Waldringfield to St Valery sur Somme

Inspired by the encouraging words written by Neville Featherstone in his pilot book and the equally positive article in last December’s Yachting Monthly, we paid a visit to St Valery sur Somme in August 2003, sailing via Ramsgate & Boulogne from the Deben.

This really is a cracking place to visit with a beautiful mediaeval town, friendly & quiet marina, excellent food (moules, huîtres, agneau pre salé & abundant salicorne) and working steam trains for the (big) kids. One reason it’s so tranquil became evident as other yachts (all Dutch) tried to depart.

Although the long channel (2 hours) from the offlying ATSO safe water mark is well buoyed, the channel shifts regularly & demands constant attention to the echosounder to seek out the deeper water. Several boats spent an embarrassing & uncomfortable night on their sides in full view of the waterfront restaurants!

We elected to leave on the early evening HW (Neaps) on Friday for a night passage back to Ramsgate. All went well as we passed the site of the Dutchmens’ defeat but our complacency was shattered by an ominous lurch onto the putty further downstream where the channel had diverted in a deep curve between the buoys (around 27/L5). We backed off gracefully & thankfully the local pilot/Maitre du Port signalled us toward deeper water through the next section.

Our short delay, coupled with increasing cloud cover had meant that the final section of channel was tackled in gathering gloom. With surf breaking either side of the channel we were just able to find the last 3 pairs of buoys, though a least depth of 3-4M at this point gave less cause for concern than the 1.5M further up. We East Coast mudlarks are used to ditch crawling but we did breathe a deep sigh of relief as we bore away up Channel!

Overall, highly recommended – but not in more than F4 and not at Neaps unless you draw well under 1.5M. The downloadable pilotage chart from the Port St Valery website is useful in terms of buoyage sequence & numbering, but the channel no longer lies where it is marked – binoculars, soundings & preferably a local boat in front are the best guide.

A great 7 day cruise from the East Coast was had, helped by fair winds & tides both ways – one of those satisfying occasions when the waypoints popped up as planned (to my continued astonishment) and we returned with a still near full fuel tank and a bucketful of mackerel to boot.

Few Brits seem to get to St Valery, but we’ll be back again at the first opportunity. Not at Neaps though.