There are two things in travel that are priceless, one is experience and the other is human. Experience accumulates into life, whether it is digested at that time or not, it becomes the nourishment of your life; and meeting someone who is completely different from yourself is equivalent to opening a window to see another world.
While I was still struggling with the matter of sailing, I met a crazy Swissman in a small fishing port in France, who actually pedaled a small kayak that could accommodate only one person with two feet, and sailed all the way from Switzerland to France.
Visit Rouen
On June 1, 2019, I set off from Dieppe, France, for the next port city, Fécamp.
There are more than 20 nautical miles from Dieppe to Fecamp, about 6 hours of running, and I turned out the professional fishing tackle "Little White". Yesterday I fished in the dock for an afternoon, and I didn't catch anything at the expense of two pounds of beef! Now that I am a Buddha, let the willing take the bait.
Ficon Pier is one of the most beautiful I've seen since I sailed. Between the blue sky and the blue sea, the white sea cliffs stand out, and the small cities are scattered on it. At the entrance to the pier are still two rows of tall wooden boardwalks, with a lighthouse standing at the end.
Small white yachts are constantly pulling out of the dock, and long tail waves are rolling up behind them. At a glance, this view is a ready-made French postcard.
It was still early to stop the boat, and I decided to go to Rouen, which is only an hour's drive from Ficon. Rouen is the capital of normandy, one of the oldest cities in Europe, nicknamed the "City of Museums", and is said to have many places of interest and historical figures.
From Fécamp to Rouen you can take the TER directly, which is an interprovincial train operated by the SNCF (French National Railways). France also has a train called TGV, which is equivalent to our high-speed rail, which is currently the fastest high-speed train in the world.
On the way to the station, pass a flea market, a French open-air bazaar specializing in second-hand items that is only laid out on weekends.
Families sell their unwanted items, almost anything can be found in it, common like pots and pans, books, works of art, etc., and even heard that some people have found antiques, I don't know if it is true.
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When I was transferring trains, I met an elderly couple who sent their daughter out of the house, the couple should be in their eighties and have gray hair. They had been telling their daughter something, and they looked particularly reluctant.
Looking at them, I remembered what my parents looked like when they sent me to school many years ago.
A few minutes later the train started slowly, and the elderly couple smiled on the platform as they watched the train leave. I don't know where their daughter is going, how long she's going, if she's going to go farther and longer than I am?
It's been almost two months since I left home. Compared with the planned three-year voyage, two months is only a fraction. For so many years, I was basically on the go, and I really had very little time with my parents. I'll go home more often in the future.
The scenery outside the window flew by, and before I knew it, I arrived at the station.
Rouen is the sixth largest city in France and has a history of thousands of years. The Seine runs through the city, and on the right bank is the Old City, with many ancient buildings and museums, rich collections.
It is said that every four years there is a sailing event, when the world's most beautiful sailing ships meet along the pier.
I had to go back to the pier in the afternoon, so there wasn't much time to walk around, so I went straight to rouen Cathedral. Rouen Cathedral is a magnificent Gothic building, built in the 12th century. It is said that the famous French painter Monet once painted a series of oil paintings on the theme of rouen Cathedral.
The church gate faces the Big Clock Street, and two hundred meters down this street you can see the large clock, the most famous historical monument in the area. The astronomical clock, made in 1389, is the world's first Gothic astronomical clock, more than 500 years before Big Ben in England.
It was installed on a large Renaissance-style arch across the Great Clock Street, and it's easy to miss out on this attraction if you don't know about it.
The streets of Rouen are not much different from other French cities, and after shooting some footage, I took TER back to the pier.
Superman Jersey
Because I would have to sail more than 100 nautical miles in the Atlantic Ocean next, I couldn't do it alone. Just when a friend signed up to experience sailing life online, I contacted a Guangzhou guy named Nick to get on the boat.
Nick had previously trained in school sailing and had a certain foundation. We made an appointment to meet in le Havre, near Ficón.
