SAILING UPDATES: 2020 Latest News

[Solo]

44 minutes ago, PGTV said:

cant BF compromise and depart at 11am instead...

The PA is down to arrive in Plymouth at 10.45, that'll be some turn around.

[PGTV]

it’s do-able 😁

[Cabin-boy]

If everyone leaves their handbrake off and PA comes in as fast as possible until the last moment with the bow door open I reckon you could get all the cars off in less than a minute. It's what I do to get the leaves out of my wheelbarrow. Ed 

[Penlan]

6 hours ago, BobCrox said:

We must be near neighbours. Guemene is our nearest supermarket.

From Cornwall we always go Plymouth - Roscoff and always a night crossing.

A delight is taking the Friday night to hit the Saturday Carhaix market. Really starts a trip off nicely.

 

I have often spoken with Welsh passengers on the Plymouth crossing. First timers are surprised how fast the journey is.

 

We are just outside town on the St Caradec Road, easy walk into town.

Ask Claude what he recommends in the wine section, then again, once made the fatal error of chatting to him on Sunday afternoon and ordering some wine to pick up Tuesday. Wander in Tuesday morning,  blank uncomprehending stare, "Don't ever talk about anything on a Sunday, I'll never remember, I will be peaced!!!"

Guemene is a great little town, we love it. m

[hf_uk]

7 hours ago, BobCrox said:

We must be near neighbours. Guemene is our nearest supermarket.

From Cornwall we always go Plymouth - Roscoff and always a night crossing.

A delight is taking the Friday night to hit the Saturday Carhaix market. Really starts a trip off nicely.

 

I have often spoken with Welsh passengers on the Plymouth crossing. First timers are surprised how fast the journey is.

 

18/20h really makes the world of difference if the departure time is set correctly, (ie. the 4pm departure on Sunday). It essentially adds anther "usable" day to your holiday, vs arriving at 6pm, or 9pm etc from a 24 hr crossing or longer.

[Penlan]

2 hours ago, PGTV said:

Have I missed something?

thought the Friday day crossing from 2021 departs Plymouth at 13:00 and arrives at 19:45 (French time). 

As a property owner also (nr Carhaix), this is a pain in the bottom as I will arrive basically in the evening. Much prefer arriving early afternoon - atleast I can turn the electric and water on in daylight. 

Believe me - who ever thought of putting a stop cock in the middle of a field, about a meter down a hole needs shooting. Impossible to do in the dark

cant BF compromise and depart at 11am instead...

You spotted my deliberate mistake....

19.45 is an OK arrival for us - Guemene 22.00 ish, quick beer in town then open the house up. Fortunately the water tap is next to the front door, so not much digging round in the dark.

All that said - next trip will almost certainly be and overnight outbound. At the house by about 10.00, will be a whole year since we were there last. So it will be most of the day on the strimmer for the lawn and the chain saw dealing with the hedge. Fires lit, well it will be March,  windows open, major airing and tidying operation. 

I just hope todays vaccine news turns out to be sound science and not some Donald and Boris fantasy to turn a quick profit.

Rhys

 

[PGTV]

14 minutes ago, Penlan said:

You spotted my deliberate mistake....

19.45 is an OK arrival for us - Guemene 22.00 ish, quick beer in town then open the house up. Fortunately the water tap is next to the front door, so not much digging round in the dark.

All that said - next trip will almost certainly be and overnight outbound. At the house by about 10.00, will be a whole year since we were there last. So it will be most of the day on the strimmer for the lawn and the chain saw dealing with the hedge. Fires lit, well it will be March,  windows open, major airing and tidying operation. 

I just hope todays vaccine news turns out to be sound science and not some Donald and Boris fantasy to turn a quick profit.

Rhys

 

If you like using the chainsaw - I have a garden that hasn’t been touched since 2009. I even throw in some beers...

offer is open to anyone 👍

 

[Penlan]

24 minutes ago, PGTV said:

If you like using the chainsaw - I have a garden that hasn’t been touched since 2009. I even throw in some beers...

offer is open to anyone 👍

 

Much as I enjoy an excuse to take the chainsaw....

