We left Dieppe Wed Oct 23 @ 0800 am for the 20 hour 115 NM sail to Cherbourg. It was a nice sail, wing on wing with full main and Genoa for 13 hours, whereafter the wind died. We motored the last 4 hours and arrived Thu 0200 am. We had been in Cherbourg before on our route from La Rochelle to the Netherlands in Dec 2018 and were not afraid to enter at night since it is a huge port with safe approaches. Coming from the West you have to clear the rocks marked by the West cardinal buoy with the appropriate name of “Pierre Noire” or Black Peter.
Cherbourg is with 1500 hectares the worlds largest artificial harbour and was heavily fortified by Napoleon in the 1840’s and later by the Nazi’s. It is said that the harbour walls contain more stones than the great piramid of Giza and it’s base is 100+ meter wide in some area’s.
Above the railterminal in early 1900 from where emigrants boarded the cruise liners to leave for better prospects to the US. The Titanic left Cherbourg in April 1912 from this terminal.
The terminal is still in use today by (much larger) cruise ships filled with tourists and is no longer connected to the rail network. Note that the belfry is no longer standing. The terminal building now houses an interesting museum “Cite de Mer” and in the foreground the decommissioned nuclear submarine “Le Redoutable” or “The Fearsome”, that we visited.
In June 1944 the allied forces had to have access to a deep water port to supply the army during the liberation of Europe. The Aug 1942 “trial invasion” of Dieppe had made it painfully clear that the heavily fortified ports could not be invaded from the sea. Hence after the invasion of Normandy, part of the allied forces turned Westward to capture Cherbourg over land. The heavily sabotaged port would eventually reach a wartime throughput at 25 times the earlier peacetime capacity. What was “Plage Napoleon” in the right upper corner of the photo is now the marina.
The Nuclear Sub is definitely worth a visit when in the area. The electronic guide is available in English and gives a good insight in the capabilities of this war machine.
Cherbourg is the center for the French submarine industrie and is exporting these machines all over the world albeit without nuclear capabilities.
We stayed a couple of days since there was again an Autumn depression with 30+ Kts of Westerlies blowing in the Channel.