Rain and sunshine in eternal spring

Veröffentlicht am 14. Dezember 2014 von admin

I spent a few days on the anchorage while my crew mustered off (hat abgemustert) to pursue their own itinerary. Because a storm was forecasted and the ground of the anchorage had not a good reputation for its holding character in storms I asked in the marina despite it was still full with boats waiting and preparing for the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC). And luckily I got a nice berth in the central area of the marina.
Anyway, these days before the ARC were really crazy. People everywhere, queues in the chandlery, in the toilet and showers, everyday more people arriving by plane or boat, the bars packed with people. But I had planned to be here because I wanted Jörg Drexhagen of Yachtfunk.de to take a look onto my SSB. It took a few days until he came on board. Meanwhile I was reading the ads of people wanting to crew on a boat that crosses the Atlantic. I hadn´t tied the last knot of my mooring lines and already people came along the pontoon and asking whether I need crew. I answered yes I need but only for January. For most of them that was not interesting at this moment but this way I met some really nice and lovely people. And also old aquaintences arrived with their boats from the various surrounding islands like Fuerteventura and also Madeira. E.g. Makara who had left Madeira with us but had spent a week on Tenerife or Trude who had left Cascais with us.

Checking the SSB
Ok, I had Jörg on board and after looking and checking and doing some tests with whistling into the handset of the SSB-radio he said that the ground of the system is not good enough and that I should paint the bilge with copper paint he is usually selling but he was out of stock, that the radio is transmitting with only 50% of its capacity because it is built this way and that I need 3 to 4 stand offs for the antenna cable which I could buy from him for 25 Euros per piece. For a better ground he offered me to buy as a makeshift for 180 Euros three cables I should lay along the bilge. He also took a look at my VHF-radio and said that it is sending only with a fraction of its normal transmission power and that I should better exchange the decades old Danish VHF for a modern one. The analysis of the two radios cost me 50 Euros.
I at least ordered a new VHF in Bremen at SVB which was sent to Leo in Hamburg because he was coming to visit me that coming week.
When he arrived the weather was quite bad so we spent the first day to install the VHF which all in all was not a difficult job. So now I have a proper DSC device and we even managed to connect it to the GPS so that it also transmits the position in case of an emergency.

Sailing to the south of Gran Canaria

Helicopter rescue demonstration for the ARC participants

The next day the ARC had its start and after we had seen off some boats who I had met, like the boat and same skipper I sailed the ARC two years ago, we also set sails to sail just 9 miles south to Taliarte. We arrived there a little after dark. I knew from the hand book that they had no facilities for visiting yachts but we saw a nice swimming pontoon where we moored. But instantly a security guard showed up and told us in Spanish that we should leave and go to Las Palmas. We asked why we could not stay there and he said very excited and determined that the pontoon belonged to the city council and nobody was allowed to moor there. When we did not immediatly showed a will to leave he asked us for our papers. The problem was that the pontoon had no connection to the land so we could not just hand him our papers. He then told us to come with the boat to the quay wall. I did not like that idea at all because the wall was made for fishing boats with big dirty tires as fendrs, rusty chains and bollards big as our boat. And even worse the wall had an edge jumping back almost exactly at the height of our deck and there was still some swell in the harbour. With fenders hanging quite high we could just avoid the boat being pushed against this edge. This was the situation at low water so after a while the water had risen and the edge was no problem any more. But due to the swell the boat was still moving forward and backward a lot and I was all the time afraid of it hitting the really horrible looking wall. At low tide it was so high and no ladder anywhere we had to build a rope ladder from some lines to get onto the quay to give the guard our papers. He drove away with them and came back 10 minutes later. He handed us our papers back and said we could stay for one night.
Ok, „thank you“ we thought (and some more things I will not write here) and so we stayed. We cooked a simple pasta dinner.
In the middle of the night I woke up at high water although I had not set my alarm clock. I checked the mooring lines and the fenders, adjusted their height a little bit but overall everything was fine. Now at high water it was no problem to reach the quay, I could step down from the deck onto it.
The next morning after breakfeast we set sail, just the genoa, and sailed in a beautiful downwind course to Posito Blanco. The wind was blowing with force 6 but only until a certain point where many wind mills were installed.

Leo and me on our way from Taliarte to Posito Blanco

Beyond that point the wind had almost completely died and we even had to tack (Kreuzen) the last few miles.
Posito Blanco is a yacht harbour next to a golf course in the middle of nowhere. When we moored at the reception quay Senem and Didem, two Turkish women from Istanbul, who were looking for a boat to cross the ocean and who I had met in Las Palmas, visited us and we walked to Maspalomas, a well known big holiday place with only hotels and holiday apartments but it has a wonderful beach with big sand dunes.

