Witch’s log, star date 1st to 5th of June, 2018.
We finally set off for the big adventure by leaving Plymouth on the 1st at 16:00 towards France. Matthew had arrived the night before ready to join the crew which, at this point, comprises him, David and myself.
An exciting one and a half days at sea without seeing land with a bit of everything; big swell, then calm, amazing starlight sky, seeing the moon rise, avoiding a fleet of trawlers in the middle of the night were amongst the few.
The sunrise on the 2nd was spectacular. Due to a southwesterly wind not allowing us to take a direct route, most of the day was spent going along big ships on traffic lanes on a westerly tack, while doing small southerly tacks to progressively cross the lanes.
Thanks to AIS and other ships being able to see us too, we lived through the excitement of being contacted by a big cargo ship on VHF (incidentally with Portuguese/Madeira registration) and cordially arranging to change course 20 degrees to let it pass on our port.
Even though the original plan was to make more progress and reach Chenal du Four, it was late and we decided to aim for L’Aber Wrac’h instead. The approach and pilotage came at 00:00 when we lowered sails and followed the light navigation aids which Matthew had carefully studied and guided us with. Going up a river / channel with the tide against us is not easy and took a while. We finally arrived at around 2:00 of the 3rd (UK time) and moored along the visitors pontoon.
The following day was spent resting, visiting the village, and tasting French wine.
We then set off on the 4th for a short passage to L’Aber Ilduit just before Chenal du Four where we took shelter due to forecast strong NE winds and the need for the tide to turn in our favour (with 3+ knots of current).
Mooring turned out to be an extraordinary adventure and we will definitely have won the prize of the most creative mooring line picking technique ever. SD Faithful and Speedy Gonzales were made part of the story and I shall say no more 😂
We had dinner on board, are currently still moored in L’Aber Ilduit and expect to proceed to Camaret-sur-Mer in a few hours, possibly breaking our speed record so far as we’ll be running downwind with a strong tidal current in our favour.
Fair winds we hope and new stories to be told. Until the next one, Witch out.
Hi there, I’m so happy the weather has been treating you well and all appears to go in accordance with your planes. No so much the currents, but well!!. It sounds so cool to to find kind and polite sea users that help you out when you most need it. The fotos look amazing… oh if i could have been there for the wine tasting!! Wish you a very wonderfull journey …continuation. Grande beijinho Joao, David and Matthew