Those good people in security get a little interested if they see the strimmer, they go positively hysterical if they see the chainsaw. You will be cordoned off like the international terrorist that you are. It will get really silly and very heavy, of course, for the return trip they will have told the French Authorities you are carrying "firearms". So, when you rock up  in Roscoff they will have your reg no on a piece of paper and you will find yourself looking down the business end of the Police National's Assault Rifles - best wear your brown trousers for that leg of the trip.

Luckily, they had not spotted my 41/2 lb felling axe on the way out, I might not be here to write about it...

Rhys

 

[PGTV]

5 minutes ago, Penlan said:

Much as I enjoy an excuse to take the chainsaw....

Those good people in security get a little interested if they see the strimmer, they go positively hysterical if they see the chainsaw. You will be cordoned off like the international terrorist that you are. It will get really silly and very heavy, of course, for the return trip they will have told the French Authorities you are carrying "firearms". So, when you rock up  in Roscoff they will have your reg no on a piece of paper and you will find yourself looking down the business end of the Police National's Assault Rifles - best wear your brown trousers for that leg of the trip.

Luckily, they had not spotted my 41/2 lb felling axe on the way out, I might not be here to write about it...

Rhys

 

I’ve also been a victim of the heavy mob of Roscoff too

Apparently two petrol strimmers, chainsaw, rope, axe, heavy duty cutters, gloves, cable ties and a can of petrol made them nervous. I couldn’t see their reason why.

I was told to take the car to lane 26 (I was the only one in that lane) - then a lady came out of the building, asked me many questions, kept me waiting. Filled in forms that I had to take it with me. I was one of the last to board - down in the deck with the trucks.

ironically a few weeks later - I booked in Plymouth to go over again, with the same equipment. I mentioned when booking the items I was carrying, showed them the forms from roscoff - Plymouth had no idea what the forms were, or what they said.

[David Williams]

The pdf freight timetable is showing Portsmouth to Le Havre restarting on 31 December with the Etretat, the Poole service is not shown

[Fine Whine]

That does seem a rather odd sailing, although given that Caen sailings have basically closed down in Portsmouth on the morning of the 31st it gives a last minute opportunity for U.K. truckers to get back for the New Year celebrations (just) and give the ship a shake down. I can’t see the return sailing to Le Havre at being 23h30 being particularly popular though. The crew should have the ship to themselves to herald in 2021, once past the Nab Tower set the automatic pilot , get out the champagne, smoked salmon and foie gras . Etretat could end up in ....Etretat!

Chris

[David Williams]

1 hour ago, Fine Whine said:

That does seem a rather odd sailing, although given that Caen sailings have basically closed down in Portsmouth on the morning of the 31st it gives a last minute opportunity for U.K. truckers to get back for the New Year celebrations (just) and give the ship a shake down. I can’t see the return sailing to Le Havre at being 23h30 being particularly popular though. The crew should have the ship to themselves to herald in 2021, once past the Nab Tower set the automatic pilot , get out the champagne, smoked salmon and foie gras . Etretat could end up in ....Etretat!

Chris

Maybe they just want to lock the crew up so that the sailing on the 1st January goes ok !

[BobCrox]

On 09/11/2020 at 14:56, Fine Whine said:

A second home in France can give endless pleasure to some, others are probably too embarrassed to admit that what seemed like a good idea at the time has turned into a bit of a millstone with tax upon tax upon tax, language difficulties, grass that rarely stops growing, septic tanks, a healthy dollop of sometimes unfathomable bureaucracy that even the French can struggle with, it doesn’t all smell of roses. Added to which who knows what dear old Boris has up his sleeve at the moment...

We love ours. We weren't looking for a place in France but we were with some friends when they looked at the property. £3500. Less than the price of a secondhand car. OK we did spend some money on it but not a lot. We avoided a large garden so very little outside maintenance. The tax is really low.

[IanN]

1 hour ago, BobCrox said:

£3500. Less than the price of a secondhand car.

It must have been a while ago. As something to do during lockdown we have been looking at changing our two cars into one. The used prices for some cars are eye watering. I suppose most of the newer ones are on some form of finance.

 

[Paully]

28 minutes ago, IanN said:

It must have been a while ago. As something to do during lockdown we have been looking at changing our two cars into one. The used prices for some cars are eye watering. I suppose most of the newer ones are on some form of finance.

 

Even the trade has been taken by suprise..such is the demand that even dogs are fetching good money. Youre right though that most cars these days are on PCP which explains why you see so many Audi/Merc/Range Rovers etc on drives everywhere. Its been supported by the manufacturers to move volume but the Bank of England has flagged up its a financial ticking timebomb for them..