Lying under palm trees!

SeaBelow from mast top of neighbouring boat Lisa

Picture taken by the crew of the German yacht Lisa who we had met first in Cascais in Portugal and who were lying next to us in Posito Blanco.

With Senem and Didem on the beach walk of Maspalomas

Sunset at Maspalomas light house

Perfect sail back to Las Palmas

We admired the sunset and went to one of the many restaurants there. They had to go back to their hosts and Leo and I sailed the next day to the just 6nm distant Puerto Rico. A place even more purpose developed for tourists. It was a beautiful sail, no ocean swell, bright sunshine and a light breeze. We had beer on the beach and afterwards checked the bars out. It was off season so in most bars were not many guests, only in the Rock´n Roll bar were many people. We got ourselves a beer and because it was still early in the evening, we sat at a table with anti-slip stainless steel sheet metal as cover. I found that strange but took it as just a design item. But not long after I had put my glass onto this surface a waiter came and politely asked me to put the glass in the Rinne that was on each side. I did not understand why but did as I was told. Not long after Leo had come back from the toilet we learned why. One of the body builder shaped waiters jumped onto the table and started to dance. Immediatly several short skirted and high heeled girls jumped onto the table as well, now dancing right in front of us with skirts short that you could see almost everything.
Aha, we thought, are we men supposed to dance there as well? At least for me it would have been a bit difficult, because the beams of the ceiling were so low, that I constantly would have hit my head.
Anyway, after a while this dancing was over and because it had gotten late, we drunk and we wanted to sail 40nm miles back to Las Palmas the next day we went to sleep.
The next morning we found much better wind then forecasted meaning we had the wind from the back almost all the way up the coast. One hour before sunset the wind died and came back very weak from ahead so for the last 8 nm we turned the engine on because we wanted to be in the harbour at a reasonable time.

Back in Las Palmas

The next day the skipper of the German catamaran Cayluna celebrated his birthday and had invited us among other German sailors to the Asian restaurant Wok in the El Muelle shopping centre near the cruise ship terminal. It was really excellent all-you-can eat-buffet where you could choose also raw meat and sea food and get it cooked in front of your eyes in the kitchen. Especially the meat was excellent, seldom found in restaurants.
The next day, Saturday, Leo and I went to the Las Arenas beach on the west coast of Las Palmas to watch the high waves because a storm was blowing like it had not for ten years the people said. The beach was closed for swimming and we were hiding behind a corner of a house for not to be hit by the rain and wind and in the evening we went out dancing with Senem and Didem. The next day, Sunday, Leo already had to fly back home.
The following days I spent with working on the boat and with Senem and Didem and their skipper and his first mate, because they had meanwhile found a boat. They left on 6. December and hopefully they have a safe journey.

New try to fix the SSB
So, after everybody had left I was able to concentrate again more on my boat. I called an old German guy to look once more into my SSB. He was the first one to examine the machine in a way I thought it should be done. I brought a device with him to measure the sending signal and the reflected signal, which tells how good the radio is working. He said the antenna tuner was ok, but that the radio had a problem and he took it with him. When he brought it back he was very pleased with its function. But he said as well as others before that I have to improve the ground of the antenna. For that we went to a shop to get 3,5sqm of copper foil I put into the bilge, soldered the stripes together (die Blechstreifen zusammenlöten) and he also wants to make me a new antenna because the thing also did not work properly.

Madeira to Las Palmas

Veröffentlicht am 29. November 2014 von admin

At 11:45 on Thursday 13. November 2014 we lifted the anchor and set course almost south to Las Palmas, 285 nm ahead. As usual the wind was blowing much stronger than forecasted and from south west so we were going high up to the wind. Therefore unfortunately Maria got sea sick but far severe than the last time and she had developed a strong will not to let herself be put down by it. Luckily we could most of the time could sail almost on the rhumb line (direct course) and we made good progress under three reefs and a small genoa. During the night the wind got less strong and we could reef out and it also turned (this time as forecasted) to a northerly direction and we could sail butterfly. The wind was nice through the second day and on the morning of the third day it had calmed so much that we were not doing our usual 6 knots any more but „only“ four to five. But we any way arrived at Las Palmas in the afternoon of Saturday 15.11.2014 and went to the anchorage of Las Palmas.
Some hours later Mike also arrived and he brought a huge Bonito fish with him, about 20kg heavy. So we had Sushi and fried fish that evening with him, and the next evening with some neighbours and also on the third evening.

