June 2011. Full of confidence we booked a ferry crossing from Portsmouth to Le Havre, having negotiated several websites’ questions about length, height and in one case, laden weight, of the vehicle. So that only took about an hour then.
Nasty shock number one. Admittedly we were a bit late, but the prices were mostly eye watering, so in the end LD Lines won based on the contents of our wallets, and we were due to sail from Portsmouth to Le Havre on the 27th June 2011.
Nasty shock number two. At 0500am on the fateful morning, Horatio failed to start first time – for the first time. He then went on to fail enough times to induce total panic, even from B, as we contemplated calling out the rescue services to our local pub’s car park where we had kept him overnight to allow a quick, early getaway. “Embarrassing” would have been the understatement of the century.
Then he started.
We heaved a huge but quiet sigh of relief as it was still apparently just 0515am. We left, and Horatio continued to pile on the pressure by hiccupping repeatedly for the first 10 miles before finally settling down and taking us to Portsmouth. The adrenaline flowed faster than the diesel and the handbook came out as the fuel injection light flashed on and off. This did not seem good, but the book said if it didn’t stay on the indication was “meaningless”. The handbook is a translation from German about an Italian engine. Mmmm.
At Portsmouth we added caffeine and sugar to the adrenaline overload so I was completely hyped for the entire crossing and incapable of stress-free driving for the rest of the day. B drove.
Horatio was in France! I didn’t really care if we broke down now – at least we had got that far, and the weather was hot enough to cause us to stop and change clothes en route. So we made it to our first stop, Villedieu-les-Poeles in Normandy. More about that to come shortly.
