Stormy Weather
(Entry written 08/09/06)
We were certainly glad to leave Concarneau as we ended up staying 2 days longer than planned due to thick fog. I don't think I've ever known fog to last so long! Anyway, it wasn't all bad as this entry from the captains' log shows: "Our hero takes a long, long walk alone. He finds himself in a street party in what appears to be the poorer part of town. A pretty girl in old-fashioned French dress is winding an accordian and singing traditional French music in a lovely voice. Our hero found 2E in his bag andit just so happens that a beer costs 2E - a happy coincedence".
Eventually, of course, the fog lifted (on the 5th) & we made our way to Port Tudy on the Ile de Groix. This was our first island since Holland (except Britain, of course) and I had been looking forward to it; however it was a little disappoin,ting as the marina was expensive & we saw all the town had to offer in 15 mins. On the plus side, though, we did find a great beach, real picture postcard stuff. Maybe we didn't give it a chance but, as the forecast was good, we decided to push on the next morning to La Palais on Belle Ile.
Now that was a nice passage: Jackie the windvane did her stuff in light winds for the first part of the short journey and, when the wind died altogether, "Helmut" the autohelm took over leaving skipper and crew to read and top-up their tans.
On arrival at La Palais we were efficiently directed and helped to a pair of fore & aft mooring buoys by the habour dude - who spoke excellent English. At 7E a night this was cheap yachting! We soon packed a bag and headed for the nearest beach as it was baking hot, picking up some lunch on the way. It was much the same procedure the next day (different beach) & we thoroughly enjoyed our "little holiday".
That evening was nice too, chatting to the young French couple who had tied up next to us but, as the evening went on, the wind built and came directly thru the harbour entrance, making things pretty uncomfortable. To be honest, I had noticed mention of strong winds in the forcast but had not paid much attention as I had known we would be staying in harbour for the next few days. However, as the night wore on the wind built and built so that the violent rocking motion caused our mast to clash with that of the French couple. They luckily moved to the adjacent pair of bouys but, despite this, it was almost impossible to sleep & I got up several times to double-up on mooring lines & then to check them.
Eventually we both managed some sleep &, in the morning, the harbour was a real sight to behold: There were waves comming into the harbour and the wind streaked their crests across the water. Everything was being thrown about violently and one sailing dinghy had sank on it's mooring. A couple of yachts came in to seek shelter & it was fascinating watching them circling around trying to find a safe haven. One yacht left it's mooring to try to find a quieter spot & we felt helpmess as we watched the wind catch it and push it onto other yachts.
By now I was satisfied that our mooring, although uncomfortable, had proved itself safe overnight & I had decided to stay put & await better weather. My feeling of security was thrown into doubt when the French couple announced that they were leaving as there wouldn't be sufficient depth of water at low tide to stay afloat! I hadn't even considered this possibility as I had told the harbour dude our draft when he had shown us to our mooring & so had assumed he had given us a mooring with sufficient depth. After flicking on the depth-sounder & doing a rough calculation I realized that it would be too close for comfort. Besides, the next Low tide would be lower still and, with the waves as they were in the harbour, poor Vega 1494 would be battered against the seabed.
Unfortunately the English-speaking harbour dude was nowhere to be seen and his non-English-speaking colleague was distinctly unhelpfull & seemed to be indicating that we should find ourselves another berth on the other side of the harbour. This was nigh-on impossible as, astern, there was no water and, before us, there was a large lifeboat moored broadside accross our bows not 6 feet away. Eventually after calling the harbour office the unfriendly harbour dude came to help us (we had to wait for him to finish helping every other Piere, 'Enry or Phillipe first, though!). So he pulled our bows around into the wind & I floored 1494, punching her forward into the wind to gain steerage. Of course, at this moment a huge ferry decided to leave her berth & was on a collision course with me. He sounded his horn (like I could have failed to notice him!) but I couldn't back off the gas or the bows would be blown around and we would be in a right old pickle. I had to first get around the windward moored boat into clearer water and, this accomplished, I eased off the throttle & let the ferry get the hell out of my way. The wind had already turned 1494 and we went hurtled downwind, turned and plodded back upwind & repeated a couple of times while harbour dude (another much more likeable and English-speaking colleague had now joined him) directed us to a new mooring. Tying-up was accomplished swiftly but much tweaking went on afterwards to try to get the boat to lie as comfortably as possible, to avoid our mast hitting that of our neighbours and to avoid the bow of the boat behind us from hitting our stern. At last we were safe again!
Our new spot was a little more sheltered but, even so, we saw that a yacht near to us had snapped one of it's mooring lines and was crashing against it's neighbour. No one was on board either yacht so we tied her broken line together and made her fast again - there were some scratches but no major damage. Susi remarked that this was the second black mooring line we had seen snap (the 1st was early in the morning & her owner was luckily on board) & we were glad that our lines were a different, apparently stronger, colour!
During the afternoon our neighbours from next to and behind us left and the weather improved so that by evening we were able to sit in the sun and enjoy a well-deservrd beer!
