted by GJ0KYZ

I had another great day at Mont St. Michel yesterday. I arrived early in the morning, dried out for the day and managed to get back just before it got dark. I've recorded a fews short video clips of my trip:

I'll try and get these spliced into a video diary when I get a chance.

looks a fantastic place would love to visit there one day great video...

[GJ0KYZ]

Originally Posted by tony t

looks a fantastic place would love to visit there one day great video...

Thanks Tony. I'll try and get them all into one shorter clip over the weekend. I was doing the commentary for my wife in case you were wondering; she couldn't come with me. Oh, and the title of the thread should have been "Mont St. Michel - Thursday 29 April" Doh..

[martini]

Awesome. I'm really looking forward to getting out there

[GJ0KYZ]

Originally Posted by martini

Awesome. I'm really looking forward to getting out there

Thanks Matt. It was all going ricky ticky until the tide came in at it's usual insane speed. The side of slipway slopes and, as I thought would happen, the fenders kept riding up over the sponson. I had to hold the boat away from the wall by myself for about 20 minutes until there was enough water to leave, all the time being pushed about by the current. I was knackered after that. I think you'd need a couple of helpers in Martini II!

The scariest moment of the day was the quicksand. It was well iffy and is everywhere now the river has widened with the flushing action of the new dam. I reckon that in thick fog it would be possible to get stuck in quicksand 100 metres from Mont St. Michel and no one be able to find you.

[martini]

Scary thought! I wonder if it would help to set an anchor upstream away from the slip while the tides out, give yourself something to pull the boat away from slip until sufficient depth?

Or a set of rib fenders

[Hightower]

Originally Posted by martini

Scary thought! I wonder if it would help to set an anchor upstream away from the slip while the tides out, give yourself something to pull the boat away from slip until sufficient depth?

Or a set of rib fenders

Great Vids and nice commentary!

Another suggestion is to use the round fenders still, but instead of hanging them vertically down the side try attaching a warp at either end of the fender and hanging them horizontally just under the tube rubbing strake.

[GJ0KYZ]

Thanks guys, sound ideas. The anchor thing did occur to me as I was struggling with the boat; I'll certainly think about it next time. The RIB fenders look nice, I'll have to speak the Captain about those. I'll try the horizontal fender trick in the meantime.

[gotchiguy]

Yes it really does look fantastic arriving by boat, although I've been many times by car, I think it would be a hundredfold more interesting going by boat. Unfortunatly I probably won't be able to get the boat on the water until early July now, but over the summer I hope we can meet up and do some cruises to there and others. How regularly do you go now, I've seen your Avranches videos, but I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to attempt that!

[GJ0KYZ]

Originally Posted by gotchiguy

Yes it really does look fantastic arriving by boat, although I've been many times by car, I think it would be a hundredfold more interesting going by boat. How regularly do you go now, I've seen your Avranches videos, but I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to attempt that!

I go fairly regularly; maybe every eight weeks or so. The tides over the next two months are fairly small but from July onward they start increasing again. There are a couple of local ribbers who want to go to Mont St. Michel so perhaps we could organise a trip later on in the summer.

[Erin]

Yep, we definitely must arrange a trip. So long as the French don't think its an invasion with a convoy from Jersey arriving on their doorstep

[GJ0KYZ]

The next weekend date would be Sunday 13 June. We could stay the day and come back in the evening. I know Martini II said he'd like to come along as well. In fact, anyone is welcome to come along.

[martini]

I'm in for sure, 13th june is 34.2ft, is that easily sufficient you think?

Saturday Sept 11th looks the best this year, 38.5ft, lets hope autumn hasn't arrived by then

[Erin]

By my calculation I make GJ0KYZ's last trip as being on a 10.8m (am) to 10.87m (pm) tide. On 13th June it is 10.30 to 10.78m and on 11th Sep it is 11.89 to 11.71m.

I'd rather go when the evening tide is higher than the morning tide... reduces the risk of getting stranded! Depends on the atmos pressure as well I suppose. Whats the drying height of the jetty berth I wonder?

[GJ0KYZ]

So long as the tide has a coefficient of at least 80 then it should be high enough to go to Mont St. Michel. Use this link to determine coefficients for a seven-day period: http://tide.frbateaux.net/48 High tide at Cancale is more or less the same as that at Mont St. Michel (15mins before HW at St. Helier pier heads).

The jetty in the photo dries at about 8.5m. It's better to go on a small tide and creep in than go on a big spring and have plenty of water because if you stay the day the flood in the evening is that much weaker. You tend to get pushed about a bit alongside the jetty until you float. I might try Martini II's suggestion of an offset bow anchor next time.

Another thing to remember is that the seabead near Mont St. Michel has changed quite a bit over the winter as has the approach transit to the Mount itself. I have waypoints for this new route on my chartplotter. I plan to go back to Avranches on the big autumn tides. It'd be great if some other boats came as well.

[martini]

Originally Posted by GJ0KYZ

The next weekend date would be Sunday 13 June..

Is this still on the cards? Only a week and a half away

[Erin]

Hope so