Better a bad day on the water, than a good day in the office…..July 2006

Moved aboard – with our worldly goods waiting to be stowed.

Hopefully the last crossing of the English Channel reminded us of what the English Channel can provide. Within 2 hours we were surrounded by an electrical/thunder storm of proportions we have rarely seen up-close to date. We expect to see more and worse, but it was enough to remind us to head for warmer climes.
Numerous sheets of lightening and forks danced around the flattened sea. Visibility ahead reduced to zero, and the rain fired into the sea as if from a fire-hose above us. We saw the storm on the radar screen as a big black horse-shoe cloud approaching us, but it was too late to avoid it, so we headed for the narrowest point and put the VHF and GPS in the oven (supposedly a faraday cage – but no-one is sure if this helps!).
We thought that being hit by lightening would not be an auspicious start to our adventures, but it had an element of excitement!

We heard the same day that possibly the same storm hit our home yacht club at Poole. One strike hit a racing dinghy on the water, and another hit the race hut taking out the electronics. Perhaps we were in the right place at the right time, but it does seem that lightening doesn’t automatically seek out the tallest metal pole in the vicinity as we are all taught to believe.

English weather, and what a thunderstorm looks like on radar.

The rest of the trip was mundane, across the shipping channels and nearing Alderney Stuart caught a glimpse of a whale (possibly a minke) and a basking shark, but Steph thinks he was hallucinating.

Alderney - yuk

Another rolly night at anchor in Braye harbour, Alderney, saw us heading off early to St Peter Port, Guernsey. A comfortable sail and anchoring in the bay south of the marina (Havelet bay), provided a gentle rolling home for the evening. Everything was shut except the hospitable Guernsey Yacht club, which suited us just fine.  Monday morning and time for a last quick stock-up from M&S. Some spare oil from the engineers and we were on our way in a flat calm for Treguier, on the North Brittany coast.
Treguier entrance is a long straight approach down a buoyed channel and rewards the weary traveler with a picturesque anchorage under the chateau, just before the marina and delightful village.

Dinner on board with a falling tide, and then a re-anchoring manoeuver at 11.00pm resulted in us discovering a broken throttle cable. We spent a hot sunny morning emptying the huge aft locker for access and 3 hours later the cable was replaced with the last minute spare we had picked up at 4.30pm on the Friday before departure.

A trip to the legendary chandlery in Treguier resulted in the first time that Stuart has not bought anything there – (a sure sign that we are overloaded!) A wonderful meal that evening of wood-fire baked potatoes, salad, chips, lamb kebabs, oysters and crème caramel for 13euros.  Excellent value, if you could overcome your prejudices about restaurants with pictures everywhere of St Bernard dogs – Well it was called the Restaurant St Bernard!
Wednesday, 07.30 departure after Stu had a quick dip to clear the propeller of weed. Followed by 18 hours of motoring in no wind, albeit plenty of fog.
Chanel du Four  - visibility 30-100meters, wet and chilly at midnight. Despite an aversion to relying on GPS (satellite navigation) it was a delight to have it help us along with the radar through this famous passage, renowned for strong tides and big swells. Steph faultlessly navigated blindly from the chart table and Stu steered as directed peering out into the gloom and intently watching the radar.
We arrived Camaret at 02:00 and anchored outside the harbour for a well-deserved sleep.

In the morning we moved to the marina for fuel and water. Diesel was a shock at 1.3euros per litre – twice the price of the UK. No duty free red diesel for yotties here from now on.
In the only internet café in town we met up with Paul and Val from Brighton on a diversion from a passage to La Coruna, on their racy Sigma 400 ‘Intemperance’. With these two, we have met our match in the ‘drinking under the table’ challenge. It was touch and go for a time, but I think we saw them off at about 04:00 after they finished our secret weapon – a bottle of Thai rum!
The trouble with marinas, is that once in, you can’t leave – first the hangover, then a forecast, then the rain, the company, the lure of cafes, restaurants and an internet café.
So we didn’t leave until 3 days later, after paying our bill for our first mooring costs (75euros for 3 nights).

Chenal du Four – a better day dawns

Raz du Sein

Next stop, after a gentle motor through the infamous Raz du Sein (pah – we’ve seen more tide and whirlpools in Poole Harbour entrance!) Bright blue sea, sky and bright sun, although a bit of a chilly air, lunch in the cockpit, followed by a lovely sail. We decided to make the most of the wind and continued to Benodet, South Brittany.
Lovely town, if a bit twee, and a little over-hyped by the pilot guides. We walked round and through it 3 times before believing we had seen it all. We found a convenient visitors mooring buoy at 20 euros per night ( next to the marina at 30E per night).
On Monday we attempted a cycle. We took the fold up bikes ashore in the dinghy and set off for historic Quimper. After a 5km ride along the busy main road we decided to take a break at a tiny restaurant/tabac. Steph’s crap French resulted in a full-on menu (9E for 4 courses) instead of a quick snack. This fortunately included a very large bottle of wine, as very soon the heavens opened and the trip to Quimper didn’t seem so inviting anymore.
After stuffing ourselves on the best meal so far, we decided to venture out in-between rain showers to try and find a track along the ‘most beautiful river in Brittany’. We found one track with a warning of roches glissantes. We thought this was just the job and set off along the high tide mark, with several intrepid French ramblers. They weren’t joking about the slippery rocks, there was also slippery sand, slippery gravel, stinky mud, and seaweed and bitey things if you stood still, and also more rain.

Benodet

Another 5km in a direction away from the boat we found a small village (closed) and a main road back to where we started.
Defeated and soaked, we packed the foldups away in more rain, and took them back to the boat, balanced precariously on top of the dinghy.
Back ashore for a hot shower, followed by enormous and delicious crepes at the aptly named Creperie de Benodet, we finished our evening at a harbourside bar regarding the sea through misty plastic windows.
Clearly we need to hurry further south to escape the clutches of the English summer!

PS – Just one internet café to date – don’t feel neglected if you haven’t received an email!