Onward to Spain

21st July 2015

Martin arrived in Benodet, having sailed from Guernsey to Weymouth, trained to Plymouth, ferried to Roscoff, got a lift in a car to somewhere remote near Quimper and then hitched to Benodet. Despite this he looked well on arrival.

We spent Tuesday evening discussing the tactics for crossing Biscay.
We needed:
1. Good weather.  Eventually we found a forecast that looked satisfactory, especially if we could reach Spain before it got windy (Friday).
2. Food for 5 nights (just in case).
3. A watch system (Martin suggested we should do  2 hours on (helming etc) and 4 hours off (sleeping mainly). I opted for the latter.
We didn't need:
1. A dog (Hopeless at the helm, lousy navigators and generally poor conversationalists.)


22nd July 2015

We set off for Coruna in Spain  (326 miles .. roughly)

Jean helming mid Biscay

24th July 2015

We arrived in Viveiro, Spain  (not quite as far as  Coruna)

The crossing, a summary:

The Bay of Biscay is big .. very big  (etc.).  We sailed across it because that is the best thing to do.   Every 2 hours someone got up, someone went to bed and someone was unsure which to do.  We ate a lot and saw many dolphins.  One day we saw 3 whales, really close up.  This was very exciting.
Three quarters of the way across we realised that Viveiro in Spain was nearer than Coruna and was therefore a more sensible destination.
Altogether we were at sea for 47 hours of which we motored for about 25 hours.  In total we drank 357 cups of tea and ate 12 pieces of mouldy fruit cake, 18 flap jacks and had two hot meals. Unfortunately the Eccles cakes ran out on day one and I had to eat Breton Cake for breakfast instead. (Breton Cake is, in fact, a satisfactory substitute for Eccles Cake and, in my opinion, infinitely preferable to the granulated building ballast (with milk) enjoyed by my crew-mates).
We each went to bed and got up 4 times each day.

Jean sleeping 

Martin on watch

En route the engine overheated. This was why.

Why.

We arrived in Spain in good spirits and slept all day.


25th July

We climbed a big hill and enjoyed the view.

The view from the hill overlooking Viveiro (photo Martin)

We also dropped in at a local grave yard. The Spanish appear to do these rather well.

A Spanish graveyard (photo Martin)

When we got back to the boat we had another little rest.


26th July

We set off west for  Cedeira in the direction of  Coruna.
It was windy and rough.
After two and half hours in F6 gusting 7 we gave up and returned to Viveiro where we anchored and Jean I went for a swim.


27th July

We set off early and (remarkably) made it all the way to Coruna  (about 55 miles) without undue stress.  A harbour Dolphin  escorted us out of Viveiro and all the fishing boats lined up and waved.  I believe they often treat English visitors like this on feast days.

Feast day fishing boat procession

Marina Coruna is huge, friendly and generally very good. so we stopped here.

Marina Coruna

Banging Benodet

We like Benodet and its marina.
Pity about the mist and drizzle.

Benodet, although  generally "a good thing" suffers in just two respects:

1.   Very poor supermarket trolleys at Carrefour     ..... possibly more difficult to drive safely than ..... well .... a very difficult thing to drive safely.

2.   Berthing difficulties on Pontoon E during the ebb tide.
We have now been banged into 3 times in the last 2 days. No damage so far but it doesn't aid our otherwise relaxed lifesyle.

Newlyn (England) to Benodet (France)

Dear Reader(s),

Please forgive the lack of photos in this episode.  Normally I would blame the dog.
I blame the dog.

We returned to Newlyn (mainly to get away from the dog) and found the boat still to be there. This was good.

After much eating and rejoicing with Angela and Martin we set sail for The Helford River (which was, I believe, designed and built by Daphne du Maurier). The Helford River is very pretty but also pretty full up with boats. We anchored for the night before setting sail again to see Angela and Martin who brought a lot chicken.  We also saw E and J and T and had a BBQ with them  which was also very nice (I hope this isn't too cryptic for you, Dear Reader ?).

Next off, Falmouth Marina to L'Aber Wrac'h (Jean helped me spell that).
Falmouth to L'Abers is a long way and involved sailing at night and not bumping into fishing boats in the dark fog at 0300.  It is also important not to get stuff wound around ones propeller when avoiding fishing boats in the dark French fog.
We arrived and slept very well next day.

We like L'Abers.

An important question:
Can fame be achieved by seeing someone famous, especially if one manages to say a very relaxed and generally unconcerned sounding "Good morning" to the famous couple when returning from the boulangerie as well as pretending not to be even slightly excited when the said couple followed us to our restaurant and sat at a table (almost) next to us?
The said couple being none other than Libby and Paul ....... need I say more ?

Where to from L'Abers ? (I hear you say)

Ushant   ... why not? ( I've been working on that one).
We visited Le Stiff in Ouessant but found him to be remarkably alive (think about it).
On Ouessant we hired bikes and went to a museum and a Tea shop (but no sign of the Irish Premier there).

Next off La Molene.  "A sand bank with houses".
We had a nice walk. No celebrities  (ourselves excluded), par des stiffs, mais c'est jolie, je croix.

From La Molene to Camenbert. A small fishing village near Camaret. We liked it so much that Jean went for a run and we stayed 3 days.

Camaret to St Evette. We anchored and slept well.

St Evette to Benodet
We are in the very nice marina where we will wait for Martin.
Martin is weatherproof and will help us cross The Bay.