This was our third visit, but the last time was around 3 years ago. It hasn't changed much in that time, but it struck us how large the town is here, especially when we think back to last year and our extended stay in another French port, Roscoff. That was a much smaller place. With some strong winds forecast for several days it looks like we will probably get stuck here - at least there is a lot more on offer for stranded sailors! But before a review of the Marina itself a few general pointers if you haven't come across on a yacht before...
The crossing itself is down to individual sailors to manage based on their boat and their crew of course. For us we look to cross when the waves are predicted to be generally less than 1m high - unless the period is long, or the direction of travel is behind us (in which case we would go up to 2m). Reeds almanac recommends you arrive up-tide and I would say that is very good advice. The last time I did this trip we sailed based on a calculated Course To Steer and ended up downtide of the entrance when we eventually checked our position (OK, that's another lesson learned - keep checking your position against what you expected as in my experience they never match!) and we had to motor long and hard to get in. We took several hours longer than we needed to!
When you arrive at Cherbourg and enter the marina we have found that if no marina dory greets you its OK to tour the visitor pontoons and pick a spare slot and simply take it. Just remember the number on the plate by the berth for when you check in at the port office. Customs apparently don't visit the Marina office like they used to (wow that was convenient!) so you need to take a 20 minute walk to the PAF office in the direction of the ferrys. We had no queue when we went and no problems getting processed quickly - we took our boat papers (as always) but as before when we've done this, they only wanted the boat entry form and our passports.
The marina scores pretty well from our point of view. We found the staff here spoke excellent english and were friendly and helpful. We arrived just as the lady was closing the office but she kept it open and checked us in. A really lovely welcome after a long day's sailing!
The location is very good - its only a 5 - 10 minute walk into the main town (across a park) and there are a lot of restaurants, bars and fast food places. A few small corner shops are available in the town, but there is a reasonably sized Carrefour supermarket inside a small shopping mall that is one side of the town. With scooters available to hire its easy to get provisions. One other nice feature in such a large marina is the provision of dockside toilets in a couple of locations - great not having to walk all the way to the port office facilities for the call of nature.
There is a Launderette behind the main port office - so that is good. Some French marinas don't have them, so its good there is one. The machines are coin operated (credit card scans are less common - great when you can find them), there is no folding table and no iron (I think I've only found them in some UK marina laundry rooms). Other than plenty of machines that's my laundry wish list!
In terms of the facilities these are pretty good. The photo shows a shower cubicle that is pretty typical of French Marinas. These are not as luxurious as many Solent / south coast marinas, but its half the price to berth here (roughly) so the fact its clean, has hooks for your clothes and hot shower I'm OK with that! Sure, there are marinas such as the one at Quiberon and at La Rochelle that have the same level of luxury as the UK - but equally as well we have been to ones such as St Malo (temporary facilities) and Camaret (facilities are in teh dungeon of an old fort) which are not so nice...