Phase one of The Big Adventure complete

From St Peter Port, we sailed North-East up the east coast of Guernsey, timing the transit through the fast-flowing Little Russel Channel and Alderney Race perfectly (even though I do say so myself, the navigator). In both these stretches of water the tide can run at up to 6 knots so you definitely don't want to be going against it. Regrettably the wind was 'on the nose' so we had to rely on our trusty Yanmar engine (hoping this comment does not tempt fate ... it seems that as soon as a fault in one area gets fixed, another raises its head somewhere else) to get us through until we turned the corner of Cap de la Hague and could sail again. Although Cherbourg is a huge and impersonal Marina, arriving there in the dark was - almost - a piece of cake as there was plenty of space and lights by which to manoeuvre. So we were safely moored by 00:30, and able to sleep in on Saturday morning. It had been a satisfying passage.

A provisioning run was required on Saturday. Making for what we assumed to be the building housing the 'hypermarket', since the word "Carrefour" was inscribed in large letters on the outside, we had nearly walked round the entire large building without finding an entrance before we realised one had first to go inside the entrance to the modern American-style 'mall' before one can access the simple supermarket. As seen below, the French really like to dress up their hypermarkets with some style.

Very early Sunday, in the dark again, we slipped from our mooring and headed north across the English Channel. Motor-sailing to start with, the wind had backed (from NW to W) by midday, after which a cracking beam reach sail was enjoyed, despite it being rather tiring with the boat heeling over and bouncing a bit in the cross-swell. In fact we did so well, we arrived just outside Poole Harbour too early to get in on the flood tide. What else to do but drop the anchor in beautiful Studland Bay and have a cup of tea ... Poole Harbour was duly achieved on Sunday evening, as planned, with Follyfin safely berthed by 20:30.

There was one further task to achieve before Phase One of our Big Adventure could be said to be properly complete, and that was to retrieve our car which had been languishing in Redon in southern Brittany since we left her there on 3 May. Armed with only a small rucksack and the car keys, Fiona set off at 08:15 Tuesday morning. The project involved various modes of transport as follows: Shanks' Pony, train, plane, bus, Metro, train, Shanks' Pony, own car, car ferry, car. Arrived back at boat at 08:45 today, a mere 24.5 hours later. Whew, mission accomplished!

Back to cleaning duties today, this time attacking the white GRP, only torn away briefly by urgent phone call ... but now ready for bed!

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.

Storm blown over - in every sense!

All heave a sigh of relief as that particular Balls of a storm has finally blown itself out ... here in France things have calmed down a lot too. As predicted, we were able to leave Crouesty by Wednesday evening. After a 'lively' exit from the marina into a very rough sea, we enjoyed a close-hauled sail tacking west across Quiberon Bay towards Port Haliguen, arriving there shortly after sunset. Then it was off again earlyish Thursday to catch the favourable current through the rocky Teignouse channel. That bit was the interesting bit. The rest of the day was motoring for 40 miles with very light wind behind us (boring!) across to the pretty little port of Loctudy in Benodet Bay.

Skipper made good use of the time, getting into character.

We would have liked to stay a little in the charming little spot but we had a tide to catch, as they say,  so we were off again by 10:00 this morning, venturing west and north around the rocky coast towards our current anchorage at St. Evette, near Audierne. Below is just one of the many prominent markers of dangerous rocky outcrops that pepper this coastline.

Nevertheless, vessels of all shapes and sizes run up and down this coast. Here are just three seen today on our lovely broad reach sail.

Tomorrow we tackle two notorious tidal races going north, the Raz de Sein and the Chenal de Four, to just 'round the corner' above Brest. Timing is everything! Full report in next post.

P.S. If you are interested in following our progress, you should be able to see us on the website marinetraffic.com . Just search for 'Follyfin'.

En route

Follyfin was duly launched on Saturday 2 May in the pouring rain! Prior to launch, the keel needed to be anti-fouled, as whilst on the ground the keel is folded up inside the hull. So once the boat was hoisted into the air to be taken down to the water, there was a brief 'window' during which this task could be completed by the skipper.

The photos above will give comfort to those people (not least those crew members joining us across the bay of Biscay and the Atlantic Ocean) who may wonder exactly how deep the keel is when fully let down. Now you can see, it is almost as deep as the skipper is tall!

Gale force winds are currently confining us to port, in Crouesty on the eastern side of Quiberon Bay. We managed about 40 miles yesterday with a nice following wind, which at least allowed us to emerge from the shelter of the Vilaine River. Hopefully the weather will have abated by tomorrow evening when we aim to cross to the western side of the bay, and then begin the journey north in earnest. Our aim is to be arrive in the Channel Islands by early next week.

Off to sea again

Amazing how quickly half a year goes by! Tomorrow we're off again, back to Arzal in Brittany to complete fitting Follyfin out for the new season's sailing. She is due to be launched on Saturday 2 May and there are still several tasks to complete. Skipper will be concentrating on re-packing the stern gland (don't ask), without which we wont have a functional engine, whilst Mate will be treating the under-surface of the hull with special anti-fouling paint. Not a pleasant job - it smells as it sounds: foul!

