The importance of situational awareness - Vernon

One of the difficulties of using older reference works as guide books for a trip like this is the temptation to rely on things staying the same for 5, 10 or even 20+ years.  An older guide will say 'this is a very pleasant marina and the harbourmaster Gaston speaks perfect English'. You arrive and the entrance is silted up, no sign of Gaston. The reason we are in this position is that there is little to no official information available.

The Fluviacarte (2010) showed moorings and facilities on both upstream and downstream sides of the river in our next stop, Vernon. We decided to go for the one on the upstream side, as that was the direction we were heading.  We came to a long concrete jetty with big bollards and a walkway, obviously designed for the big river cruisers, but there was a sign saying 'Welcome to Vernon'. We knew that it wasn't ideal but it was getting late, so we decided to moor safely for the night at the very end of the pontoon and review the situation in the morning.

Once everything was secured and we'd eaten we decided to go for a walk as we'd driven our car to the station car park the previous day. When we left Rouen we'd taken advantage of the locked car park to keep it safe as it had all our sails in it.

As we walked towards the Welcome sign we looked for the shore power and water promised in the guides.  Nothing. We looked up and saw, by the Welcome sign, some massive heavy duty power outlets. A bit big for a modest yacht like ours. We were now close enough to read the sign. The welcome was for the big river cruisers, not the likes of us.  It was getting dark so we went back and moved the boat using ropes so that it was at the furthest possible end of the pontoon.

We walked to the other side of the bridge over the Seine and had a look at the Yacht Club. Very run down, and the warnings of shallow water were quite obviously still applicable as you could see the bottom by some of the pontoons. The one nearest to the road bridge looked promising though. It's a very picturesque spot, right under an ancient mill built on the remains of an even older bridge. We decided we'd move the boat first thing in the morning.

I slept well that night, the familiar creaks and groans of a secured boat.  At one point there were some odd metallic creaks but I didn't pay them much mind. In the morning Igor's first words were 'look out of the port light!'. A river cruiser was moored right behind us. Just as well we moved. We decided that the most prudent thing to do was to get the boat over to the Yacht Club moorings asap, so without further ado - not even a coffee!!!! - we left and crossed to the other side of the river.

The guide books all warn of shallows near the Club. We went very slowly. The Navionics chart showed the entry as being a buoyed channel with red and green buoys, but no sign of this. We knew we'd have a couple of metres at the place we planned to moor, but on the approach the depth decreased - 2m, 1.8, 1.5, 1.2 (this is roughly what we draw with the keel up)...1.0.... fingers  crossed, breathe in...and we were through and the depth increased again.

The place we wanted to moor was tricky, right at the end of the pontoon. Only one other boat was moored, a small sailboat around 18-20', but it was slap bang in the middle. There was not quite enough room for us before it and just the right length after. When we did our recce last night we thought we might just move it slightly but it was chained to the mooring. I didn't even realise that was possible. Carefully, carefully we approached.

As well as the lack of space a few of the decking boards were broken, leaving big holes in the surface.  In broad daylight, walking on the pontoon you need to exercise caution. Coming in on a moving boat with a couple of feet of water between you and this broken mess could be a recipe for disaster.

I was standing on the port side and Igor was steering on the starboard side. We got close, but still a few feet away. My legs are short and I'm not the world's most coordinated person so Igor usually goes right up to the pontoon then stops and I step off and secure the boat. We've done it hundreds of times and it works.  Here there was no room for finesse. We had to moor before we ran out of pontoon, and ahead of us were more shallows and of course there were the broken boards to consider.

We neared the pontoon, moving at walking pace. I judged it was still too far for me to jump. We got a big closer, but now we were in the midst of the gaps in the decking. I knew when I jumped I'd have to take a few steps and that it would all be happening very quickly. How to avoid the gaps? If I missed there was a real prospect of doing myself some serious damage.

By now Igor was calling, 'Jump, jump, you know you can do it!'. He's usually better at judging this sort of thing than me so I went for it...then realised it wasn't going to work and somehow (my guardian angel was obviously working overtime) I managed to hook my left arm over the life line  and grab it with my other hand so I didn't fall in. Igor had previously rigged planks to protect the fenders when we are in the locks and I ended up sitting on one screaming 'Help!! Help!!'

A few seconds later Igor was there, trying to haul me on deck like a recalcitrant fish. I told him he should grab the boat hook and pull us in to the pontoon as it was only inches away, but I was sitting so awkwardly that I literally couldn't move. As soon as he did this and we reached land I managed to step off, glad both that nobody but him saw and annoyed there was no one else around who could have helped. Quite enough excitement for one day!

We had a discussion about what went wrong. His legs are longer than mine so he would easily have been able to step off at the point where I couldn't.  I was very thankful nothing worse had happened - I could easily have broken a bone if I'd fallen in a hole, and my phone was in my pocket so if that had got soaked the inconvenience would be immense. Learning point: don't leave the phone in my pocket when there is the slightest chance of immersion.

Once we were secured the location was idyllic.

On the morning of departure from the Yacht Club Igor decided to investigate where the shallows were so we could avoid them. He went out on his paddleboard and used the paddle to gauge the depth along the way. It turns out that the deeper water is near where the boats are moored on buoys.

When we left we sprung the boat so that the aft swung out into the river then reversed to the main channel. We had at least 3m of water all the way.

Facilities at the Yacht Club are basic, but not as basic as we thought.  We stayed there for two nights and only discovered the toilets on the morning we left, around about the same time that we noticed that there actually is shore power and water but the water tap wouldn't have been compatible with our universal garden type hose connectors. Situational awareness was sadly lacking, my reasoning is that most of the time we were leaving the boat was around dusk when it's harder to see stuff.

In summary, regarding Vernon:

Amenities: Basic. Free toilets - two unisex cubicles and a urinal. They are the 'self cleaning' (in theory) type but neither of them had any paper when I looked and they didn't look very clean to me.

There are two posts with shore power and water but on the land behind the pontoon.

When we did our recce a bunch of people were having a gathering with drink, weed and general loudness. That was on a Sunday night. Thankfully they weren't there on the nights we stayed but it's worth bearing in mind.

Marina office, boatyard and staff: N/A - none of these

Overall impression: As a place to moor there are upsides to the Yacht Club. It was free. You are right next to an incredibly picturesque disused mill built on the piles of an even older disused  bridge. The town is a 10-15 minute walk away. If you're craving curry there's an Indian restaurant, Le Panjab, not too far. When they realised we were British they put extra spice in our meal as, unlike the French, we like it hot and spicy not bland and creamy!

Like many places across the world a lot of restaurants are closed on Monday night but we found a brasserie open by the church and had a very good meal of steak au poivre and creme brule. Nice big portions too.

Claude Monet's house is about 4 km away and absolutely worth a visit. It opens at 9.30 am, we arrived at 10.00 and by 11.00 the queues were massive. It's 11 euros for an adult and worth every cent.

There are big supermarkets and a McDonalds (the worse one I've been to - toilets out of order and no hot tea or coffee) within a 10 minute drive if you have a car.

There is a SNCF station about 10-15 minutes walk from the Yacht Club with regular trains to Paris and Rouen.

Vernon is not the easiest of places to moor but once you work out where everything is it's a convenient base for exploring.

Here's a link to some videos of our sailing trips: https://www.youtube.com/@LibraSail/videos