Saturday: Left Portland 0615 (without hitting anything). Broad reach or run all the way to Chichester West Pole. Picked up mooring 1745. We've had a great trip.
Sunday: Another epic journey today. Water taxi to Itchenor. Bikes mainly along Salterns Way .. lovely. Train to St Haywards on the Heath. Bikes to home.
Monday: That's now!
Monday 19 July 2010
Thursday 15 July 2010
Portland
Thursday .. still in Portland now in the marina.
Wind F8 maybe F9 later.
Spent the day baby sitting Isabel and helping to modify the van for the Bramah Family Holiday.
Wind F8 maybe F9 later.
Spent the day baby sitting Isabel and helping to modify the van for the Bramah Family Holiday.
Monday 12 July 2010
Portland
L'aberwrac'h to Dartmouth to Portland.
Sunny days with Helen, Andy and Isabel.
Lovely to meet up with Peter and Sara.
We are moored off Castle Cove and visit The Bramah's by flubber (wheel barrowing the flubber to and from the beach). Haven't been in a car since late May.
Will probably set off again from home later this week.
Sunny days with Helen, Andy and Isabel.
Lovely to meet up with Peter and Sara.
We are moored off Castle Cove and visit The Bramah's by flubber (wheel barrowing the flubber to and from the beach). Haven't been in a car since late May.
Will probably set off again from home later this week.
Wednesday 7 July 2010
To Dartmouth on Thursday
Now back in l'Aber Wrac'h.
In the last few days have seen Porpoises and a turtle.
Today a dead whale.
Tomorrow we have the 115 mile crossing to Dartmouth.
Then to Weymouth probably on Saturday.
Saturday 3 July 2010
Friday 2 July 2010
South Brittany
It’s pouring with rain and I’ve got a free Internet connection … so back to the sacred blog.
We left Loctudy (first major marina on the left after you get to South Brittany ) on 21st June and headed south. We tried anchoring off Pomfret (?chips?) Island but decided on the basis of a (wrong) weather forecast to press on to a proper port called Port Tudy. We arrived bit late and ended up rafted with 6 other boats on two mooring buoys. The Glenans (local boaties) had been out racing and now were out drinking (Glenans are Island sailors cum terrorists who appear to control this neck of the woods). Anyway after a noisy night, the boat inside us on the raft announced it was leaving, disconnected all our ropes and set us adrift at the same time as the island ferry came in … well, we survived and got away having lost only one fender and a lot of sweat.
Next to Belle Ile. Belle indeed. Moored outside the harbour (Sauzon). Very nice. (Must be good because David sent me a text of approval.) Hot and sunny. 2 nights there. Nice walk along the coast. Swim off a sandy beach with nasty man-eating jelly fish.
Next to the little island of Houat. Anchored off the beach. Nice walk through the “town”, down to the harbour, over to a lovely sandy beach, nice swimming (no jellies).
Now Hoedit. Beautiful little island. Lovely beach (nasty giant carnivorous jelly fish). Beer in café.
As you can see being a retired GP is quite demanding.
After all this island hopping, it was time we found a shop and generally filled things up. So off to Piriac (Known locally as “Piriton”). Nice seaside town. Good food. A supermarket and a proper market-market .. bought some beans (French ones).
2 nights in Piriac. Hot and sunny.
Next to the “Morbihan”. This is huge inland sea, full of islands and channels and boats and mud banks with water gushing in and out (known locally as “tides”). Anchored off the Ile d’Arz. Lovely.
Now off back to Belle Ile. Looked in at Palais (the Island’s capital) We were horrified at the (tiny) parking place (berth) we were offered and (wisely) ran away (sailed back out to sea) and up the coast to good old Sauzon (see above). Sauzon, you will remember has nice, easy to pick up mooring buoys, excellent weather, good food, pleasant walks but some big jellies.
Now, throughout this time, when sailing fast or motoring at all, we’ve been hearing this “tick tick tick (etc)” from under the boat. Was it a Glenian bomb (“Berm” in French)? Or something stuck to the propeller? I’d had a look (very briefly) in Guernsey harbour and noted that the water was very cold and dirty and the bottom of the boat was also .. well .. cold and dirty and also well .. under water. I’d had a second look at Houat and noted that not only was it cold under the water under the boat but that there were jellies. Anyway, curiosity plus the will to survive (we wouldn’t like it if something important dropped off the bottom of the boat mid channel (the propeller for example). Anyway, so I had another look. To my horror the prop anode (technical boring bit … sorry, more boring bit coming up) was loose and had slid down and was banging the P bracket when the prop went round.
