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