Back in Galicia

Goodness gracious me! I am astounded to find that it has been 5 years since I was last in Galicia and what is worst my Blogs are only updated to 2018 and not 2019 when I returned here last. Much water has passed under the keel of Seascape since then and I need a slap for not keeping my diary up to date. To this end I am attempting to make that right. Here goes, full of good intentions!

To the Azores!

As the ICC rally was coming to an end we were faced with a challenge. Should we head North against the wind back to France or Galicia or Should we continue West in the direction of the Azores and then later benefit from the returning Trades back to Europe. We had time and so we decided to follow the latter pasth and we are so glad we did..

Madeira

2023 saw us focussed on the Ocean Cruising Club (OCC) and their relationship with the Irish Cruising Club (ICC) The ICC wanted to celebrate the anniversary of one of their earliest members Conor OBrien (No apostrophe) who in 1923 started his voyage around the world, stopping off in Madeira en route for potatoes and wine! They put in place plans to celebrate the centenary and invited the OCC, consequently in the Winter of 2022/23 we were engage in a number of Zoom calls to participate in the planning of this great event. Click on the link below to see the article in the Yachting Press.

Me and Spanish Wine

Having arrived in A Corunna, the next couple of days were spent just relaxing, swimming in the cold Atlantic water and enjoying the Spanish sun accelerated by the improved angle to the vertical creating a lot of heat compared to the French sun and certainly the watery English one.

After a day or so the wanderlust returned and I wanted to go and see the city of Corunna. So I hauled up the anchor and crossed the Ria towards the city.

5^th August

Into the harbour there were two marinas, the rather grand Royal Yacht Club and the standard commercial one the Port La Corunna Nautico which I selected and received another two free Passeporte Escales nights.

The fridge was failing again and so in desperation I returned to the Capitainerie to help me seek out a fridge technician. Much to my surprise I found out that an engineer could come that afternoon. Sure enough they arrived and after some pigeon discussion on my behalf they cu off the dryer/filter and brazed on a new one, they checked the pressure and fired up the fridge and much to my surprise it worked better than ever. The cost was reasonable too. Much better service than I have ever had in the UK.

I then spent a happy couple of days walking the town, its old walls and enjoying the musical culture of this pretty city. Keen to carry out more exploration before my return to France in September I decided to move on to see the other Rias as far as possible , the first destination being the Ria Camarinas a little way further South.

The forecasts in this area seem to be variable in their accuracy, the forecasted N/NW wind was absolutely on the nose with fog in the offing too.

On arrival in the Ria I was soon keen to avoid the fish factory and its associated smells and dropped anchor elsewhere further up to the head of the Ria.

MAYDAY RELAY

I was just preparing some dinner down below when I heard an enormous crunch outside of the boat and some crying and shouting. Popping my head out of the boat I could see nothing unusual around me anywhere.

Finally I realised that the noises were coming from the forest hill someway above me. I could just see the edges of a road and what appeared to be part of a car in the trees.

The shouting and the crying of children became more clear and I spotted a small outboard powered fishing boat and tried to attract their attention, however they refused to acknowledge me.

As the shouting became more insistent and the traffic was not stopping on the road above and without a pumped up tender to explore myself I decided to call in a Mayday Relay to the coastguard to see if a local police car could investigate.

Eventually I drummed up a helicopter a lifeboat and a lot of brouhaha and eventually an ambulance and a couple of police cars. After some time I received a call back from the coastguard to say that the family had been taken safely to hospital.

My first real Mayday and nothing at all to do with boats, at least it went reasonably.

8^th August

Decided to leave the mooring and head into Port de Camarinas and wander into the market. It rained in the afternoon and so I did a spot of logistics planning for Sept and Oct, my teaching commitments in France. Lets hear it for Rome2 Rio what a great app that is I wholly recommend it.

In the evening the Redonnites headed into town for Tapas and a great evening of laughter and joking about.

We agreed to plan a rafted up curry night for the following evening and rafted up in the Ria to have a very convivial evening. Three anchors were laid out and the boats rafted together. Unfortunately during the night the two boats with trip lines managed to wind them around their own keels and tripped the anchors with the result that in the morning when I slipped anchor to move off, the rest of the raft started drifting backwards.  Jittery John and Adam had to unwind the trip lines from the propellers and the rudder which they eventually did well done.

This story has given Adam something to dine out on for his CA talks since!

On the way out of the Ria I was met by a host of dolphins accompanying me or more likely on a fishing trip. Either way it was very special

10^th August

Ria de Muros – arrived at the port which was half full and moored up to be confronted by the Harbour Master asking me what on earth I was doing! He was animated and quite cross that I had not called in on approach and for mooring assistance.

I replied slightly tongue in cheek that it was I though lunch time and I didn’t want to interrupt his lunch. I told him smilingly that he was clearly grumpy enough already and we hit it off immediately.

This was my introduction to the port Marinero who was called Pedro and we became good acquaintances even taking coffee together in the local taverna. 

Muros

Pedro enjoyed cultivating his brusque persona and even more enjoyed the humour of some of us Brits with his excellent English. He would get particularly het up when talking understandably of the sailors rowing into the marina from their moorings outside and demanding to be let out of the locked gates. Most of these visitors expected to be accommodated for free which I agree with him, is entirely unreasonable.

12^th August to Portosin

I travelled to Portosin in the fog which was only 6 miles and spent a couple of days in the town and enjoyed the very fine yacht club at the Real Club Nautico where John and Debs and I enjoyed a very fine lunch in the dining room. The team at the RCNC are the most welcoming of any club I have ever visited and could not do enough to help us all in perfect English with a CA discount too

14^th August into the Ria de Xufre off the island beach

15^th August to Camarinal Marina for the festival de Carmen

This was an interesting event with the intimation of something happening as every few minutes a fishermen was letting off rocket bangers every few minutes. Never have I heard such continuously loud percussions it was extraordinary.

