We set the alarm clock yesterday morning, intending to leave St Vaast at 0700 and cross the Seine Bay to Le Havre, but when we woke the wind was whistling and rain was hammering down, and the weather forecast for today was a lot better, so we decided to stay in St Vaast for another day.

We spent it doing chores and dodging showers. Once the lock gates closed at mid morning, and we could no longer escape, the wind dropped. No doubt we could have gone quite safely, but it would have been wet and uncomfortable, so we didn’t regret the decision.

This morning things looked much better: a clearer sky, a lighter wind from a more helpful direction and a flatter sea. There were still some formidable shower clouds around, and the forecast was still mentioning thunderstorms, but we were able to silence the engine as soon as we cleared the harbour, and the boat set off on the 50-odd mile crossing as if she was in even more of a hurry than we were.

We made fantastic progress, even when the tide was against us. Two of the shower clouds that were scudding around had our name on, but in each case, we only caught a corner of the downpour. And the second one – the blackest cloud of the day – kindly went further out to sea before turning thundery.

The skipper was wearing oilie bottoms and boots for the first time since leaving home – the navigator skulked below, wash-boards in, during the showers. Reefs went rapidly in and out as the clouds came and went, bringing gusts as they arrived and lulls as they left. There was a rainbow behind us as we left St Vaast, and another, more spectacular version as we berthed in Le Havre.

We never really intended to come here. Our preferred target was Fecamp, providing a more direct route, and also home to one of our favourite restaurants, but sadly the port is discouraging visitors at the moment because it is hosting a major regatta for giant multihulls next weekend – and has taken all the fingers off the visitors’ pontoon to accommodate them.

So instead we have come to Le Havre, which we have often passed, but have never visited before. We plan to spend a day here tomorrow, to find out what we have missed, before heading on to Dieppe the day after.

In the meantime, we are celebrating a really enjoyable day’s sailing – one of the best of the summer so far – and also another significant milestone. Today we crossed the Greenwich Meridian, and our longitude is now measured in degrees east, not west, as it has been since early May.

We really are getting close to home now…