The early morning in Switzerland was very clear as the thunderstorms of the previous night had blown everything away. The view along the valley & lake to Zurich was marvelous, better than the day before. I really enjoyed the flight back through Switzerland to Mulhouse, we were in no rush so enjoyed the scenery.
Lots of discussion in Mollis revolved around the forecast for the channel for midday. Everyone was expecting it to be worse than we had enjoyed so far so we wanted to press on and get as far north as possible from Mulhouse.
We got to Mulhouse before the locals so had to go self serve on the fuel ;-)
Quickly off again for a flight towards Reims and a stop at a small friendly place Ed recommended - Equiry. Again a brilliant flight, viz starting to go a bit but smooth and quiet without the ATC on Sundays.
At esquire a little old lady in a floral dress wondered out with her clipboard to serve l'essance. Very friendly and fantastically French, what a great place.
On our taxi out a Robin called "vent derrier" so we bolted together across the huge grass field and into the air. Great fun but a smoother bit with short grass would have been better.
Our next stop was to be St Omer for fuel and then on to the Channel if we could, but then came the rain...
Quickly after Equiry the cloud started to thicken and the sky darken from the west. As we passed west of Reims we got a little turbulence and a bit of drizzle. We were down to 1200' but the going was still good. As we were on the micro frequency we could hear the Jab boys behind us and Chris T with the Eurostar in front of us. Everyone was faced with the same front from the west and we were headed straight for it!
As we passed north of Reims we found ourselves in intermittent drizzle and occasional heavy rain. We decided enough was enough and headed for St Quentin. Which is what Chris had decided and already turned back! Ed had already mentioned Laon before setting off as a suitable place to get stuck. We let everyone know on the frequency and went in to Laon. Within a few minutes we were joined by Chris and the Swansea C42s and the waiting began...
Shortly before landing we had spoken to Clive and Kevin in the Jabs. They were the other side of Reims and facing the same weather. Choosing safety over courage they turned north for Charleville.
The last hour was quite a contrast to the previous legs of the journey, low cloud and rain forcing us low and blocking the route. Later in the day our 3 ship, Ed & John, Nic & myself tried to get through in the clearing weather but at St Quentin cloud was down to the deck. Back we went to Laon to log a local flight.
Into town we went. We had another good night in a passable motel made by the excellent company.
