We leave Boulogne at 8 o’clock. The sun is shining and we have a light tailwind of 3 -4 m / s, so we decide to hoist our new gennaker for the first time. We have never had such a large sail (140 sqm) for any of our boats before, so the weather is perfect now for us beginners. Everything goes well no matter what, the sock goes up easily and the sail goes out. Simplified a bit, the sail is in a long sausage ”sock” where you lift one end to the top of the mast. Then you pull the sock up and the sail goes out. When you want to take it down, you pull the sock down over the sail again and easily lift down the ”sausage” again.

The day and night sailing will be as close to perfect as it can get. Light wind, no waves, and co-current mostly so the boat travels at around 8 knots. Not all the time, of course, but for a very long time. The engine only started for a couple of hours in total. We also try our luck fishing for the first time, but unfortunately, no catch.

Despite the nice weather, we hear three serious Maydays on the VHF today.
From a catamaran ”Man overboard”, from a submarine where the instructor alerts about two in his group who went up from 28 m without safety stop, and then a large motorboat of 24 m that caught fire on board. Help came quickly to everyone, and to the helicopter divers. We only know how it went for the family on the motorboat who survived with minor smoke injuries and a few days in the hospital. They had bought a wreck on Facebook, equipped it for two years, and now got a fire in the engine room. Feels good to have a well-proven, series-built boat by professionals, and with automatic fire extinguishing in the engine compartment.

Cherbourg is a pretty boring city we think. We walk around the city a bit but decide to go as soon as the weather allows. However, find a cheese shop where we can buy a large piece of cheese, as at home in Sweden. I want to use my cheese grater again! I had this dialogue with the assistant in the cheese shop.

Do you want this much?
Me: No, bigger.
This much?
Me: Bigger.
This then??
Me: No, this much!

The business owner must have thought we were buying a giant piece of cheese. In the fine wrapping is a good bread from the bakery.