In the evening and in the rain the fishing boats formed up for their procession out of the harbour, on the lead boat was the clergy in full get up and with a statue of Carmen on board along with tens of happy supporters burdening the boat heavily and way beyond her designed water line.

16^th August to Vila Garcia (Temporarily)

I wanted to get myself a local Sim card for my phone as the UK supplier had caught up with my extended absence and was willing to charge me for roaming from this point on. So I went to the biggest local town and discovered Armageddon. There were thousands of young people who shared the benefit of being trashed by drink, perhaps heavier substances and all sharing the common trait of being soaked through. Welcome to the water festival said the marineiro.

I tried to navigate the hordes into the town centre, bought myself a Sim card and within 50 minutes I was back at the marina giving my apologies to the marineiro and as quick as I can departing for somewhere more sane. And certainly more quiet.

I decided to head for Rianxo on the charts marked as a marina and just across the bay. I should have taken the time to check the CA Captain’s Mate APP which described Rianxo as a functioning fishing port with a few local resident pontoons for local boats.  The Marineiro was surprised to be called in my poor Spanish and wandered out eventually and directed me to a pontoon which was heavily downwind on approach standing ready to take my lines.

Rianxo

Warning – when someone wants to take your lines be very careful

I stupidly not only followed his instruction but let him take a line onto the pontoon which he did but his line tying was so poor that my bow again hit the pontoon walkway. Not only that the stern was being blown out and I had to leave the wheel and throw an emergency line around the pontoon cleat to wind the stern in.

NOTE TO SELF – TWO BOW IMPACTS IN TWO DIFFERENT COUNTRIES CAUSED BY HELP NOT HELPING! - FOR GODS SAKE MAN – LEARN YOUR LESSON!

I wandered into town which was shut as it was a bank holiday and so just staying overnight I resolved to write an update on CA and not to return again.

I needed to attend a teleconference with my solicitor and my Sim had worked only for 24 hours so I returned to Vila Garcia a town now incredibly entirely cleaned and hoovered after the purgatory of the previous debauchery. I stayed long enough for a quick call and then headed back out.

17^th August

To Combarro Marina which is a very well established marina located next to a picturesque town with many very pretty fishing cottages situated on narrow winding streets.

On the Saturday I went to visit Bruce and Deirdre in Sanxenxo town via taxi which cost Eu20 each way and managed a lovely day helping out Bruce in fixing his windlass and lunching in the town which made my eyes water seeing the density of sun bathing people on the beach. It looked like an Emperor penguin farm in the sunshine.

I managed to buy a replacement shower sump and pump in the local chandlery for a reasonable price and when I got back to the boat I fitted it quickly so showers on board again for me!

Now I began to like Combarro very much but what I had not bargained for was the holiday spirit of the tourists. I had been allocated a spot near the harbour office and the showers which seemed very convenient. What I found out was that the mooring was also 10 feet away from the night life.

Now I don’t mind a good party, but this feature was one which I am never going to forget. The music started -  I kid you not at 15 minutes after midnight and continued until almost 5 am. My ear plugs worked a little but with the hull vibrating with the amplification it was pretty hard to sleep. The first night was a complete shock and the second I was slightly more prepared I even stayed up until 2 am to watch the band and drink late night Gin and tonics by the bucket. Either because or despite of the gin still could not stay up until the end of the set though – what a light weight I turned out to be.

Of course the counter side to this late night shenanigans is that nobody in the holiday industry gets up until after midday.

Ole!

Bound for Biscay

On Saturday afternoon I made a decision, Either to go North back to base on the Villaine or to go South to Spain, I flipped a coin - I would head south towards Spain.

I had a few days to fill before the frequently reviewed weather forecast would improve for long enough to give me a comfortable sail with wind in the right direction. I don’t believe I have every looked so intently at the long term prognosis and from as many sources as I did to prepare for this voyage. I was really getting heavily invested into analysis paralysis!

Playing in the Gironde

To use up the days before my selected weather window. I decided to spend a day or so on the Gironde River, first I crossed from Royan to Port Medoc to explore the marina there and had a look around the town, to be honest not much to see there. In truth, having taken the decision to cross Biscay, I was getting bored kicking around waiting for the clock to tick around till Tuesday when the weather would free me to finally depart for the voyage across Biscay. It was oh so tempting to just to cast off there and then.

Prep for Sea Royan

Departure Time

1st August 2018

Engine Hours 2068 Log 29809

Back in Royan departure was scheduled for 10 am. Having paid the Capitainerie and had a long shower, we slipped at 09:55 first stop the fuel pontoon to top up the tanks and fill a jerry can with diesel. It was strange tucking away the fenders with a mindset that I did not know exactly they would be brought out again and tidying the boat up somehow meant a lot more important with a long voyage ahead. The sails were hoisted, the lines tidied away with great care and after an hour and settling in, I was making good progress westward.

The forecast for the next few days had been for Northerly winds of about 4 to 5 for the first 30 hours and then a gradual veer towards Easterlies. I therefore set my strategy to keep reaching offshore with a Northerly wind until later the next day when the wind was forecast to back towards the East when I would gybe south and rach on port tack towards the Northern Spanish coast.

Leaving the shore the wind was still light and I hoped that heading offshore it would build through the day and at 11:54 Sails were hoisted and the engine turned off.