I haven't sailed at night since Lao Gu got off the boat. The English Channel section is very busy, coupled with the complex weather and currents of the Atlantic Ocean itself, in order to be as well prepared as possible, I chat with experienced sailors on the docks and gather useful information.
A French shipowner named Jean Pierre sailed with his wife and he gave me a lot of rather practical advice.
In the evening, a small dot appeared on the water in the distance, slowly approaching the dock. Some noticed it, waiting for it to come by while doing their work.
After a few minutes, a peculiar little boat appeared. It resembles a board spread over the surface of the water, on which sits a man. The boat continued to approach, and finally could see clearly, as if it were a kayak?
The people above pedaled the dinghy forward with their feet, pedaling like a bicycle all the way to the edge of the dock. Someone on the shore greeted him, and I asked him where he came from, and he said he was from Switzerland.
Pedal this little boat all the way from Switzerland to France? No way......
There was an empty berth just opposite The Great White, and I stood on the pontoon bridge to guide him to stop in.
Superman's name is Jersey and he is a Swiss. He sailed the dinghy all the way down the river from Switzerland to the Netherlands, and from the Netherlands along the coastline to France, which was roughly the same route as me. But look at what boat he drives, and then look at mine? That's an exaggeration.
His ship was no more than four meters long, with a seated man in the middle and flanked by wings that increased buoyancy and maintained balance. The hull and the wings are connected to the canvas, so you can put something that is not heavy. The narrow "cabin" is full of yards, starting from the stern, with waterproof trunks, fuel barrels, electrical systems and "cockpits" (one seat).
Jersey introduced me to the functional divisions of the dinghy: the left wing connected to the hull was the galley, the orange keg on the right was his toilet, the stern was the power system, and the engine he had just bought and sent from China.
I asked him where his bedroom was, and he said there really wasn't one on the boat, and he slept in a tent at night on the dock.
"Big dreams no more beds," Jersey told me with a laugh.
(Video)
Jersey was treated heroically at the docks. I don't know how big a ship as small as this can withstand the wind and waves, and it may be overturned if you are not careful. The hardships of his journey can be imagined.
I took out the bottle of Scotch whiskey from Lao Gu and poured him all the last good wine, and Jersey drank it all.
Returning to the ship to find a note on the table that Jean Pierre had written to me, he set off again.
The note had his phone and email saying that if I got to Le Havre I would definitely call him and ask me to go out for a drink if he happened to be there. He asked me to save his contact information and call him if I had any difficulty.
This is the third or fourth time I have encountered since I sailed. Every time I went to a pier to chat with the seafarers, they were shocked to hear that I was sailing alone, and they thought that I was crazy Chinese!
They would always leave their contact information and say that if they met somewhere again, they would definitely invite me to dinner and drink. It's a really warm feeling.
With so much kindness from so many, I should pass it on. Sometimes giving between people is a kind of happiness. I decided to make a simple dinner for Superman Jersey so that he could feel more comfortable after a tiring day of sailing.
Jersey was sitting on the dock resting, and I invited him to get on the boat and have a light meal, and he hesitated for a moment and then readily agreed. Finding me curious about his experience, Jersey scoured his phone for a recently posted video of his band playing live at a music festival.
"So you're a DJ?"
"No, I used to work as a manager at a company, and my hobby was banding."
Jersey said that since I had eaten my sandwich, I would definitely try his coffee, and this drink was guaranteed not to be tasted in France.
He asked me to rinse the coffee in cold water but not to fill it up, because it was still mixed with wine. I carefully poured half a glass of water, and he filled it with vodka, and the other cup was the same proportion. He said ,"You drink as much as I want".
Good fellow, with a Swiss actually drank out of the feeling of a good man in Liangshan. I took a bite, spicy, intense, and tough.
Jersey was carrying a picture of his two children, a little older than Little Seven. He said that he would look at the picture whenever it was particularly difficult on the road, which would give him strength. In this way, the experiences of the two of us are indeed a bit similar.