Breaking sheets! / Brechende Schoten!

Veröffentlicht am 9. November 2014 von admin

On Friday 07. November we had tried to sail from Porto Santo to Madeira but 2nm after we had left the harbour the wind died and it did not look as if it would pick up again during the day. So the girls took the chance to take a swim and we tried out an 33 year old automatic life jacket. Maria put it on and jumped into the water. And surprisingly after ca. 10 seconds it started to blow itself up. I was very surprised that it still worked after being not serviced for many years and looking quite rotten. Julia and Maria swam an hour next to the boat back to Porto Santo where we joined the other boats in the anchor field.
But the next morning, Saturday 8. November, the wind was fair and from north east which meant a downwind course. We left the anchorage at the same time as Mike and Asa on Seahawk, the Dutch boat Pacific had left a little earlier and the American catamaran Makara had been the very first to start.
So we started with Seahawk by sunshine and under spinaker. We were considerably quicker and were even able to catch up with Pacific because they had not put up their full sail area, otherwise we would have had no chance with them being twice as long as us. We were doing well over 6knots, sometimes even 7.
After we got out of the swell protection of the island Porto Santo the wind increased, it started to shower occasionally and the speed went in the surf to over 8 knots. Time to get the spinaker down. I had just said to Julia and Maria that this is getting to dangerous when with a big bang the windward sheet of the spinaker broke. So I went to the foredeck and pulled the cover over the spinaker and it was almost in. I then saw that the sheet apparently broke exactly within the knot because there was no piece of rope on the sail left. Now I know how much the 8mm ropes hold.
We carried on just under the mainsail because we were not really slower than with the spinaker. When later the wind decrease we rolled out the genoa and put the sails in butterfly position.
Meanwhile Pacific had overtaken us so we just could follow them without staring at the compass all the time. When we approached the north-east tip of Madeira with its light house we also saw Makara coming from the south east but they took a little detour to a natural arch in the cliffs.
After rounding the corner we tacked up the coast for 2,5nm to the anchorage in the Baia de Ariba. Pacific had arrived literally a few minutes earlier and it took them two attempts to find a spot where their anchor holds. We luckily found at the first attempt a spot that had a very good holding ground.
But the weather was not the very best. Strong gusts of wind made a howling wind in the rigging and the occasional showers of drizzling rain continued.
Soon after us Makara arrived and then also Seahawk sailed into the bay. She managed to sail all the way to her anchor spot.
In this bay we finally managed to hollow our pumpkin we had originally bought for Halloween a week earlier and it gave us a delicious Pumpkin soup.

Later we went over to the American Catamaran Makara and had a little party evening with our hollow pumpkin and a freshly backed chocolate cake. Unfortunately Mikes dinghi had flipped over and the outboard enginge had gotten wet. He tried to fix it immediatly with my tools but in the dark with only a head lamp on and a wind shaken boat it was too difficult. So he left it until the morning, being grumpy at the beginning of the evening. But then with sun light and calmer conditions in the cockpit of his boat, he got it back running after a short while.

