St Malo Cruise - from the beginning

[Richard B]

The St Malo Cruise began from a number of Solent locations - in this case Hythe Marina. Oh, and it began late, very late! So here's the crew of Maverick assembled on the RIB - at least they've all got a full breakfast inside them.

[Richard B]

...so down Southampton Water and the Solent to meet the rest of the RIBs at Lymington. Here's Geoff and Andy in "Out of the Blue"

[Richard B]

...and HMS's crew on the Phantom Evo

[Richard B]

and a polish built 6.3m diesel RIB, "Seahawk" with Andre and the rest of the Polish crew

[Richard B]

It's soon time to open up those throttles once out of the river and into the Solent...
(I've now transferred onto "Awesome")

[Richard B]

And that's a SIB on the back of Maverick

[Richard B]

You'll have to look at Charles' photos for Alderney, as I've skipped directly to St Malo, a few shots in the dark...

[Richard B]

.

[Richard B]

The Intra Muros district of St Malo (the "old town") is like Chester or York, except that it was entirely rebuilt in the 1950s after having been completely flattened by bombing raids in WW2.

These restaraunts back on to the town walls.

[Richard B]

The restaurant "Porte St Pierre" ...and some familiar faces

[Richard B]

- and the usual confusion with currency and dividing up the bill

[Richard B]

I've left the pictures of the late night revelling in the bar in Charles' thread...

So here's the morning after, from my hotel room window, a beautiful calm day, and a hangover!

[Richard B]

You'll have to wait until tomorrow for some more...

OK then, one more. This is St Malo from Awesome, with a French RIB come to see what we're up to, why the English use such huge diesel engines in their RIBs, and why the English seem to build RIBs entirely out of alumunium. Left him standing

[Richard B]

Quick trip up the Rance Estuary, past the elegant villas of Dinard, to have a peep at the Hydro Electric station

[Richard B]

&

[Richard B]

...and back into St Malo for fuel (uh-oh, comedy of errors strikes again!)

[Richard B]

Now, just for reference, if you arrive at St Malo marina when the Capitainerie is closed (lunch 12:00 to 14:00) then you can't get petrol. Unless you've got a french Carte Bancaire (CB) or Carte Bleu - like a UK switch card. The self service pumps don't take visa, amex or mastercard. It's the same at petrol stations. This friendly Frenchman had his card, but needed petrol for himself, and the machine only accepts a single, limited transaction (40 Euros I think). So we waited...

[Richard B]

And we eventually leave St Malo... (again!)

[Richard B]

*

[Richard B]

Looking astern from "Out of the Blue" to "Seaharrier" and "Awesome" following...