The wind soon developed into a moderate force 4 with smooth waves providing very comfortable sailing. Seascape behaved admirably and together we carried full white rig - Genoa staysail and mainsail and managed to keep a consistent 6 to 7 kn for the whole day with little effort, this was glorious ocean sailing at its best.

Wind Pilot the Reliable Crew Member

I watched and logged the barometer which remained nice and steady at 1023

Although the weather was fine I admit I did struggle to eat very much that first day with a special combination of excitement and anxiety and my anticipation building towards the singlehander's watch system for the evening time.

At 1900 I recorded in the log that I had just seen a tuna leaping from the sea followed by a pod of dolphins which I took to be a good omen. I tried to get a weather forecast on the SSB, however there was too much electrical background and I struggled to get a readable image on the laptop.

At 2000 the log was reading 90 miles down and I decided that I would have some dinner and prepare for the night watch. I checked the boat over and walked around the deck with my harness on and a completed the check of all the electronics and the lights to make sure everything was safe for a night passage.

There had been little traffic all day in fact it was fair to say that I had only seen one other boat in the distance and my concern through the night with the avoidance of fishing boats and other vessels likely to be in the way and so I set up all the electronic help I had, configuring the radar and the AIS to warn me in case of any impending collisions.

I called home on the sat phone and asked if there was any change to the weather forecast from this morning, after a number of calls on the base phone network including to other experienced yachtsmen it was agreed that the forecast was holding, which was excellent news. I have to say the quality of voice reception on the sat phone leaves a lot to be desired but the text system works great.

As the Sun went down I made myself a bed in the saloon and decided that I would get an hours sleep and get a bit of rest before the night's darkness fell properly again.

It was difficult to get any kind of rest that night and my stomach was still turning and my subconscious warning me that at some point I would doze off and crash into an unlit fishing vessel. As the sunset faded into the sky and the stars came out I was able to see the Milky Way shining and it's incredible beauty with no light pollution in the sky, as the darkness became more and more dark blue the shooting stars became brighter and more frequent.

There are a few places now in the world where the sky is properly dark enough to ensure that the landscape of the sky is seen from horizon to horizon. The faintest stars become visible, the brightest stars become so bright that it's almost possible to read by them it truly is majestic to be at sea and I felt very privileged indeed if this is ocean sailing, I am in love.

The Spectacular Sky

Of course as always, good things come to an end, two or three hours later the moon rose and gradually painted the sky black covering most of the stars as it lifted higher and higher and we sailed together towards the west playing in the moonbeams.

That first night I was becoming acclimatised to the experience of being almost entirely on my own in the ocean with the occasional loom of lights from distant fishing boats. Until midnight, none of them came close enough to worry my AIS or my RADAR despite my concerns about keeping watch. My wind pilot conscientiously managing the boat on a steady course through the night. Every time I looked out through the companionway I saw my buddy playing close attention to the course of the boat with absolute diligence. I was free to update the charts on the chart table check the instruments and the only thing that gave me any anxious moments was the depth alarm which started to make me jump soundly telling me we were in less than a metre of water. How could that be when we are out in the middle of Biscay with a minimum depth of water in excess of 5 kilometres under the keel. Eventually I checked the chart one more time and turned the damned shallow alarm off. Obviously the depth sounder did not have enough power to send a ping all the way to the bottom of the ocean and was guessing where it was showing a depth under the shallow alarm limit and jerking me awake each time.

At midnight I noted some lights on the horizon and I altered course to sail around a small cluster of fishing boats. (45’18.9N 3’54.73W)

At 0530 I furled the genoa as the wind was moving more to our stern and the genoa was collapsing more frequently and a couple of hours later I started the engine to charge the batteries at 1500 RPM. Log reading was 144 miles under our belt.

The morning kept me busy as with the wind behind and a preventer rigged on the mainsail, the genoa was not happy hiding in the wind shadow of the main and for a couple of hours I tried goosewinging and failed after an hour or so of motoring I decided that it was time to hoist the spinnaker at 17:30.

At 2110 I decided that the spinnaker had to be doused and so the engine came on at 1500 RPM again with 232 miles under our belt I felt that we had achieved a pretty reasonable run and could afford a more relaxing night. Either way I did not want to be single handedly playing with spinnakers at night.

The log then has entries through the night at hourly intervals. I managed to create a rhythm of sleeping for 50 minutes between look out and log entry which seemed to suit me and so long as I slept in the same position on the starboard saloon bunk with my head back on the pillow in the same place I seemed to be able to suspend and resume my sleep without ill effects. In fact I recorded that as I woke up in the morning I felt that I had had a really good sleep.

At 0400 I recorded that we were again approaching shallower water as expected and the depth was reducing to less than 150m. The log entry reads “Had a couple of good cat naps much improved on last night, approaching shallower water.”

At 0830 the log entry showed a gybe onto starboard broad reach wind 12K NE log reading 309 Miles run.

At 1100 the log reads shook out lazy jack that was stuck on batten pocket 245 degrees compass at 6.4K 43’50.79N 007’53.76W motoring again offshore from Ortiguiera Spain. Mobile signal has returned on phone. What was even more exciting was that I could get some music on the stereo radio. Later I sent a text to Adam and Lynne on Charisma to see exactly where they were and to give them an ETA of 17:30 all things being equal.


At 1200 the curse of landfall manifested itself in the form of …… FOG so again the Radar and AIS were configured for a guard zone, the grab bag was checked one more time and a continuous watch was established as best as I could. Barometer 1020 which was good news and the fog seemed to be hanging around the coast line which was disappointing as my first sight of land would have to wait!

Fog on the Spanish shore lifts

By 1300 I had dodged one yacht, one fishing vessel and one cargo ship quite a game of Nintendo for one hour.