The more eagle-eyed of you readers will have noticed the change in title of this blog. This is because we are venturing much further afield in 2015. First back to the UK for some work to be done on the rigging in preparation for - hopefully - an Atlantic crossing to the Caribbean in January 2016. So this summer we will be tackling the Bay of Biscay, crossing it from Falmouth to A Coruna in northern Spain. We will be joined by three more crew members for that passage. Assuming we still want to continue after that experience (yes I am joking), we will then continue cruising down the Atlantic coast of Spain and Portugal, aiming to arrive in the Canary Islands, via Madeira, by end of September.

Just in case we need it we have had the life raft serviced. This is what it looks like once inflated and before the crew climbs aboard:

 and this is how it will look once we're safely inside!

More anon on the extra equipment and safety measures that have been added.

How long is a piece of string?

Too long is my answer. When the skipper asked me to 'sort out' and rewind a hank of special cord he had purchased at a knock-down price at the London Boat Show earlier this year, I replied "Yes of course, no problem". But that was before I saw the extent of the task.

Actually Skipper, there is a big problem. Especially as I immediately found TWO ends and both started pulling from the middle! What's more, the original bag contains two more tangled hanks!

Afraid these may all have to be brought home to be sorted out in front of the fire on a cold winter's night ...

This afternoon Follyfin was lifted out of the water - 'tirer de l'eau' and then 'mise á terre' in French - so now we are back on terra firma, although still getting the sensation of moving as if afloat. We now have 2 days in which to complete the winterising process, much of which has already been accomplished whilst afloat in the river and riding out the strong winds and rain of recent days. The fore cabin bears witness to our winterising so far ...

First job now we are on the ground is to pressure wash the under-surface of the hull - the bit that has been in the water until now - and the Skipper is doing this as I type this post.

And as you can see below, he's rather enjoying himself ... Intent on removing all the salt and fresh water weedy bits that like to cling to the hulls of all boats, not just ours.

If, dear reader, you are like me and have not come across pressure washers before, it is that yellow thing in the photo. It requires electricity and water in close proximity - a dangerous combination some might think, but it does seem to work. And I should mention here that this one was kindly donated to us by our good neighbour and friend Dave, who has upgraded to a more sophisticated model to use on cars rather than boats. Thanks Dave!

Now hoping for a fine day tomorrow to do some more, yes you've guessed it, WINTERISING!

Last of the Summer Fine

Arrived at Foleux on the Vilaine river this afternoon. For those of you who have been on board Follyfin whilst cruising this beautiful river, this little place is 4 miles up-river from LRB (more formally known as La Roche Bernard, named after the Viking Lord Bern-Hart who founded the town around 1000 AD, and sporting a massive rock with a cannon on top on the edge of the town). After a long period of very settled weather at the centre of a high pressure system, the weather has now changed as a warm front closely followed by a cold front passed over us today, accompanied by strong wind and heavy rain. But as I write this in the evening, the air has cleared and all is calm on the river again.

Next to us there is a sleek-looking yacht flying the Japanese ensign. As a Japanese registered sailing vessel, it is probably unique on this stretch of coastline! The middle-aged couple on board has taken 6 years to get here, leaving their yacht every 6 months on the way to fly home to Japan. They have crossed oceans and are fully equipped for long periods off-shore, so we are taking notes for anticipated future voyages of Follyfin.

My last post was written from Port Tudy on the Île de Groix, a small island only 4 miles long by 1.5 miles wide, about the same size as Alderney in the Channel Islands which we visited in 2011 on our maiden 'cruise' in Follyfin. We took a walk on a sunny afternoon, taking in a visit to Les Grands Sablons - a long sandy convex beach, almost totally deserted except for a few fishermen.

This place was so perfect and tranquil, and the weather so settled, that the next night we decided to anchor close off the beach, where we were rewarded with a wonderful sunset.

By Wednesday our thoughts were turning to home. So with very light winds forecast the next day, we turned back south east and were able to fly our Gennaker once again, probably for the last time this season. Over a distance of about 20 miles we achieved an average speed of just under 5 knots with this sail alone in a south-westerly wind force 2-3, the wind just abaft the beam (I love that phrase!) and the sail still well filled. It has been a learning curve with this sail, which is likely to continue.

Yesterday, Friday, we made an early start in order to catch the 2 o'clock opening of the barrage lock into the Vilaine. This time we were rewarded with a wonderful sunrise.

Once inside the river and safely moored onto a wide pontoon, it was all hands on deck to remove the sails ready for winter whilst they were still dry. We knew rain was on the way and so it has proved to be. Are we smug? Yes indeed! The next few days will be taken up with gradually removing all the rigging and bits and bobs on deck, servicing the engine, generally cleaning and attending to all those little jobs that have been put on hold whilst enjoying sailing. But there will also be a little time to enjoy the Vilaine river hereabouts; after all we still have an engine! Follyfin will be lifted out of the water on Thursday 9 October after which we really will be heading for home after the weekend, car piled up to the nines. Hey ho, the ceaseless round continues.