Martin joined us.
To France!
We left Noss for France, stopping only to buy a new nav light in Dartmouth.
We left the Dart at 1200 and set sail for L'Aberwrac'h. Arrived 0630. Pretty quick, eh?
A gratuitous picture of a swan
On the way Doris died. (Doris is the autopilot). We had to steer ourselves.
The plotter went on the blink .... literally.
Bacon and eggs on arrival. Sleep. Lunch. Supper. Bad weather forecasted for 2 days time.
3 June 2017
We mended Doris! Hoorah! A broken wire in the lazarette. Now there were 4 of us aboard again.
4 June 2017
Sailing to South Brittany now looked even more difficult and we risked "being Laberwrached" if we waited for a weather window. So off to Morlaix.
Doris took us quickly to the Channel de Isle de Batz. All easy till Martin suggested (and I agreed) that it would be easier to take down the mainsail on the run, than to mess around with all that "going head-to-wind" stuff. I nearly went overboard. Martin's shout of "hold on" may have saved the day.
We rush up the river to Morlaix on a falling tide. Had we run out of water, we would have been DOOMED but we didn't so all was well. We were the last boat to lock in.
Morlaix Marina was being dredged. I had toothache.
5 June 2017
1500 small children cycled through Morlaix on Le Petit Toure de France.
6 June 2017
The very nice lady in the Tourist Information Office telephoned some local dentists for me.
" 'Av you an appointmont pour dis old inglish chap wiv dee toothake, per favor?"
Dentist 1: "Not till September"
Dentist 2: "Non" (or possibly something briefer)
Dentist 3: "Maybe phone back tomorrow"
so .. off to Brest Hospital. Nice ride on nice train. Nice walk in nice city. Intersting wait in what appeared to be a maternity clinic. Very pleasant chat with most pleasant dentist. Pleasantly reassured that my own treatment (random ingestion of random time-expired antibiotics and analgesics) was doing the job. All sorted for 23 Euros. Train back Morlaix. What a nice day!
Leaving Morlaix
7 June
To the Penallan anchorage.
We picked up a mooring. Martin wound a mooring line around his leg asI tried to pull his arm off with a boat hook. It will heal with time.
Supper aboard.
8 June
To Roscoff Marina.
Roscoff Marina is new and very nice and clean and shiny.
We had a walk to the old town and the new supermarket and then got lost on the way home (Jean suggested a short-cut .. I note this because it is normally my job to suggest poorly planned last minute route alterations).
We fixed a bad connection in the battery bank and, at a stroke, increased our Albatross' apparent battery capacity by about 400%. If I had done this sooner we would not have had to turn off the fridge at night ever since our arrival in Troon in 2012.
I jest not.
9 June
To Dartmouth. A weather window beckons.
Up at 0400. Much too dark to go sailing... we had forgotten that French Summer Time means it's still dark in France when it's light in England. We left at 0500 FST. Arrived in Dartmouth 2000 BST. Broad reach all the way. Slept on board. Back to SG, then back to Essex. Bonzo was fine.
15 June 2017
Angela had joined us. This was very nice.
We drove to Noss with the outboard on my new bracket on the back of the car.
A man at Noss Marina asked me if I thought that the Skoda was really sufficiently bouyant to be used as a boat.
Outboard-powered Skoda
Jean lost my hat.
16 June
A beat to the Yealm. No problems. A lovely sunny day. Busy but room on the upper pontoon.
Brittany cake for tea.
A nice day!
The Yealm
17 June
A day off in Newton Ferrers.
I changed the engine oil. We had supper at Yealm Yacht Club.
I watched a man paddling a stand-up paddle board from the kneeling position whilst his dog stood at the front apparently trying to sniff out fish. I thought that the driver was supposed to to stand up on a stand up paddleboard not the dog. Bonzo would have been furious.
Man and dog on SUP
18 June
Fowey.
A beautiful hot sunny day.
Fowey (note blue sky)
To Plymouth. Mayflower Marina, very good but a long walk to the city.
20 June
Farewell Angela. A walk to see Lizzy.
21 June
The three of us (just Jean, Doris and me) sailed and motored back to the Dart.