At 1500 fog was now cleared and I was approaching my selected waypoint at Cabo Prior 353 miles under our belt and only18 miles to run to the anchorage off A Corunna.

By 1600 log reads “At next WP into Bay de Ensenada where Adam and Lynne are moored”

Target ETA Party Invitation

1740 Arrived at Bay de Ensenada de Mara met up with Charisma and Debs and John on Shiraz. As I passed them seeking an anchorage, I apologised for being 15 minutes later than my forecasted ETA provided by text in the early morning!

Log entry

Found anchor pin was bent like a banana and could not let go anchor so borrowed a convenient small sledge hammer from Adam and thumped it straight. Let anchor go in 5m of water

Trip 373 Miles
Engine Hours 18
Total Time 56 Hours

Average Speed 6.6K






Off to Charisma for drinks and supper

Party Time

x

Arzal Lock

I thought it would be fun to post a couple of videos of me single handing into the Arzal lock on the Villaine.

The lock is renowned as a busy throughway between the ports of Arzal / Camoel, Roche Bernard on the Vilaine River and the sea and at certain times it is crammed. Particularly busy times are last lock in and first lock out in the morning. Of course nearly everyone wants to proceed out of the river around high tide.

The lock keeper keeps his cool and manages normally to coordinate everyone, particularly those "diagonal entrants" to the lock with good humour.

Here are two videos to give a little flavour to the joi d'vivre.

Foleux me

On April 7th in the nick of time Seascape arrived in Foleux. Just an over night before the 6am departure to St Malo for the ferry.

The week previously had been punctuated by frequent checks of the weather and the news from the Arzal lock which had for the previous week determined that the Villaine was unnavigable due to the strong flood currents in the river from the incessant rain over the last few weeks.

Arzal Lock with the Torrent

Redon Bridge with the high levels of water

If things had not worked out, we had been willing to leave Seascape in Redon by the grace of Antoine, the harbour master who shrugged his Breton shoulders and commented "c'est la vie" but on the last day the floods abated and off we went through the river, past the bridge at Cran and on to Foleux. We initially moored on the hammerhead offside of a large yacht to unload as much as we could into the car. We then picked up a marina dinghy and towed it to the mooring buoy where we tied up fore and aft using our own lines and put the kettle on.

The alarm went off at 04:00 and we rowed back to the car park in the drizzle which was less than pleasant. At least it was all downstream.

Passing friends (Adam and Lynne) offer a toast to Seascape on her mooring

Here in Redon

27km up the Villaine River is the town of Redon. The Villaine River that has upon it Arzal Lock, Roche Bernard, Rieux and is considered in some unkind parts as England Sur Mer. But this far up river is a different thing altogether. Proper French France.

 Having travelled up a number of rivers in my life, I have never ever seen a river to compare with it. Two and a bit things made it particularly special - the first is that after Arzal Lock there is no tide and almost, almost no current whatsoever. This means that there is no rise and fall to worry about so the depth is the depth. If you park your boat somewhere, subject to wind there is no drift and so where you leave the boat is where you will find it.

 The second thing is that for a river it is delightfully consistent in depth throughout. Almost 4m depth which makes it an absolute joy to navigate up. The third thing (of two) is that it is absolutely blindingly beautiful, adorable and delightful.As well as being almost entirely unused and so you can traverse the length of it and see no-one. It is therefore assuredly a place where you can travel up it and not need to share it with anyone. I know of nowhere else can you go up a river in a yacht with Willow and Oak trees lining each bank and cows down at the river bed drinking bovinely. Where else can you determine to just anchor within ten feet of the cow feeder! Oh and finally all the gunk on the hull and propeller, all the fouling, snuffs it and drops off. A free scrub off. The river is deep right up to the entry to the Redon port where it reduces to under 2m and so we have to scuff in through the soft mud which has built up there.

Once in the port there are finger pontoons both sides

Port de Redon

 

Benodet towards the South

28/8 After a few days of R and R it was about that time to go out with the intention of heading towards Lorient. However it was such a still day that the opportunity was irresistible to me to visit Les Iles de Glenans  home of the renowned eponymous sailing school.

Proposed and actual route

  A gentle motor put to sea and I joined the early morning throng on the way including a couple of French fishing boats that thought it rather fun to slalom me back and forth one to the left and the other to the right and vice versa. Well was on holiday so what the hell I just ignored them and let them cut me up nonchalantly. Arriving at Glenans there are many mooring options and I chose the one with the least traffic just off the beach at Ile de Penfret  The water as almost clear and this was close to achieving one of my long held ambitions. To anchor in water clear enough to watch the hook all the way down. Well a blurry view as it hit the sand anyway.

Glenans Iles de Penfret

Anchorage

 I enjoyed a late coffee and a baguette and had a lovely swim. The hull needed a check to see how the fouling was doing and I wanted to check the propeller and rope cutter which both looked pretty clean and fresh. I took a dive down to check the anchor which was sat gently nudged in the clean sand. After drying off it was decision time, either stay and enjoy the afternoon or head further South with a target of going to St Piriac Sur Mer which was about four hours away and could be made on the evening tide. I lifted the anchor and sailed off the mooring sedately past the relaxed boaters and off to the South. It was a hot day with little wind and an obvious opportunity to dig out the cruising chute. The sniffer was hoisted and it was simplicity itself to trim the sail and see  it in its full glory for the first time.