Jean and I had a crisis meeting.
I had to think of a really good reason why I shouldn’t swim under the boat and unscrew the offending anode. Reasons like: Jelly fish, cold, cold and dark, cold dark wet and fully of jelly fish etc all sprang to mind. Next morning, in a vain attempt to impress Jean, I braved the jelly fish and managed to saw off the offending anode, leaving us without our ticks and without an anode.
After such gallantry and terror, we sailed off to L’Orient (which I thought was a 1960s 4th division football team) but which turned out to be a big comfortable Marina (complete with anode shop).
From L’Orient with 3 hours of rain but some good sailing we are now back in Loctudy and ready to wend our way slowly back towards UK.
We left Loctudy (first major marina on the left after you get to South Brittany ) on 21st June and headed south. We tried anchoring off Pomfret (?chips?) Island but decided on the basis of a (wrong) weather forecast to press on to a proper port called Port Tudy. We arrived bit late and ended up rafted with 6 other boats on two mooring buoys. The Glenans (local boaties) had been out racing and now were out drinking (Glenans are Island sailors cum terrorists who appear to control this neck of the woods). Anyway after a noisy night, the boat inside us on the raft announced it was leaving, disconnected all our ropes and set us adrift at the same time as the island ferry came in … well, we survived and got away having lost only one fender and a lot of sweat.
Next to Belle Ile. Belle indeed. Moored outside the harbour (Sauzon). Very nice. (Must be good because David sent me a text of approval.) Hot and sunny. 2 nights there. Nice walk along the coast. Swim off a sandy beach with nasty man-eating jelly fish.
Next to the little island of Houat. Anchored off the beach. Nice walk through the “town”, down to the harbour, over to a lovely sandy beach, nice swimming (no jellies).
Now Hoedit. Beautiful little island. Lovely beach (nasty giant carnivorous jelly fish). Beer in café.
As you can see being a retired GP is quite demanding.
After all this island hopping, it was time we found a shop and generally filled things up. So off to Piriac (Known locally as “Piriton”). Nice seaside town. Good food. A supermarket and a proper market-market .. bought some beans (French ones).
2 nights in Piriac. Hot and sunny.
Next to the “Morbihan”. This is huge inland sea, full of islands and channels and boats and mud banks with water gushing in and out (known locally as “tides”). Anchored off the Ile d’Arz. Lovely.
Now off back to Belle Ile. Looked in at Palais (the Island’s capital) We were horrified at the (tiny) parking place (berth) we were offered and (wisely) ran away (sailed back out to sea) and up the coast to good old Sauzon (see above). Sauzon, you will remember has nice, easy to pick up mooring buoys, excellent weather, good food, pleasant walks but some big jellies.
Now, throughout this time, when sailing fast or motoring at all, we’ve been hearing this “tick tick tick (etc)” from under the boat. Was it a Glenian bomb (“Berm” in French)? Or something stuck to the propeller? I’d had a look (very briefly) in Guernsey harbour and noted that the water was very cold and dirty and the bottom of the boat was also .. well .. cold and dirty and also well .. under water. I’d had a second look at Houat and noted that not only was it cold under the water under the boat but that there were jellies. Anyway, curiosity plus the will to survive (we wouldn’t like it if something important dropped off the bottom of the boat mid channel (the propeller for example). Anyway, so I had another look. To my horror the prop anode (technical boring bit … sorry, more boring bit coming up) was loose and had slid down and was banging the P bracket when the prop went round.
Jean and I had a crisis meeting.
I had to think of a really good reason why I shouldn’t swim under the boat and unscrew the offending anode. Reasons like: Jelly fish, cold, cold and dark, cold dark wet and fully of jelly fish etc all sprang to mind. Next morning, in a vain attempt to impress Jean, I braved the jelly fish and managed to saw off the offending anode, leaving us without our ticks and without an anode.
After such gallantry and terror, we sailed off to L’Orient (which I thought was a 1960s 4th division football team) but which turned out to be a big comfortable Marina (complete with anode shop).
From L’Orient with 3 hours of rain but some good sailing we are now back in Loctudy and ready to wend our way slowly back towards UK.
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