  Wait until next spring it might be a different scene by then

[PGTV]

2 hours ago, Paully said:

Even the trade has been taken by suprise..such is the demand that even dogs are fetching good money. Youre right though that most cars these days are on PCP which explains why you see so many Audi/Merc/Range Rovers etc on drives everywhere. Its been supported by the manufacturers to move volume but the Bank of England has flagged up its a financial ticking timebomb for them..

  Wait until next spring it might be a different scene by then

Bit like my neighbour

has a brand new car on the drive way - to look “good” - but never drives it as cannot afford the petrol to put in it.

their other car is an clapped out Vauxhall Astra - says it all really...

 

[Penlan]

We have always taken an alternative view to cars.

Never ever bought new, usually end of life.  No depreciation, and if something mega gets out and walks, you scrap it and get another. 

Current car cost 1000 pounds

That said I spent a whole 4000 on my Vw van - in 2011..

120 K later, it's eaten a fair bit on servicing and maintenance, but it's still worth about 3k. 

Rhys

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jonno]

 

8 hours ago, BobCrox said:

We love ours. We weren't looking for a place in France but we were with some friends when they looked at the property. £3500. Less than the price of a secondhand car. OK we did spend some money on it but not a lot. We avoided a large garden so very little outside maintenance. The tax is really low.

Don't look at Scandinavia, our house on a Stockholm island cost more than a 100 times that and the one in Denmark even more. Luckily we only pay a third but overall we've lost nearly 6 figures including fees on holiday rentals this year and both are/ were just as popular in winter.

The holiday company are usually inundated with booking enquires but this year we've manged 6 weeks all told and at the moment there's nothing until April 2021. 

[IanN]

We have always paid cash for our cars. We look at what we have in the Building Society work out what we are prepared to spend and then buy accordingly. I always looked at it this way. Back in the day buy a used car on finance over three years and by the time you paid it off it would not be worth much more than scrap value so as we could not afford much never had a smart new car on the drive. Considered a delivery mileage Audi A1 with all the extras on it at £30,500. Then had a reality check and we will be sticking with what we have.

[Paully]

2 hours ago, IanN said:

We have always paid cash for our cars. We look at what we have in the Building Society work out what we are prepared to spend and then buy accordingly. I always looked at it this way. Back in the day buy a used car on finance over three years and by the time you paid it off it would not be worth much more than scrap value so as we could not afford much never had a smart new car on the drive. Considered a delivery mileage Audi A1 with all the extras on it at £30,500. Then had a reality check and we will be sticking with what we have.

Seriously off topic so apologies to the Mods...But the trade do not want cash buyers these days. Nothing in it for them. Wafer thin margins (new and used) mean the profits come from PCP or `in house`manufacturer finance commission. VW are offering 2 year warranty and servicing on used cars but not available to cashbuyers..says it all 

[IanN]

50 minutes ago, Paully said:

Seriously off topic so apologies to the Mods...But the trade do not want cash buyers these days. Nothing in it for them. Wafer thin margins (new and used) mean the profits come from PCP or `in house`manufacturer finance commission. VW are offering 2 year warranty and servicing on used cars but not available to cashbuyers..says it all 

Last word as we are off topic. I know in the past dealers would get a kick back from the finance company for selling the product. But these pcp plans seem very expensive to me 

[Solo]

17 minutes ago, IanN said:

Last word as we are off topic. I know in the past dealers would get a kick back from the finance company for selling the product. But these pcp plans seem very expensive to me 

Perhaps this should be in Open House chatter?  The fact that they sell these products instead of getting the cash up front just shows that something funny is going on at some level and it's certain that the customer is paying for it somewhere.

[David Williams]

CF is shown as being 10 hours late from Bilbao and the midday crossing to Santander is cancelled.

 

[Cabin-boy]

Ooooh! At last, a sailing update that's about a sailing that needs updating. This could catch on.

Ed

[YMF]

Interested to know where you get your updates from as Brittany don’t seem to publish them anymore and the positional map has gone as well. We were booked on the Santander crossing to UK on Sunday but decided to defer for a week after looking at the  likely crossing weather. It looks like we made the right decision, fingers crossed for next weekend.