Chute

Happy bunny

  It was most relaxing to ghost along at 4/5 knots with the wind on the beam for the first time this holiday. Of course good things and wind have to come to an end and sure enough after about 90 minutes the wind dropped and so the snuffer was dropped and stowed away and on went the engine. As it was quiet I had been below and been doing the washing up. I awarded myself the Muppetry award for leaving the tap on and flooding the sink top and the fridge! At 16:30 our position was just South of Iles de Groix making over 6.7knots according to the log heading for the Pointe de Quiberon. I had decided to pass on Lorient as it seemed to me to be again still rather busy so elected instead to go around the pointe to Port Haliguen where I managed to find a slot on the long pontoon inside the entrance for the night which was indeed rather warm. Arrived at 20:13 note to self remember Port Haliguen is 44 euros in Summer I.e. Before the September change, not to be used unless absolutely necessary!

Magic Morbihan

Entrance to the Morbihan

I have been told that Poole harbour is one of the biggest natural harbours in the world! Well watch out because the Morbihan rivals it easily. The harbour has according to the guides approximately 60 islands and many ports marked as anchorages on the chart which the pilot books have not yet caught up with number of mooring buoys that have been laid to fill the gaps.
Notwithstanding this there are still plenty of potential places to quietly anchor for the day or the over night. Much talk is made of the aggressive tides within the harbour, however having visited at the end of August it was neaps and so we were less bothered by current. The approach to the Morbihan is also relatively straight forward so long as a good watch is kept of traffic and the plentiful collision opportunities offered.

What certainly amazed me on approach was the coast number of small motor boats containing les pecheurs who drift around on the tide casting their lines with abandon and when satisfied will then zoom off without any care for vessels around them. It made me smile to think of the offence taken by vessels in the Solent when a motor boat trundles past creating wash. Well if we're more experienced in le facon Francois we would certainly complain much less. It seems that everyone in France has access to a boat and at the end of August they were all out.

Navigating seul abord and keeping a watch is exhausting in this whirlwind. Fortunately in September everyone disappears back to work and the Morbihan returns to a more relaxed style that suits the exploration of the islands. Having entered the Morbihan without a detailed plan I was then challenged to find a place to stop over, not for lack of choice you understand, more because there was a nagging feeling that around every corner might be a spot even more beautiful.


 Eventually I picked up a buoy that had lines covered in green slime and looked untended. I found aas a relaxing spot to rest for the evening without the need to go ashore. From the chart it was described as Arradon which now has a marina, ironically just around the next bend! A quiet night in a buoy was very suitable and in fact I stayed for 24 hours before deciding to
explore Vannes.      






Vannes is the main city of the Morbihan created around a gentle mix of architecture, Breton stonework leads via meandering lanes to Tudor style timber framed buildings and attractive squares and arches. It is a fine place to spend some time people watching, when I first went there it was a little drizzly.

Private Island private slipway

L'aberwrach and South

Reading pilot guides and magazines is great prep, but it can fill one with great trepidation The Chanel de Four and the Raz du Sein are two such places that strike fear into grown men, there be dragons here! Renowned for the challenging conditions in strong winds and with tide running against the wind, has generated a fortune in lighthouse photographs

Chenal de four

 Of course one might be terrified of the Needles and the Alderney Race likewise. Yet we transit those places many times with planning, care and preparation so that is exactly how I treated these dragons. The time of departure from L'aberwrach was set for 05:30 which allowed us to approach the Chenal de Four just as the ebb was commencing . As we left the river we were able to see the true landscape in good visibility and it brought home the pressure that we would have felt had we but known a couple of days before. Sometimes relative innocence is bliss! The weather was again sunny and with little wind so fog was always a worry, particularly now we were inducted in the oceanic tradition of this coastline. As we worked our way westwards we were aware of the increasing rhythm of the Atlantic Ocean as the swell took over from the channel chop. By my estimation the swell has a wavelength of about 12 seconds. It was a very different sensation even on a still day to be riding up and down the "houle de mer" translated as sea swell. This is the wave action that is generated over thousands of miles of fetch, born out in the Western Atlantic that has almost completed its journey to impact the coastlines of Europe or perhaps to continue all the way up the English channel to merge with the channel chop. Rounding towards Ouessant in the sunshine we were able to stay relatively close to the mainland coast and watch the few small inhabited places on the Western most part of France. We could clearly see the island of Ouessant in the good visibility as we jumped on the South going travelator to the sunshine. It was pleasant enough to to leave the autopilot on and sit on the foredeck to watch the world go by as we almost effortlessly were squeezed like toothpaste further south. It was not long before we were able to see the Rade de Brest appearing which would have been a delight to explore but now we're in the outside lane of the motorway we were not going to pull over.

Chenal de Four

In fact we were so much in the outside lane that we were approaching th islands on the western side of the channel and had to be careful not to get shoved down on to their drying rocks off the lie de Beniguet which could easily have spoilt our weekend! Soon were were through the Chenal and looking towards the Raz as our next major waypoint as we passed Morgat and the Bay de Douarnenz to our East. The weather was still holding bright with only a gentle North Easterly developing and so we continued motor sailing in the Sun. A couple of hours later we were knocking on the door of the Pointe de Raz and all was looking rosy, however it seems that we had made rather too slowly on our progress and the tide was at this point flooding North and was starting to slow us down. What started as a slight irritation, quickly became a big deal as we increased engine revs to punch ourselves South against the tide which was by the minute increasing in strength. At this point an option would have been to tuck into Douarnenez and wait out the next tide but we could not afford to lose another 6 hours and so we forever our way through the wind was now south easterly and with full sail and max revs we eventually crept to the south of the Raz until a point where we could cut back in to the bay of Audierne and hug the coast line which we did by tacking in once we felt we had enough clearance my to get sucked backwards into the Raz. at 12:00 After avoiding by the skin of our tooth the suction of the Raz we leebowed the tide on starboard tack up the Bay of Audierne with a hope that we would be lifted around the bay. The autopilot was set to follow the wind angle and each time we got a lift of 10 degrees or so we got a warning to reset the pilot. This worked for about three hours and then the wind dropped and so it was back to the engine to keep up the pace. At 16:30 we were off the Pointe de Penmarch, having worked relentlessly to the South against the adverse tide and looked forward to making around the Pointe in order to make for Benodet or Glenans if the weather forecast supported it. Unfortunately the Meteo from all directions pointed towards a level of Swell which would make it less comfortable so we bore off in a weakening wind towards Benodet which was fetched at 19:50. As the Capitainerie was shut we fetched up on a mooring buoy off the office for the night, it was found out next morning that the buoy was not managed by Benodet Marina and so we moved onto the pontoon and since we could not find a recipient for the mooring fee it went into the boisonnerie (drinks fund).