Le Havre
After two days in Fécamp, I sailed to the neighbouring port city of Le Havre. Le Havre is the second largest port in France, after Marseille.
At the docks of Le Havre I met an old gentleman named Jean Bian. This gentleman is a seafarer and often drives a boat on weekends to take self-driving trips in the nearby waters. He was surprised to hear that I was sailing alone.
I talked to the old gentleman about his escape from the Baltic Sea, about the cold of the North Sea and the beautiful canals of the Netherlands. Because I was a novice and everything was learned as I went, he shared his experience with me and showed me a thick yellow book.
This book details the timetables of various ships in all large and small ports in France, as well as the tidal difference coefficient of each port, etc., and can clearly check the rise and fall of the tide in various places. The books are all French nautical terms, and many of them have no corresponding translation in English.
The old man made an appointment with his wife to have dinner in the afternoon at a restaurant they often went to, and he invited me to go with them. Just on the way I would pass a nice observation deck, and he took me up to see this beautiful bay.
Feeling like family with them, I decided to invite them to my ship and treat them with an authentic Sichuan meal. It just so happened that Nick had arrived tomorrow afternoon, and everyone sat together and was lively.
The next morning, I went to the supermarket to buy ingredients for the evening. Le Havre is the most famous seafood, weighing a kilogram of small greens that have been eaten before, as well as prawns, beef and various vegetables, and picking a good bottle of red wine.
Back on the boat, I cleaned up inside and out, and in the afternoon began to prepare dinner.
Nick arrived at 4 o'clock and carried me a can of gas and a very heavy pot. The French couple visited on time at 6:30 p.m. and brought me foie gras and a bottle of white wine as a gift.
We talked about Jersey, and the couple met him. let
Mrs. Bean said that Jersey was so tall and the seat of the little kayak was so narrow, that he must have worked very hard.
Jersey told me yesterday that he had spent 40,000 euros on the trip. In fact, he tried it once last year, but he failed to complete the sailing mission due to the wrong timing. He said that if he failed again this time, he would come back next year until it succeeded.
Jersey is 40 years old this year, and it seems that kayaking and sailing at this age is somewhat unrealistic, if you change to a 20-year-old boy, you can toss it any way. But now my perception has changed somewhat.
Although young and strong have advantages, the importance of experience should not be underestimated, especially in sailing. The richer the experience, the stronger the person's heart. In the face of nature, blind bravery will only invite danger, and only by holding your breath can you go further.
Next preview
New teammates get on board, and the long-lost voyage is about to begin again! End the Passage of the English Channel and prepare for the Bay of Biscay. Will he be more powerful than Lao Gu?
Past Serials:
The Chinese guy's sailing diary (1): Buying a boat in Sweden, I emptied all my savings
Chinese Guy's Sailing Diary (II): People in this sea can only live for 30 minutes, and only those who swim through are Considered Nordics
Chinese Guy's Sailing Diary (III): Swedish island procurement, the last tranquility before the thunderstorm
Chinese Boy's Sailing Diary (IV): "Death" is understood once, and everything experienced is the most important
Chinese Boy's Sailing Diary (5): My companion decided to return to China, can I insist on sailing alone?
The Chinese guy's sailing diary (6): Entering the harbor with hail, oysters everywhere are not picked up
Chinese Guy's Sailing Diary (VII): Will the locals eat oysters dug up in German ports?
Chinese Guy's Sailing Diary (VIII): In the Netherlands where drugs are legalized, coffee shops actually sell marijuana
Chinese Guy's Sailing Diary (IX): "The World Capital" is very bold? Then you have never been to this European city
Chinese Guy's Sailing Diary (10): Travel alone to the most beautiful ancient Belgian city and search for dessert and wine
The Chinese guy's sailing diary (11) singled out 6 Belgians and broke into the English Channel alone
The Chinese Boy's Sailing Diary (XII) Normandy, France, the "King of Oysters" is so cheap
Chinese Guy's Sailing Diary (XIII) Big Fish on french docks No one fished? It seems that I still have to go out