St. Vaast Gastronomy — 15 May '09

15 May –18 May

May 2009

We made it this time! After a couple of years when bad weather and blockading French trawlermen forced cancellations, this year a total of seven yachts and some thirty members gathered to celebrate French flair with food.

Actually the weather wasn't too welcoming this time either; a stiff Southerly wind and gusting rain showers greeted the Thames fleet that was gathering off St Vaast, waiting for the lock gates to open. Here Resolution found a novel way to avoid dragging their anchor - by hooking a seabed cable that may not have been the town mains supply but certainly looked large enough to be so. Anxious looks to see if the street lights flickered as we struggled to disentangle ourselves! It was good to get into the shelter of the inner harbour and to see the familiar sights of Saba, Ciconia and Snow Leopard, as well as Richard Saker's new Jeanneau 35 Super Gite and Kit Fleming's HR34 Amoret. Tom Tom (Nick Atkinson) reported in, storm bound in Cherbourg, but made the commendable effort to join us by car.

The Friday dinner was at the Fuchsias and as always was excellent. Saturday dawned clear and less breezy, so the full Saturday street market was available in unreefed form. After a lazy lunch in the sun we dived into the depths of M. Gosselin's cave for a bit of wine-tasting exercise. Young Vincent Bourgois did his best to convince us that his new NZ sauvignon blanc would be as good as the ones from the family vineyards in France. Maybe in about twenty more years.... With scarce a pause for digestion we moved on to dinner on the waterfront at La Bisquine, where Mme Quilbe provided a really enjoyable meal with some memorable lamb chops.

In order to return on Sunday, the tides dictated a start long before the sparrows had gone about their stuff. With a wet and windy forecast, only John Stork (with a heavyweight crew of Gwynne Lawrence and Bob Durie) was man enough to go for it. The crew of Saba were indeed roused from their bunks and assembled on deck in the dark and the lashing rain. Sanity then asserted itself and they went back to bed!

Monday promised sunshine and a perfect Southerly F5 dropping to F4, so Saba, Snow Leopard, Resolution and Super Gite all left at around 0500 hours hoping for a fast daytime crossing back to the Solent, some 90 odd miles to the North. By half way, F5 had become F6 to 7 and the seas were large and confused. "Fast" became "really fast" and the sailing was at times exhilarating. Long before dusk all were safely berthed back at home.

Our thanks to Alexis Doglewski for setting up the arrangements and selecting the menus, even though his other duties kept him from attending in person. This is an excellent formula for a satisfying long weekend. To keep it fresh we will miss out next year but have already pencilled in a return in 2011.