Bridge at Benodet

Benodet is an enjoyable place to have a sojourn and the town is a short walk along the sea front with a very pleasant beach. Across the river is Sainte Marine which is a picture book village and has a ferry which runs back and forth to Benodet. Not much to do there and the walk around town takes approx 15 minutes and then I caught the ferry back and exchanged photos with my daughter in Melbourne via FaceTime. How the twenty first century works!

St Marine

The Port

Proving to my daughter I was in France

 

Bloscon to L'aberwrach

Getting used to early starts now, this one was 06:30 as we motored out of the marina we took the opportunity to fill with diesel, although the Coop bank decided to throw a spanner in the works but luckily called me soon after terminating the request for fuel and I was able to get them to reenable the card, they are efficient at this stuff - the problem being that the unmanned fuel kiosks always take a payment for the max volume allowed and then if one uses less it gets credited. This does make the bank jump when they see a fuel bill for €350 and they smell a rat. Anyway the slight delay allowed the ferry to arrive and we were easily released from the marina. It was a good morning with a high tide departure to travel inside the Isle de Batz before turning further west. This also save about 3 miles as well

Batz channel

We followed a Russina yacht in and were surprised when he stopped right in front of us. We motored gingerly past wondering whether he had somehow grounded, however it appeared that he wanted to play follow my leader and once we were passed he followed us out turn for turn. The channel is easily navigable and will marked with a spectacular causeway leading to the launching ramp for the fisherman which looks to be at least a third of a mile long and wide enough for one vehicle. How on earth the French determine whether to launch or recover is anyone's guess and I bet there is some fun mid summer. So out into a pretty windless sea and a gentle turn onto a Westerly course with L'aberwrach about 35 miles away we motored along the coast which after Roscoff is not so picturesque. After an hour or so it became even less pretty as visibility dropped to 200m and then down to 100m or less. This is where the toys really earn their money. Having put the chart plotter in the cockpit allows the helmsman to keep a look out using eyes, ears and radar with AIS. The chart plotter can track targets and sounds an alarm when any vessel visible approaches within a defined distance or time.

Heads up

The digital radar was able to see reflections for targets as small as fishing floats and where a vessel had AIS it was able to use both radar and AIS to superimpose the radar blob with an AIS target and warn of the closest point of approach CPA and time. Sounds ideal don't it? Unfortunately if an hypothetical vessel were to be a French yacht without radar, without AIS and in this case without lights or fog sound signals it could sneak up unseen. As one did passing close down our port side. I am not sure who had the biggest look of surprise me or them. It goes to show that stupidity will always beat preparation hands down. Either way as fas as they appeared, they disappeared astern and I thanked my guardian angel for her good will. There was not even the faintest blip on radar for a 35 foot yacht. Be warned. The next challenge was to make the entrance of the channel at L'aberwrach without going to far and without planting the boat on any of the many rocks which would be daunting in good vis. This required some careful pilotage with waypoints, the use of the autopilot to track minimising XTE or cross track error and relying on it to keep as out of trouble whilst eyes were peeled to avoid French fishing boats of all sizes. In addition much use was made of the fog horn just in case. Our sounds were all we ever heard!

A Safer approach to port

The echo sounder was also used to make sure that were where we thought we were and traces of target reflectors ahead of us were carefully tracked to determine whether they were coming at us or moving away. Who says boys can't do more than one thing at once? Approaching point 5 on the waypoint list the fog lifted to reveal a sunny day and a rocky terrain with a number of sailing school boats out having fun.it was a good thing I did not anticipate that as I would probably have run away.  It was easy to follow the channel and not hard to observe that the French had moored a large customs cutter slap bang in the middle of the channel. End to end it seemed to leave about a boat width to squeez past, hey ho after all we had been through this ain't no thing! Seascape was able to be moored up inside the breakwater in line with all of the advice researched. The alternative to moor on the channel side had been commented as most uncomfortable by all authors. As we arrived the Douaniers were climbing all over a French boat alongside us, they politely stopped and picked up our lines. When I asked if they wanted to come on board they politely demurred. It was interesting to see that of the entire crew, few actually knew how to tie a line around a cleat , the French customs seem not to worry much about boat handling. Perhaps they rotate people in and out of the office, nice job!   Shopping in L'aberwrach is limited so the local bus took a tour up to Lannalis The neighbouring village which was only 3 or so km, but UP the hill and so the bus seemed like a better idea than walking. Having taken the easy and pretty route, it was only a few minutes until the bus driver notified the bus customers (3/4 of us) of our arrival. We walked on into the centre of town which took about eight seconds to find the Spar which was located in a small space two garages wide! Well they at least had bread, cheese and ham so not all bad, 12 minutes after it was time to mooch at the bus stop waiting for the bus back. Pretty but small Brittany.