We were certainly glad to leave Concarneau as we ended up staying 2 days longer than planned due to thick fog. I don't think I've ever known fog to last so long! Anyway, it wasn't all bad as this entry from the captains' log shows: "Our hero takes a long, long walk alone. He finds himself in a street party in what appears to be the poorer part of town. A pretty girl in old-fashioned French dress is winding an accordian and singing traditional French music in a lovely voice. Our hero found 2E in his bag andit just so happens that a beer costs 2E - a happy coincedence".
Eventually, of course, the fog lifted (on the 5th) & we made our way to Port Tudy on the Ile de Groix. This was our first island since Holland (except Britain, of course) and I had been looking forward to it; however it was a little disappoin,ting as the marina was expensive & we saw all the town had to offer in 15 mins. On the plus side, though, we did find a great beach, real picture postcard stuff. Maybe we didn't give it a chance but, as the forecast was good, we decided to push on the next morning to La Palais on Belle Ile.
Now that was a nice passage: Jackie the windvane did her stuff in light winds for the first part of the short journey and, when the wind died altogether, "Helmut" the autohelm took over leaving skipper and crew to read and top-up their tans.
On arrival at La Palais we were efficiently directed and helped to a pair of fore & aft mooring buoys by the habour dude - who spoke excellent English. At 7E a night this was cheap yachting! We soon packed a bag and headed for the nearest beach as it was baking hot, picking up some lunch on the way. It was much the same procedure the next day (different beach) & we thoroughly enjoyed our "little holiday".
That evening was nice too, chatting to the young French couple who had tied up next to us but, as the evening went on, the wind built and came directly thru the harbour entrance, making things pretty uncomfortable. To be honest, I had noticed mention of strong winds in the forcast but had not paid much attention as I had known we would be staying in harbour for the next few days. However, as the night wore on the wind built and built so that the violent rocking motion caused our mast to clash with that of the French couple. They luckily moved to the adjacent pair of bouys but, despite this, it was almost impossible to sleep & I got up several times to double-up on mooring lines & then to check them.
Eventually we both managed some sleep &, in the morning, the harbour was a real sight to behold: There were waves comming into the harbour and the wind streaked their crests across the water. Everything was being thrown about violently and one sailing dinghy had sank on it's mooring. A couple of yachts came in to seek shelter & it was fascinating watching them circling around trying to find a safe haven. One yacht left it's mooring to try to find a quieter spot & we felt helpmess as we watched the wind catch it and push it onto other yachts.
By now I was satisfied that our mooring, although uncomfortable, had proved itself safe overnight & I had decided to stay put & await better weather. My feeling of security was thrown into doubt when the French couple announced that they were leaving as there wouldn't be sufficient depth of water at low tide to stay afloat! I hadn't even considered this possibility as I had told the harbour dude our draft when he had shown us to our mooring & so had assumed he had given us a mooring with sufficient depth. After flicking on the depth-sounder & doing a rough calculation I realized that it would be too close for comfort. Besides, the next Low tide would be lower still and, with the waves as they were in the harbour, poor Vega 1494 would be battered against the seabed.
Unfortunately the English-speaking harbour dude was nowhere to be seen and his non-English-speaking colleague was distinctly unhelpfull & seemed to be indicating that we should find ourselves another berth on the other side of the harbour. This was nigh-on impossible as, astern, there was no water and, before us, there was a large lifeboat moored broadside accross our bows not 6 feet away. Eventually after calling the harbour office the unfriendly harbour dude came to help us (we had to wait for him to finish helping every other Piere, 'Enry or Phillipe first, though!). So he pulled our bows around into the wind & I floored 1494, punching her forward into the wind to gain steerage. Of course, at this moment a huge ferry decided to leave her berth & was on a collision course with me. He sounded his horn (like I could have failed to notice him!) but I couldn't back off the gas or the bows would be blown around and we would be in a right old pickle. I had to first get around the windward moored boat into clearer water and, this accomplished, I eased off the throttle & let the ferry get the hell out of my way. The wind had already turned 1494 and we went hurtled downwind, turned and plodded back upwind & repeated a couple of times while harbour dude (another much more likeable and English-speaking colleague had now joined him) directed us to a new mooring. Tying-up was accomplished swiftly but much tweaking went on afterwards to try to get the boat to lie as comfortably as possible, to avoid our mast hitting that of our neighbours and to avoid the bow of the boat behind us from hitting our stern. At last we were safe again!
Our new spot was a little more sheltered but, even so, we saw that a yacht near to us had snapped one of it's mooring lines and was crashing against it's neighbour. No one was on board either yacht so we tied her broken line together and made her fast again - there were some scratches but no major damage. Susi remarked that this was the second black mooring line we had seen snap (the 1st was early in the morning & her owner was luckily on board) & we were glad that our lines were a different, apparently stronger, colour!
During the afternoon our neighbours from next to and behind us left and the weather improved so that by evening we were able to sit in the sun and enjoy a well-deservrd beer!
posted by cinnamon at 5:26 AM
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