veryoldbear

There will be further comments on Stansted after January15

Very quiet down here in Manche. Some of the GJ's are still out at the Leclerc roundabout in Coutances and have put tents up and built themelves a little shack but it's quite good-natured. Nobody has attacked Treacle Mine Road yet. Petrol prices are high thougn and if you are coming over for a few days it's worth tanking up for the trip.

Of the season, Weds Portsmouth - Ouistreham on the Armorique. Bow loading at Portsmouth, and of course bow discharge at Ouistreham, so a bit of delay while we did the Car Deck Shuffle. Still in several minds about the Armorique. I do like the interior decor of ships to be vaguely nautical and not just like a swoopy swirly fast food restaurant. Anyway, now booked for a summer run on something called the Honfleur ... judgement deferred. Of some concern is that although the Armorique was very lightly loaded it took half and hour to get off the ship and a further 45 minutes to queue and get through passport control. A bit like the bad old days at Poole. It's going to be hell come the summer when fully loaded ships pitch up at Ouistreham, Brexit or no Brexit. Renewed Club Voyage and noticed I saved £680 last year

Everything stops while the MCA come and look at everything. There will also be cargo surveyors and lots of other bodies wnat to see what has happened

A few days over in France to replenish the duty-free lockers and ensure that the hovel is on good order for the winter. New passport controls both inbound and outbound at Ouistreham. Passports are now being scanned carefully. It will be a very slow process come the summer. But it was nice being on Deck 5 of the MSM with wide lanes and no faffing around with the ramps to Deck 6.

Into Ouistreham again on the overnight MSM last Friday. A very light loading but passport control was incredibly slow, rather like Poole used to be, with slow scanning of passports. We're back out again on Tuesday, and fully expect the extra passport checks we had last time. To be fair there was no sign of The Blokes on Friday morning ... not sure where they are hanging out this time of year ... there is a lot more razor wire round the terminal though But Les Gilets Jaunes were busy manifesting and having pallet bonfires in Coutances yesterday. No mucking about with foreign cars though, just wave your gilet and shout "Solidarite" and you get the big Norman smiles and a wave through the barricades. Ooh. we do live in Interesting Times ...

Ah the good old days of having two passports!

Anyway, back to UK tomorrow from Caen on the NEX subbing for the MSM. I hope it's reasonably calm. Then I must get myself an International Driving License (or something) .....

They still are, but when went over this week both the Carteret and Granville boats arrived at the same time. It was like Sunday evening at Stansted airport i.e. chaos. The toilet signs send you outside and round the corner to dodgy bogs 60 m down the road away from town. However top marks for the refreshment stall outside who were cheerful and welcoming. For lunch we went to The Quayside. Excellent but a bit pricey. Rather a lot of banksters and their molls taking lunch. Hilarious. I hadn't got my shiny suit with me, and Mrs OAB should really have had the blonde hair-do and come in in her little black dress but WTH archie ...

Sure, one finds out eventually. But there should be a tourist office with maps and information in the ferry terminal. There isn't even a toilet.

Yes, I jest a little about the MI terminal, but the huge amount of reclamation work at St Helier means that it's quite a hike to find the old town. No signs, no tourist office, nothing. Just a lot of day trippers stuck in a commercial wasteland wondering why they came. All very odd.

We did a day-trip Carteret to St Helier yesterday on the Granville and she was running nicely. On the way out it wasa bit choppy and she had to slow down, but she was fine on the way back. The Manch-Isles ferry terminal at St Helier is a dump and a good walk through Canary Wharf to try and find St Helier ... but we did find it eventually

MSM has got some fishing nets round a propeller and going off next week to drydock to get untangled. Our voyage 1630 Friday 14 had been pulled and we have a space on a special NEX run Caen to Portsmouth. Now praying for good weather ....

Dunkerque ferry port is out in the middle of nowhere. I wouldn't want to camp out there in the vain hope of hopping on an HGV. Ouistreham is far more congenial.

We are regulars on the Portsmouth - Caen route on the Normandie and the MSM, and the cabin cleaning lark seems to be getting worse. As I understood, the kicking you out of the cabin 30 minutes before arrival was to allow cleaning for the return journey. But now the cabin cleaning seems to be done by shore-side subcontractors who don't seem to come onboard until loading starts. They are then faffing about for another 30 minutes or so, leaving passengers stranded grumbling in alleyways or sitting on their bags. BF seem to want their cake and eat it: either let us have cabins until arrival or get cabins ready for oncoming passengers. Grumble grumble.