West more West

Leaving hell

Up early for departure at 06:10 from Lezardrieux before the dawn which in August is getting ever later. A quiet departure from the river and out to the channel with a target of getting to Trebeurden approx 30 miles West.

 The journey down the river in the near dark was somewhat anxious as the marks were sometimes lit but the moored boats were somewhat less obvious. Anyway the coffee was hot and breakfast of croissants with cheese and ham were warming so it could not get much better! Leaving Brehat the sun rose behind us and the see looked like flowing lava in our wake . It looked a little hellish but rather spectacular.

Molten lava

              The sun rose into a rather lovely sunny day, albeit with little wind and so we motor sailed towards Sept Isles passing the point at which we had turned back earlier in the week and making much better progress. The tide was now ebbing and we were making a good 7k in the right direction and we were sailing now which was lovely in a SSW 3/4 almost on the nose but just freed enough to be enjoyable.

 At 09:30 the log was update to read N of Sept Isles and at that point it was decided that Morlaix would be a stretch destination and save a day.

14:30 the tide was still pushing us along but would soon change so we tacked inshore to try and make the most of any back eddy. Sure enough as we headed inshore the tide started running East again and we had to punch it into the Morlaix estuary heading for Roscoff/Port Bloscon Marina. The visibility was closing in with some rain and so it was handy to watch the Plymouth ferry in order to eyeball the entrance to the marina which is where the ferry port has now moved to. In fact the ferry moors in the outer harbour which is closed for arrivals and departures. As we entered the marina the tide was rushing through it and we had to turn the boat to stem it and wait for the rush of boats to ease up and the young HM to point us to a mooring which he did in a positive but not always helpful way when asked which side to put the fenders on, he replied "as you please". It was now raining quite hard as we manoeuvred into the finger pontoon which was slippery, narrow and did not have a cleat on the end.

Since this is a new Marina it would be nice if the fashion for hoops on the end of pontoons was declined in favour of a good old Walcon cleat to chuck a line around. Hoops are the devil to use when single handing and not much easier when crewed.

50 miles sailing and only 3 hrs under engine. It was now 16:30 and Roscoff was being entertained by a weekend of fetes and so it was a quick change and a wait at the bus stop by the marina for a scheduled bus.

Unfortunately the awaited bus never came and luckily the rain did stop so it was a twenty minute walk into town to see what was left. By the time the quay came into view it was clear that most of the crowds were departing and hemming in the bus which was still trying to escape and the stands were being dismantled so it was off to a very nice wine bar on the front for a well earned glass of red wine and a bit of people watching. Notably the local speciality being a middle aged guy who imagined himself as a bit of a Johnny Depp character and made free with chatting up any female in range by standing in their way, a technique which was refined but not effective as it was obvious that ladies heading for a cigarette would bypass him forcibly on the way outside. Johnny needs some work on his technique je crois! 

To Brittany and beyond

With apologies to my hero Buzz Lightyear!

 It was time to begin the voyage South and get to commit to going round the bend, well Ushant would do for now. So we slipped lines after filling up with fuel at Boatworks in st Peter Port the last place to get duty free diesel at a fab 57 litres for 34 quid! we had to wait for clearance over the sill for the Victoria Marina so departed at 11:40

By 14:45 le Roche Douvres was in sight, the wind of course was on the nose backing from WSW to SSE the boat speed under engine was now reading 9k and it was time to recognise that it had recalibrated itself or rather it had developed a grandiose exaggeration. So I reset the log to track SOG which grout it down to a more manageable 7k. We enjoyed a fine lunch courtesy of M&s of breadcrumbed and battered sea food (hurray for 3 for £10)

 At about 16:30 we were well past Roches Douvres with about 14nm to run to the mouth of the Trieux where we arrived at 18:35 announced by a huge wind veer as a warm front came through the temperature rose. By 20:00 we were all neatly tied up in Treguier wi the log stating 28792 a trip log of 75 miles including the extra logged miles.

Tidal range is important students beware

CI to CI

Solitary Cruising instructor heads for the Channel Islands

Evening

At some point one gets itchy feet and it is time to up sticks and head out to sea before gets too comfortable And so it was on 13/8 that Seascape was off towards Guernsey single handed this time and in a high pressure atmospherically making for a sedate trip. Wind was force 1-2 and so a departure at 11:00 suited the tides for an intentional ride south down the Alderney Race.  In fact I left a bit earlier having finished my rewatering chores and so with no rush, Seascape and I pooled along the shore again. This time we stayed un peu a Nord just to prove that once bitten is enough.

Omonville

En route I decided to poke my head into Omonville La Rogue while I waited for the tide to kick in. There were a number of steel white mooring buoys in place for visitors and a couple of nice restaurants were visible. The buoys have rings on top but are without pick up buoys. They all looked like they could be a bit rolly as they were on the East end at the rather exposed end of the harbour.   I would not wish to be here in any Northerly wind quadrant whatsoever.

 At 13:50 We were off Cap de L'Hague and riding the tide south with no real wind to speak of.

 At 15:30 the tide had only kicked in enough to give us 7.5 k over the ground and we were east of Alderney making reasonable progress. It looked like the negative tides are stronger than ever but the positive one are shy today! At 80:00 after 35 miles we arrived in St Peter Port and moored up alongside the non walk ashore pontoons in a relatively busy harbour.  A French charter boat moored up alongside us and we later discovered that it's grotty fenders had scoured a long scar in Seascapes starboard beam as it tied up. At the same time a French Ovni attacked from the bow and was only just fended off from driving its anchor through the pulpit as the crew stood at the bow with a line disconnected at both ends and told me calmly that he was awaiting an order from his skipper instead of tying one end around a cleat.

