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

Outward bound

We were up early and down at the pier loading up Watanga with last minute items and of course the dialysis machine, thanks to Martin and Bryon for allowing us to use their pontoon briefly.  By 8:30 we cast off, the holiday had begun. The wind forecast was perfect but as always in reality, not quite what it said it would be. The first few hours were very wild. Three reefs and beating into a SW f6 with a 3 metre breaking waves.  By the point of no return (half way) it was getting easier, we managed to get some soup down us and by the time we got to Alderney the sea was pretty flat and we were whizzing along.  

Passing Alderney

Something went wrong with my calculation of tidal streams as from Alderney onwards we never got our expected boost down to Guernsey.  The only tricky part of the journey was that I would have preferred not to go down the little Russell channel in the dark.

Nice sunset

We eventually got in at 11:30 after a very tiring 16hrs.  Straight to bed.

Olympic Torch

The OlympicTorch comes through Swanage.  A few pictures for you

Shiny new Inshore Lifeboat

Swanage gets a shiny new ILB

Summer at Last?

Well the last few days have been pretty good,  A very nice evening at the sailing club on thursday, racing cancelled unusually with zero wind. but at last a sunny summer evening.  A nice social evening with the added attraction of a visit from Graham and Wendy taking a break from their world tour.

Saturday was a damp day but the Summer shindig was a success despite the rain.

Sunday. Good wind for sailing, and an enjoyable race.

Too much then too little

Hey Ho    Yesterdays race abandoned again,  this time No Wind.    Graham and Wendy visiting on holiday from their Holiday.    Last chance to get everything sorted out for the Atlantic crossing in November.  

Race abandonments

In the last 10 days we have had 3 races abandoned or cut short through too much wind.  Everyone wants to get on the water but we are braving bigger winds than we would normally because we have missed so many races to the weather.

House maintenance

With the weather as it is,  Totally unpredictable and always at an extreme (Dead Flat or a gale). Watanga hasn't been anywhere.  I check the mooring line every couple of days and thats about it.  We decided that house maintenance would be a good alternative to bumming about, so have started on the external window frames in good weather and redecorating the the spare bedroom when it's not.