Kontiki sea trials

We have revamped last years RNLI Raft Race winning raft "KONTIKI" with new sponsons.  The sponsons were fine but the boat, despite a new coat of paint leaked like a sieve.   The danger is that the new sponsons having less bouyancy will not aid the the boat in staying afloat.   A lot of water came in last year as well so I'm wondering whether they actually stopped us sinking in the end.

Regatta Weekend

Busy weekend this.   A general lack of organisation has led to a hasty arrangement of Regatta activities.  I suppose this was bound to happen as club life  has been severely disrupted  by  the ongoing refurbishment works. It's a shame that we are not quite finished in time but hey ho that's life.

The sailing went with not too much trouble, weather was a bit exciting on the Saturday and we got involved in a mayday calll as did several boats responeding to a "persons in the water" call from Portland Coastguard. It turned out to be divers in the water and a false alarm.

Sunday was queiter and after racing we had an official opening of the new training room by Rodney Pattisson  just after Ben Ainsley won his 4th Gold Medal.

Thursday Racing

It seemed like it was going to be a dull evenings racing, as I struggled to get away from buckshore.  By the time the race started it was getting quite fiesty.  On an upwind/downwind course it made for some exciting stuff.  It was almost inevitable that a couple of collisions occured.

Red Devils and Fireworks

We missed the fireworks on Saturday, us being in Cherbourg at the time.  It was a busy time today, with gig racing early evening,  the Red devils Parachute team at 8:30 then fireworks at 9:45pm  all this and two golds at the olympics.  It's hard to keep up.  

Alas, coming home

Forecast   SW F4-5 pretty much all the way.  

Flying along

0630  English time and off we set,  the calm before the storm.   well  heavy shower.  About an hour out of Cherbourg, Lou asleep again Full sail up, all of a sudden it's getting dark and the wind has just hit 23 knots,   quickly put a reef in main and genoa back to cockpit to find 28knots registering, another reef in genoa and we are flying along boat speed hits 10.6kts, luckily we're going downwind.  That was the only drama of the day as the wind died down to a more manageable F4-5 and the weather gradually got brighter.

Force 5 -6 and coffee steady as a rock

There was I thinking I hadn't seen much in the way of big ships when 4 buggers in a box formation decided to descend upon me. A bit of manouvering was required. Worse than a port start on a gusty thursday evening  race. (I was on port).

Faint circle in sky is the red arrows over Swanage

A sudden squeal of delight as Lou spots the red arrows, well at least the big smoke ring drawn in the sky. At that point we were still 2.5 hours from home

15:30 and we are back on the mooring.  Hey Ho Holidays over.

Cherbourg

Off to the carrefore in the morning, then the Wine Cave to stock up on the years booze.  Moules and fites for dinner then back to boat to await wine delivery.

Chris and co turn up at 1530 and berth right next to us. By the time they had done their shopping and showering etc it was time to go for a meal.   Cafe Paris was the venue and what a superb value meal to be had there.   Straight back to bed as long passage in the morning.

Change of plan.

We had planned to spend Friday night in St Peter Port,  but on reviewing the tides etc we realised it would be mid morning before we left the marina on Saturday, then a 14-16 hour slog to get home.   So, as we had all day to do it we headed for Cherbourg instead.  This meant we could have an extra days holiday , meet up with the boys and girls on Fusion 3 and have a shorter last passage home.  Bonus all round............  except for the tide which turned on us as we rounded Cap de Frehal and we had a bit of a slog into port.  It was a bit bit misty all the way so apart from this interesting sail not many pictures

Return journey

 Long haul back to Guersey today,  we're missing out Jersey as wind and tides are more favourable.  Leave in zero wind, but it soon picks up and we have a good crossing. 

St Cast Coastguard Station

The only boat all day to come anywhere near us

Supper !

Petit Port Bay

Arrive at the south of Guernsey and stop in a bay called Petit Port.   This is to be the place where all the local fishermen used to take their boats when  the wind went easterley,  ie bad for entering the main harbours on Guernsey.  Stayed at anchor overnight,  quite noisy with lots of seagulls nesting in the cliffs.

2nd day in St Cast

Well , the sun keeps shining and the wind is very light so another day in port.

The houses here are all fairly large and of quite traditional construction, they are well kept and have beautiful gardens. They love their balconies

 The marina is only 3 years old and was completed using european union grant money.  Seems to be a lot of that going on in this region. At the same time they connected the marina to the town by building a winding footpath around the base of the cliffs

There's quite a balcony on this one, more of a terrace really jutting out about 5 metres and is over about a 30 meter drop.

They are quite fond of Storks too.  I'm not sure what the significance is in this region but there are a number of houses with them on.


Top all this off with a lovely beach and it's quite a nice place to be.   Not so sure how it would be if the weather was horrible.

 
 

A day or two in port

Day in port,  The holiday so far has been spent sailing for quite long streches each day and then only having a short time to explore wherever we end up.  Very light winds and very sunny days have led us to think that maybe we should slow down a little and enjoy the surroundings of our favourite port so far St Cast.  It's a little expensive at 45euros per night but the facilities are great, even if the wifi is not very ppwerful. It only becomes available if it's high tide.   We had a long lay in and a relaxed morning before spending the rest of the day on the beach.  A couple of swims in the sea then back to the boat for a meal.  Steak tonight.

