Friday, September 29, 2006

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!

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Not really an update

Still alive blog-fans and lots to write, but no free internet connection so it will have to wait. Laters...

Friday, September 01, 2006

Rowing

September

1st & we headed for Concarneau at dawn (to avoid paying). It was a brilliant sail although quite a long way (45M) & we were glad to get in after 12 hours.

I'm a genius! I can cook a pizza in a frying pan - my life is now complete!

August Draws to a Close

And our wandering pair had a spectacular walk through the coastal hills near Camaret before casting off and heading to St Evette. Tied up to a mooring buoy, jumped in the dinghy & rowed to the brilliant, white, sandy beach. Susi even had a swim! (well, she needed a wee (and a bath)).

Vega2977

Still in Cameret....

I was sipping a glass of wine in the cockpit & a couple motored by in their dinghy. I smiled & the girl gave a wave. A little later they came walking up the pontoon to say hello as they also had a Vega. After a minute of chit-chat the girl said "Hey, I know you....." and whaddya know it was Isla Reynolds from back in my UKSA days!!!! What a small world it is!

Anyway she had gone & bought a Vega in Florida & sailed it back with her boyf: Respect! Makes Vega1494's travels seem very limited.

We visited their Vega & we swapped some charts & books & had a good old chat. A very social couple of days in Camaret indeed!

New People

Still in Cameret I got chatting to couple on a neighbouring yacht & they invited us over for drinks later that evening. Alex & Fran were a fun pair & their guest, Johnny, was also a cool charachter. The evening involved lots of drinking, singing along to Alex's accordian playing & much talking about places to go, places visited and adventures past & present. It really was a top-notch evening!!

Potential Near-Disaster

avoided: We had planned our passage from L'Aberwrach, thru the noƧtorious "Chennal Du Four" to Cameret Sur Mer & basically this meant it was imperative to get the tides right. Alarm bells rang when we noticed that at the predicted low water time that the water level around us was certaintly not low water. Next, the almanac said it was Sun 26th but Susis watch said it was Sun 27th. Further investigation revealed that the almanac was totally wrong!!

A quick row into the village & I picked up a free leaflet showing the correct tide times for Brest. I then checked the Reeds almanac internet site, which said " Reeds appologise for the error...blah blah". The thing is, if we hadn't realized the mistake, we would've left at completely the wrong time & got caught in a particurarly nasty tidal race flowing the wrong way - phew!

Anyway, the trip to Camaret was a windless, flat calm day & we motored the whole way. So what, we are now truly on the W coast & needed a beer to celebrate!

Over again

Time to report what has been going on these last few days: After arriving in Falmouth our two boat-bums made a long list of things to do and stuff to buy. The most expensive purchase was 6 new charts to take us down the W coast of France. Other jobs included packing a "grab bag" & tying the semi-inflated tender on deck - just in case.

It took a few days to get some reasonable weather, but Falmouth is a nice place to wait. We even treated ourselves to a bit of culture (!) in the form of a look around the Maritime Museum - the "survival" exhibition was good but all-in-all I think the cash would have been better spent on some nice fish n chips!

On Tues 22nd, at 0930, we slipped lines and pointed Vega1494 towards France. All went according to plan except for a small engine problem which cost us an hour or two early next morning (we had sailed most of the way but had had the engine ticking-over since there was a lot of traffic around during the night & I think we had picked up some weed around the prop) and , tired but happy, we tied up to a mooring buoy in L'Aberwrach after 24 hours and 106 miles!
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