Sailing in Cherbourg
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Friday, March 15th - Paris to Cherbourg
We assembled and left Schlumberger by 5pm - much earlier than expected considering that we had 14 people.  Cecilia, Carmen, and I drove with Tullio in one car, while Mike, Mark, Dominique, Andrea and the other Schlumberger crew rode in the big van.  Fabio and his girlfriend were running a bit late, and drove themselves.

After 4-1/2 hours of bad music, good conversation, and an excess of sugar products purchased at various stations along the highway, we arrived at the dock in Cherbourg.  Both Fabio and the Schlumberger van arrived shortly thereafter, and we easily found the two large sailboats that we would use for sleeping.  We claimed our various bedrooms, then headed into town to find some excitement.  Mike was already very familiar with the local social scene, and directed us to a nearby bar.  The bar offered beers in an apparatus called a "Giraffe" - basically a long vertical transparent tube with a tap installed at the bottom.  The bar only owned one "Giraffe", which we quickly claimed and monopolized for the rest of the night.

Several hours (and drinks) later we returned to the boats for a good night's rest.  The weather was calm thusfar, but rain was expected for Saturday.  We were able to see a few stars before going to sleep, which we interpreted as a good sign for the following day.

Saturday March 16th, Day One of Sailing
We were out of our bunks by 8am, and met at a local bar for croissants, bread, and coffee.  The weather was cloudy and cool, but no rain yet....After breakfast we walked over to the dock where we met the other sailing teams and Jacques, the boat owner and instructor/coordinator of the weekend (see image on right).  There were five boat crews total - two from Schlumberger, one from Esso, and two from other companies.  Jacques introduced himself and outlined the plan for training and racing that day.

Our boat team consisted of eight people - Cecilia, Carmen, Tullio, Mike, Dominique, Mark, Andrea, and myself.  The eight people represented six different nationalities and four different languages (English, French, Italian, and Spanish).  Most of the sailing vocabulary was French, but the verbs and other instructions were a combination of the remaining three languages.  It was certainly a communication challenge.  The boat really only required 6 - 7 people to sail, but we managed to find a job for everyone (such as interpreter).  We motored out of the harbor while rigging up the sails, passed through the inner wall and into the outer harbor where we would spend the morning training and racing with the other boats.  The rain stayed away, and the winds were good (~20 knots), so we enjoyed a good morning of sailing.

We returned to the dock for lunch, coffee (see image on right), and briefing instructions from Jacques.  We returned to the harbor to practice similar techniques and race with the other boats.  The weather remained windy but no rain for the rest of the day.  After returning to dock, we drove to Jacques' house in the countryside where he hosted a wonderful dinner for all of the crews.  We returned to town by 11:30pm, and rallied for another trip to the bar to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  Several giraffes later the bar closed and we began the walk back to the boats.  An amusement park (carnival) was setup next to the dock, and consisted of the typical rides, games, and food.  I wanted to try to win a stuffed animal, but the games were closing for the night.  After a little discussion with one of the owners of a game booth, I was still able to purchase a stuffed animal (a purple, white, and black colored cow).  We then proceeded to find the only remaining open ride - the bumper cars! - and spend 20 minutes wrecking into each other.  High impact collisions are not the the best way to finish a night.  We walked back to the boat, woke up the others who had gone to sleep only 30 minutes before (to show them the cow), and then went bed.

More images from the first day:
 
Aaron winching in the "piano" position
Mark in the #2 position
Andrea at the helm
Cecilia the master winchwoman
The competition docking
Andrea ahead at the start

Sunday March 17th, Day Two of Sailing
Wakeup at 7:30am, and rendez-vous for breakfast again at the local pub.  The sky was clear, and the sun was beaming.  We met with the other crews to receive instructions from Jacques, and then set out into the harbor.  We fastened the cow that I had "won" to the front of the boat, and it proved to be a good luck cow for the remainder of the day.  The morning was gorgeous, and the sailing was great.  We switched positions in the boat, which brought further confusion and communication problems to the team, but we managed to learn our new spots accordingly.  We returned to the dock at noon for lunch and coffee and more instructions, and then returned to the harbor for our final afternoon on the water.

The skies had clouded over during lunch, and the horizon looked very dark.  As we started the last race it began to drizzle, which gradually became a heavy rain accompanied by winds up to 45 knots.  Our radio was not working (we had mistakenly switched channels), and we did not realize that the race had begun until we saw the other boats approaching the starting line in parallel (except for us - we were going in the opposite direction).  We turned around and somehow managed to catch the other boats over the next 20 minutes.  After another 20 minutes of expert navigation by Andrea and Dominique we had a clear lead over the race.  The storm had really picked up, and we were struggling with the sails (evidently the other boats had greater problems than us).  The storm had become very strong, and we were far enough ahead that Jacques declared the race finished, and we returned to the harbor.

We packed up the boats, and began the drive back to Paris.  Mike joined us this time in the car, and we again enjoyed a 3-1/2 hour ride of poor music and good conversation - but I would much prefer this than the opposite (good music and poor conversation).

Overall, it was an excellent weekend with an excellent group of people.  I look forward to the next sailing trip! 

More pictures from the second day of sailing:
 
Competition - who is going the right way?
Tullio relaxing on the sail
The sailing team
"Al" the cow - our lucky mascot