Here are pictures of that day: Porto Santo to Madeira

Stormy passage to the Madeira Archipelago

Veröffentlicht am 9. November 2014 von admin

After we had changed from Seixal to the marina Doca dos Nacoes at the former Expo area of the Expo 1998 we once again changed to the marina Doca de Alcantara where I had asked a technician to come onboard to check the SSB. But all he did was to tune in to a normal short wave radion station to show me that the SSB was receiving a signal. To his opinion everything was alright. He did not even connect the simplest measuring device to check the strength of the transmission signal. He had not understood that I had a general problem with the thing and that I actually wanted the whole system systematically checked whether everything is alright. But he gave all the impression that he was absolutely not interested in repairing an SSB. He regarded it as old fashioned and dead technology. He said that the Portuguese Coastal Radion Stations had stopped to operate SSB services because the commercial ships now all have satellite phones and hardly anybody of them is using it any more. So from his point of view it was pointless to have one.
Ok, at least he did not charge anything for telling me that.
That had been one of the reasons to stay in the Doca de Alcantara, the other was that we thought it was more central. By geography it is but effectively it is not much closer to the interesting Barrio Alto and central Lisbon districts than the Doca dos Nacoes, instead indeed noisier from the big bridge and the neighbouring container terminal. The advantage of the Doca dos Nacoes is that it is really quiet, they have the nicer showers and a proper office building with a nice sitting area.
So there were no more reasons to stay there and we changed to Cascais, at the mouth of the Tejo where Mike was at anchor and where we wanted to wait for the right wind to go to Porto Santo. In Cascais we met several other long term sailors almost all on their way to the Canary Islands. The weather fore cast said that there was a good weather window when leaving on Thursday 30. October or on Saturday 1 November with the latter one seeming to be the better one because one would have northerly winds from the beginning.
The challenge of this passage is that you need the right wind for 3 to 5 day because it is a distance of 465 nm to Porto Santo. Almost all boats decided to go on Saturday with the disadvantage that for Monday Night a strong wind band of up to 30 knots (Bft.7) was forecasted. But with the good winds on Saturday and Sunday one should be ahead of it.
So Mike already started a 7 am, we started at 12:00 pm and others started at around 3pm.
At first we had even to point south, but once we got off the coast we could directly 225° to Porto Santo. We decided not to go a bit more west first hoping for the forecast to be right that the wind would change to north which would have given us a nice downwind course. We said „No“, the direct course is the quickest because one never knows how correct the forecast is“.
We had a beam reach (Halbwind) course on the first day and a force 4-5 Bft in the night so we had only the mainsail up because we had to fix something on the Genoa sheet (Genuaschot) which we had only noticed at sunset. So we had to leave it till the next morning. But even with that small sail we did 5 to 5.5 knots. And we had a sailing yacht directly in front of us all through the night. The distance did not change, which was very strange because usually boats do not travel at the same speed.
But at night fall we all started to get seasick. Even me threw up (sich übergeben) and nobody was interested in the good food or even the pumpkin we had bought. But everybody managed to do his / her watch. We were doing 6 knots on the average so we had already covered 150 nm until Sunday noon, which is a third of the distance. But unfortunately Julia and Maria did not get over their seasickness a were bound to their bunks (Kojen) occasionally trying to eat and drink something which sometimes stayed in the stomach, sometimes came out a bit later. So Asa and me were sharing the watches which worked actually quite well because thanks to Peter Förthmanns Windpilot the watch keeper did not have much to do besides taking a look around every ten minutes. Usually there was nothing although I have to admit that at least during the first half of the journey there were several ships, probably on their way to the Strait of Gibraltar. And also during the second night we had sailing yacht all the time some miles either in front of us, behind or net to us.
With a little bit reefed sails also the Monday was ok.
But on Tuesday morning we were hit be the strong wind band. The boat was sometimes falling from a wave and banging heavily into the wave valley and one time I thought we had hit something solid swimming in the water when a wave hit us directly from the side. All the time we spray coming over, also sometimes flying all the way to the cockpit. But at 10 am a lot of water flew into the cockpit, filling the holds in the sides of the cockpit (Schwalbennester) where apparently were some wholes through which I got wet in my bunk under the cockpit. And simultaneously Asa shouted „Jan, Jan, I need your help here“. So I jumped into my foul weather gear (Ölzeug) and went on deck. It was clear that reefing the sails would ease the situation. So I bound the third reef into the main sail and furled in the jib down to storm sail size. With that sail area we were still doing 6,5 knots but the boat moved much smoother and we had almost not heavy water coming over any more. So I could go back to my bunk, to get some more rest until I had to release Asa on watch. From that point we had still another 60nm to go which at the speed meant we would reach Porto Santo around 9pm. The visibility was excellent, the temperature around 20°C so only the chaotic waves were the problem. But with only 12hours left the end was getting closer.

Under storm sails

Tired and exhausted after three days with little sleep

And so at 10pm we rounded the Ilheu de Cima Light House on the north eastern corner of Porto Santo and were finally in calm waters as the island protected us from the ocean swell. From there it was only another 2 miles to the port. Although the marina in the port was badly lit we found a berth.
At 11 pm we were readily moored (waren mit Anlegen fertig). But the usual mooring beer did not yet really taste, at least my stomach was still to accepting beer, but the sausages Asa had managed to fry underway despite the rocky movements of the boat tasted quite good.
The next morning after sleeping in (ausschlafen) we rinsed the whole boat, insideand outside, the fould weather gear and dried the wet sleeping bags, towels and polsters.
Mike who we had tried to contact under way via VHF radio (UKW-Funkgerät) had also arrived during the night so we mutually happy to see that had arrived sound and safe. Ilko, the dutch skipper of a big ketch, had arrive earlier but had to keep the watch for 72 hours because his whole family crew had been seasick And then we were waiting for the sailing yacht called Gegenwind. They arrived a day later because they had heaved to because the were hit by even Bft. 10 in gusts (in Böen) as they said. So eventually everybody had arrived well although we had gotten our good dose of strong wind.
The more happy we were to have beautiful weather on Porto Santo, perfect for a barbecue on the beach. So in the evening of Thursay we were about 20 people from Scotland, USA, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany and England around the barbecue. One of the American crews had caught a Mahimahi fish which was so big they were eating on it since a week and still had loads of it share with us as it had to be eaten because otherwise it would go bad.
Due to the weather conditions not many pictures were taken, I only managed to take a few, but I made little video (in German): On the Atlantic Ocean between Portugal and Porto Santo