Needless to say I was somewhat firmer and told him to xx£&@ tie one end on and let me get the other round a pontoon cleat to slow the metal ram down. Why is it that there are many excellent French Yachtsmen doing exceptional things in yachts, particularly the  Vendee, Little Bretagne and the Jacqueline Vabre but so many charterers who should never be allowed to float. How come the charter companies seem to hide all the fenders?

Saucisson Sec and Muscadet for a sun downer

Supper the correct way

Meeting the Bretons

An uneventful trip to St Piriac on approach we were welcomed by a leisure motors fishing boat preceded by a host of 6 or so dolphins also on the hunt for fish. Following the marks into the port I noticed there were quite a lot of racing spinnakers still some 3 miles behind me and thought nothing of it until entering the marina and being told that there was no space because of the Tour de Bretagne. Ah! I crossed over the sill an hour before high tide and after a short wait it appeared that they HM preferred to get me out of the way in the marina than to send me back out into the way the racing fleet. I thought the HM was going to help me by nudging me into the mooring pontoon and prepared all of the lines and fenders and manoeuvred in. As I turned around to speak to him, he had disappeared! So much for my helper. Unfortunately this put me off my stride and I nudged the bow into the walkway which really annoyed me. Had I been prepared I would have been happy to single hand in and take my time.

Piriac Sill

Lesson learned, trust no one , particularly professional assistants with a short attention span.

Alderney and back

We had a day in Cherbourg to have a nice meal and show Charlie the sights. Over the meal we discussed what we could do next to make the most of Charlie's holiday. It was proposed that a trip to Alderney would be in order.  8/8  We had a lazy start the next day and I worked out the tides for a trip across the Alderney Race which is ideally approached for a crossing at slack tide. (The Alderney Race is renowned for its fast flowing currents and rough waters so respect is called for). We planned our departure for a couple of hours before HW Dover to give us time to get along the coast using a little back eddy to help us inshore between Cherbourg and Omonville. It was a beautiful morning we decided to ease along and sail as far as possible which turned out to be a mistake as today would prove not to be a day for loitering. The wind was North Westerly today and we had to squeeze along the coast on a tight Starboard tack. On the positive side we were able to see the villages and sights along the way in the light wind. On the negative side this pushed us in towards a couple of headlands and their associated turbulent water not the least of which is Basse Brefort which we travelled through in a damp fashion with the boat pitching up and down into some large chop which ordinarily we would have been to seaward off.  I was most grateful that we were in a well found vessel who could withstand the shaking about. Even so we got a couple of green ones along the deck. We pushed out towards Alderney skirting the Cap de l'Hague and taking some more green ones for our trouble. As we got into the Aderney Race the wind increased and the swell accordingly, as we were about a third of the way across we hardened up the Genoa sheet and something went quite wrong. The drum literally flew off and the O ring headed for the scuppers, these new winches less than a year old had failed. We reassembled the winch after taking the load off the sheet, just as well I always teach my students how to do a rolling hitch! Lo and behold it failed again, this time the O ring bounced in the scuppers and went overboard to howls of disbelief from us both.  

That's blown it

  We managed to jury rig the little spinnaker winch to take the load after a while but it did not bode well for such an expensive failure in a relatively moderate wind. What was worse was that we had spent so long dealing with the sheet winch that we were now no longer squeezing up north of Braye but we're approaching the shore from the East and the tide was starting to ebb southwards sending us to Guernsey if we were not careful. The next hour was not an experience I would want to repeat, ever! We started the engine and throttled it up as far as I dared and sailed the boat as hard and as close to the wind as I dared. As we got nearer to Aldreney and approached .Pt Quenard the tide started to ebb even faster around the headland.     We were less than a quarter of a mile from the North channel but the tide was sucking us South at an incredible rate. At one point we had 9 knots on the log speed and zero knots on the Speed over Ground and what was worse was that directly behind us was opening up a set of whirl pools from hell with standing waves that it looked like we were slowly going to reverse ourselves into.

Keep calm and carry on

 

Sliding down the Race

 So what to do...... If we carried on then surely we would slowly get sucked backwards into the morass. If we turned and fled we would drive straight into it. The other option was to oh so gently manoeuvre a little sideways in an attempt to find slacker water and inch towards the North channel where the tide was starting west rather than South. I took a while and it could have gone either way, but eventually we pulled ourself out of the quick sand and got into the West going channel and relative safety. Heading into Braye harbour we found a mooring buoy close into the harbour wall as the other buoys further out were occupied by a number of boats rocking and rolling in the swell which in my experience is becoming a bit of a thing on my last few visits. So we had a bit of lunch and then of course the swell reached is with more than a little tenacity. Patience is in short supply when being rocked from one gunwale to the other. After 90 minutes of this rigmarole we collectively decided that enough was too much and made plans to head back to Cherbourg as soon as the ebb eased so we tucked in for a snooze until later. Heading out of the washing machine in Braye into the tumble dryer just outside the harbour at dusk was as pleasant as one might expect. Once clear of QuenardPt again we were then just into the wind against tide of the race which was lumpy and on the beam for a while. All in all not going to be the best day's sailing. Sorry Charlie! We made it back to Cherbourg in the dark with an increasing Westerly wind and the tide behind us making 10 knots over ground which at least shortened our purda. Oh how we laughed after a bottle of wine and a hot meal, 55 miles to end up where we woz! That night a gale went through unforeseen , what a pleasure to lie in my bunk and hear the whistle of the rigging and be neatly tied up in shelter rather than bouncing around a mooring buoy.