Category: France

The Harbor Festival was in full swing. I borrowed a bicycle from the harbor office to make a run into Brest and have a look. There was a huge crowd and hardly anything to see. Most was taking place out on the water. 
I went to the local Decathlon store and bought a pair of deck shoes. My old one had disintegrated in the UV light. For the next day I had an invitation to go out sailing with the Altensa crew from Wales and I didn’t want to show up with those rags of shoes of mine. We went out around noon and I think I’ve never seen so many ships in one place.

Continue reading “Brest”

I had originally wanted to make another movie of this passage and I do have a bit of footage. In the majority of the shots you would have seen me whining and complaining about the weather. So I decided to write about the trip instead and try to be a bit more matter-of-fact and less emotional about it. 
I left Angra on Thursday, June 27 in the afternoon for the 1200 nautical passage to the Scilly Islands in England. I had gone for a swim at the city beach, the weather was beautiful and I was ready to go. I had said goodbye to Andi and Kudi who had left a few hours before and to Gerrit and Manuel who were staying. 
We were going to have the wind on the nose for quite some time. That much was clear but I was hoping to be able to sail against it without too much tacking and the weather didn’t look like it was going to get any better soon. 

Continue reading “The last Transat passage from Agra and a change of plans”

Absolutely no wind today.. as forecast. But I needed to get to Camaret which is only 35 miles away in order to be able to catch my weather window to cross Biscay. It’s all looking very good for a Wednesday departure. 

Continue reading “Camaret sur Mer”

I had waited out the storm and left with the tide to pass through the somewhat scary Chenal de l’Île de Batz. Once inside it wasn’t as scary as on the chart. The wind was supposed to be variable and very little but we made good progress under sail. After a while it died completely and we motored for a bit but the wind came back. Out of the west of course. But we had the tide with us and no real waves (except for some large atlantic rollers that were a welcome change).

Continue reading “L’Aber Wrac’h”

After having accompanied Zissi to the bus I went back to bed for a few hours, did some grocery shopping, filled one of the jerry cans with diesel and got ready to cast off with the evening tide.
The wind was weak and coming out of the wrong direction but the next days weren’t looking much more promising and so I wanted to make the 60 mile passage to Roscoff overnight and expected to arrive some time the next morning.

Continue reading “Roscoff”

Another great sailing day. We raised the anchor when it was still almost dark and then made our way through the anchorage and out to sea. We were soon flying along with the wind and the tide and the 48 miles went by faster than expected so that we were able to reach St. Quay Portrieux in the afternoon. Instead of having to raft up with lots of other boats we were able to grab a finger berth to ourselves and were soon exploring the beautiful town.

Continue reading “St. Quay – Portrieux”

A French couple we had met in Sark had told us that this here (Sark) is all very nice but the Îles Chausey are their paradise. So we thought why can it not be our paradise, too and a plan was made for getting there. In order to make the best of the tide we would have to leave St. Helier at a time when we wouldn’t be able to cross the bar. So we left the evening before and anchored in Belcroute Bay next to St. Aubin’s Fort. It was a place with a nice view and quiet at first but for some reason it got really rolls overnight and we couldn’t sleep again. I have yet to figure out where that swell came from. 

Continue reading “Îles Chausey”