Afloat again!

Veröffentlicht am 27. Oktober 2014 von admin

In the Doca de Alcantara in Lisbon.

SeaBelow is back in her element and we are now in the Marina Doca de Alcantara or also known as Doca dos Espanhol. We were first at the Marina Parque dos Nacoes at the former Expo area of the 1998 Expo. There it was very nice and quiet, here in the Alcantara we are closer to the ship chandlers and the like, so I could do some shopping today, e.g. equipping the boats pharmacy. Besides that we are exploring Lisbon, went out for dinner in the Barrio Alto and attended a walking tour on street art and thus learned a bit about Portuguese history, e.g. that this year it is the 40th anniversery of the (peaceful) revolution which brought down the Salazar-regime. Many street art and murals were newly made this year commemorating the revolution. We are now waiting for Maria to arrive and for a good wind to sail to Madeira. It might take a few more days until we get the stable north wind for that.

In den Seilen hängen

Veröffentlicht am 22. Oktober 2014 von admin

In Leixoes waren wir schlußendlich eine geschlagene Woche eingeweht und sind so manche Nacht ordentlich durchgeschaukelt worden. Zum Glück gab es in dem Hafen aber eine Menge andere Boote aus England, Schweden, Irland, Belgien und Frankreich, die so wie wir auf dem Weg nach Süden und die meisten auch auf dem Weg auf die Kanaren und in die Karbik unterwegs waren. Einige waren als Ehepaare unterwegs, andere als Freundesgruppen oder auch einzeln. So habe wir aus der Not eine Tugend gemacht und uns mit allen Abends in einem Restaurant getroffe, als es draußen stürmte und regnete. Zum Glück war es nicht kalt, sondern immer um die 20 Grad warm. Am letzten Sonntag war das Wetter dann wieder sommerlich, weil aber die meisten noch darauf warteten, daß sich die Wellen von einer Woche Sturm erst einmal wieder beruhigen, haben wir noch mal mit allen am Strand gegrillt.

Sonst sind wir mit dem Bus, Taxi oder der Stadtbahn nach Porto gefahren und sind dort im Regen herumgelaufen bzw. haben uns in Museen, Kirchen, Portweinkellern und Cafes und Restaurant vor dem Regen versteckt.Wir haben aber auch viel geschlafen und gelesen.

Am Montag Morgen sind wir dann nach Lissabon gestartet und das Meer war schon wieder ganz ruhig, so ruhig, daß auch der Wind fast mit weg war. So haben wir die 175 Seemeilen in 51 Stunden zurückgelegt, davon aber 18 Stunden motort und dadurch ca. 45% der Strecke zurückgelegt. Aber dabei haben die Mädels ausgiebig gebadet und wir haben unseren ersten Fisch gefangen.

Jetzt sind wir in Seixal gegenüber von Lissabon am Tejo, wo das Boot auch schon gleich aus dem Wasser genommen werden konnte, um so wie geplant, hier den Borddurchlass für das Echolot reparieren zu lassen. Morgen soll das geschehen.

Bilder gibt es hier:https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1025173570843061.1073741829.100000512835060&type=3

From San Vincente de la Barquera to Leixoes

Veröffentlicht am 15. Oktober 2014 von admin

Thursday, 25.9.2014
From San Vicente de la Barquera we went to Ribadesella which was again a port where we could moore for free at a wall. There would have been a marina but we preferred the free of charge wall. The only „payment“ we had to do was to go through a routine check by the Spanish customs. A very polite officer came on board, checked the ships papers, our passports and then went to the Englishmen who were rafted up (im Päckchen liegend) next to us. Although we were the only boats at the wall we had to raft up because there was only one stair.
The main attraction of Ribadesella are the cave paintings. Within 15 minutes footwalk from our berth (Liegeplatz) we reached the visitor centre. Because we did not have a reservation we had to wait until 14:45 to get a guided tour. Unfortunately the tours were only in Spanish but luckily the exhibition in the museum was in English and Spanish. So we got the main information about the detection of the cave and its importance. It is as important as the cave in Lascaux in France.

