Different kinds of work

Now sitting safely inside Victoria Marina, St Peter Port, Guernsey, it's blogging time again! First off I must apologise to all those multitudes of people who no doubt will have been all agog to see our progress on marinetraffic.com since the last post. It turns out we have an intermittent fault on our AIS transponder, and this fault is connected to another intermittent fault on our main VHF radio. They share the same aerial and as I understand it (not being v technically minded), if one is working then the other isn't, and sometimes neither is. Just as well we have a reliable handheld VHF radio on board (actually two!). So until the on-board Engineer has had a chance to check the earth and all the wiring, I'm afraid you will have to rely on these occasional posts to follow our progress. Although you may see us intermittently. I say 'until he has a chance' because he has been a bit busy since we arrived here on Monday afternoon ...

Briefly, from St Evette we timed our departure for midday to coincide with the North-going flow through the Raz de Sein and then the Chenal de Four. Easy to see why the 'Raz' acquired its name.

But it is well marked with a plethora of lights, beacons and towers,

as is the Chenal de Four. This lighthouse below has a dark 'skirt' around the bottom, presumably where the stone never dries out thus allowing all sorts of seaweed and algae to grow.

We enjoyed a very pleasant beam reach sail through these sometimes treacherous waters, the wind behaving itself nicely as a SW4 all the way. We were lucky! Arrived in L'Aberwrach at 20:30 on Saturday evening, it could not have been a better passage. Total of 51 miles in 8.5 hours.

Sunday morning was spent relaxing, enjoying the ambience of the lovely small Breton harbour. Again we felt we would have liked to stay a little but the timetable and the tides were such that a night sail from L'Aberwrach to Guernsey was on the cards. Made all preparations - food most important of all - during the afternoon and then we were off again at 17:00 on a beautiful evening. To start with the wind was kind, SE4, but by 19:00 it was starting to veer and by 21:00 it was SSW3, right on our tail as it were. So until just after dawn we motor-sailed. 09:00 time for hot porridge breakfast, which may look disgusting but was eagerly consumed by First Mate.

Sustained by porridge and with a light wind still on our tail, we were able to hoist the magic gennaker sail (the colourful one in the photo under the blog title). So the last couple of hours up to St Peter Port were blissfully quiet with no engine and clipping along at a creditable 5 knots. Arrived at 12:30 LT, 101 miles in 20.5 hours. Crew then went for a well earned nap. Just as well because ever since Tuesday morning there has been nothing but work. Mine, as FM, quite mundane, including shopping, washing,

And cleaning the silverware

Whereas the Skipper/Engineer has been fitting all kinds of gear, requiring all kinds of tools.

The simplest piece of equipment is the manually operated water-maker which really only needs to be stowed somewhere safe but accessible. 

The clue is in the name, so the Biscay and Atlantic crews will be comforted to know that this cunning little device will produce a whole litre of pure water from salt water in only an hour of pumping. Work to look forward to.

Our plan is to leave here on Friday afternoon and make for Cherbourg, where we will have our final Gallic 'fix' in terms of food and wine. All being well and weather permitting we plan to head back across the channel on Saturday night or Sunday morning and be back in Poole Harbour by Sunday evening.