Ille de Brehat to St Cast

Up early this morning, well I was.  Beautiful sunrise as we left Brehat to go back to St Cast.   Uncertainties about whether we could get berthing with electricity in lezadrieux or paimpol  plus the tides making it very late in the evening before we could enter ports, has led us to take the safe option.  Absolutely dead calm to begin with but enough wind to sail after about an hour.  Just got to Cap frehel as the tide gate closed.  Motored on round to Point de le latte, and feasted on mackerel caught along the way.   Another light wind sail and we were at St cast.  Out for the evening meal.

St Quay Portrieux

A relatively short journey from St Quay to Ille de Brehat.  With light winds and smooth sea. We ghosted along dodging the many boats that streamed out of St Briac to catch fish. I was reminded of the Kayak Sea fishing competition in Swanage There were hundreds of them, it got so difficult to get through them I took down the sails and motered. (there was very little wind anyway) Ille de Brehat seemed very busy and we anchored in a small inlet close to  Port Clos.  Ashore we went for a quick wander, not a lot to see as all the lanes had high hedges.  The houses are all very big and immaculately kept as were the gardens. 

Erquy to St Quay

  

As mentioned in the previous log, I was unhappy with the sea state and the ability of the anchor to hold in those conditions so by 6am I was up and moving the boat to our next destination St Quay.  There was enough wind to sail but it was right on the nose. Lou had stayed in bed and I wasn't inclined to up sails and tack upwind on my own, So on went the engine while I made a hasty passage plan.  Did I mention the amount of rocks in this area.!   On the bright side, it was a beautiful sunrise. 

A relatively uneventful journey after the sunrise,  and as we had left Erquy so early, I was going to leave around 11:00, the tide was not right for us.  Once in safe water and with the wind dying I hove to  put the fishing lines out and we bobbed around for a couple of hours.  Lou sun bathing , me fishing.

We reached St Quay about 14:00 and were met by a Aussie Harbourman, who spoke fluent French and Oz.  neither of which I could understand! 

Erquy ......... Pronounced Er-ky

Off down the coast again in light winds heading for Erquy just 14miles away.  Passing the Fort la Latte before heading round Cap de Frehal.

Arriving in bright sunshine a no wind we anchored up outside the harbour breakwater to have some lunch and assess the situation.  Erquy dries completely at low tide and we didn't particularly want to do that on a sloping beach. So we decided to stay where we were, the boat protected from the wind by the headland, the only annoyance was the constant traffic in and out of the harbour.

This turned out to be a mistake as the wind changed during the night and  made it quite uncomfortable.  By five in the morning, it was quite a chop and  pushing us toward the harbour breakwater   At 6 am I had had enough, I wasn't confident that the anchor would hold so we set off into a stiff breeze toward St Quay

Nice relaxing holiday!

St Cast

Even in St Malo I can't get away from this blooming thing.  Every time I'm in Poole harbour it chases me,  however over here it doesn't slow down until the last minute. This was taken in the equivalent of the Poole fairway

It's only a short sail  to St Cast so we pottered along the coast today, no real need to get there fast. There are some really nice beaches in amongst the rocks, and had we had more knowledge of the coast we would maybe have tried anchoring in one of them. 

The tidal range here was about 9 metres. Pictures left and right were taken from the same spot showing tide in and out.

France here we come

Dilemma,   Tide pushing west until 1400,  wind in SW all day.  We have an open passage plan namely to get round the Plateau de Minquets and end up as far west as we can on the French coast.

Again the sea was choppy and rough. I decided to go west around the minquets,  Mistake!  took far too long as constantly tacking to get along the North edge. The tide changed and we were being pushed back into them in a dying wind. To cut a long story short we ended up in St Malo, not the finest of places and the facilities are in dire need of an update.

Had a meal in a local creperie, Very nice but a rip off.

Jersey trip

We had it in our minds to wait for the tides to be favourable on our trip, we had to be out of the marina by 0830 latest and were going to wait in Fermian Bay until noon then go then.

The weather decided to exert it's influence on the proceedings. We didn't think much of sitting at anchor in the cold and drizzle the decision was made to just go for it.Quite a pleasant crossing, Fast flat-ish but a little foggy at times  arrived St helier about 13.30pm.

A walk through town,  nice shopping arcades.  and then dinner and dialysis number 2.  The boat will be about 100 kgs lighter after this session.

Storm Bound

Well not exactly but we decided it wasn't going to be pleasant out there so decided to stay put. Good decision in hindsight there were some very big gusts that day.   Meal out in the evening  Jersey tommorrow

Olympic Torch again

Lou was up early and noticed the marina was still letting in boats. so in we went too.  There was a lot of Police activity around the marina and it turned out to be the Olypic torch going through St Peter Port.  Fantastic, front row seats with no effort,(well apart from a 16 hour sea crossing in yuck conditions)

Lovely day meandering around St Peter Port.  Cleaning the boat  and generally recovering from the marathon journey.  First dialysis session of the holiday. All went OK