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.
The sailing started of beautifully. Very close hauled with little wind and the tide behind us we were making good speed in almost the right direction.
After a few hours the wind died completely and I needed to motor the rest of the way. With the current much stronger than expected we arrived in Roscoff at 4:30 in the morning. A bit scary because the area is full of rocks and there was no moon. But we had a starry night with lots of shooting stars again and I had wished many times not to do anything stupid during the approach to the harbor or screw up the mooring manoeuvre.
The Reed’s says about this harbor that there is a strong current in the marina and there were big red warning signs on the harbor wall saying the same thing as I entered. I was now a bit more scared than usual. I don’t know how many times I circled around the place (nobody had answered my vhf call, and nobody was up at this time of course). I was almost ready to give up because all the free places were downtide and there would be no way for me to stop the boat in time. But I was also tired and desperate to get a quiet place to sleep. Anchoring wasn’t a good option because there was a low coming with lots of wind.
I found a place at last and the manoeuvre went unbelievably well. All that wishing must have done something.
After a few hours of sleep I paid the harbor dues and went into town which is very crowded with tourists and very beautiful. Did some grocery shopping and tried out my boat studio setup which was a blast. Will do more of that once I have crossed the big bad bay of Biscay and have that time window out of my head.