Friday, 26.9.2014
From Ribadesella we went to Gijon were we arrived at dark. As usual it was a bit challenging to identify the red and green harbour entrance lights from the as well blinking stop lights on the street behind the harbour. But eventually we arrived there after a calm day with little wind.
In Gijon we stayed a day, met some nice German couple already under way since four years (with winter breaks were they return home to Germany) and also our English friends of Stillblue came there again.

Sunday, 28.9.2014
Because we were getting a bit under time pressure we decided to invest a little bit into diesel and go 90 miles in one go to the Ria de Viveiro. It was again a combination of sailing and motoring because the wind was quite weak. But we were rewarded by a clear sky with all the stars and during the day dolphins came up to the boat. The best was a dolphin that found us in the Ria de Viveiro when we checked out a possible anchor bight. Asa managed almost to touch it because it was rubbing its back and belly against our boat. She even got her bikini on to go swimming with the dolphin but by the time she was ready it had gone.

Dolphin rubbing its back against our boat

We shortly went into the marina to shop and after two hours went out again to our anchor spot. It was still early afternoon and we rowed to the beach.
When we were sitting on the rocks on the beach having a coffee and some biscuits we saw the dolphin swimming very close to the beach. Now Asa couldn´t be stopped to go swimming with it. And she went to it and it got so close that she could even touch it!
When we rowed back to our boat we a saw little motor boat close by and were wondering what they are doing so close to SeaBelow. It turned out that they were watching the dolphin how it was playing with our anchor line by rubbing its back against it while swimming along the anchor line either bottom to top or vice versa.

Tuesday, 30.9.2014
We spent a quiet night at anchor there and the next morning we sailed to the Ria de Cedeira where we again anchored close to the fishing harbour. Under a clear sky we had dinner.

Wednesday, 1.10.2014
On Wednesday morning we lifted the anchor and sailed to La Coruna. At first the wind was not very strong but it developed slowly more and more and finally reached 4-5 Beaufort. We arrived in the bight of La Coruna, got into sight the oldest and still used light house, the Torre de Hercules, which was already built by the romans.

The harbour master guided us to a berth close to the washing rooms and the marina is close to the old city. In the marina we soon spotted some other cruising

The oldest still in use light house of the world: The Herkules Lighthouse at La Coruna, erected by the Romans

yachts like us. The Swedish boat Thalassa with three young Swedes on board, Emma with a couple from Norway and some more German and Norwegian boats.
As it was Bernds last evening we went to the town to eat. We found a place serving mainly tortillas and Asa and I ordered one each, expecting something different from what we finally got. It was basically eggs with potatoes, tasting like Bauernfrühstück. It was so much that we could not finish it and asked for doggy bags. Later we saw that people usually share such a dish among several people. That made perfect sense to us.
Afterwards we went to a different bar where we met the Norwegians also celebrating the last evening of one of their crew. It turned out that he was on the same flight as Bernd the next morning at 7am.

Typical architecture of La Coruna with glas fronts

House in the historic part of La Coruna

Thursday, 2.10.2014
During the day I visited the flat where Pablo Picasso lived for some years from 1891 until 1894 when he was 11 to 14 years old and his father was a professor at the nearby art school. In the house the flat is still in its original state from the 1890ies with the bed rooms, living room, kitchen, bathroom and saloon. During this time he already started to paint.

The interior of the falt of Picasso and his parents 1891 – 1894

The Norwegians invited us to a barbecue for the next evening and Asa asked if we could bring the Swedes as well. So the next evening we had a barbecue on their board and Matthias arrived from Hamburg during the evening. After his arrival the party went on until 3 am, at least for Matthias and me, the others carried on much longer.

Friday, 3.10.2014
On Friday morning Matthias and I visited the old Roman lighthouse.

View from the Herkules Lighthouse out onto the Atlantic Ocean

Because we were determined to sail on that day we left at 4:30 pm and headed for the only 12 miles further Caion in oder to arrive there before sunset at 8:15 pm. Due to calm we arrived there just bevore sunset. It is a tiny little harbour with quite a lot of swell. All the fishing boats were gone so we just picked up a mooring. The worrying thing was that the water was quite shallow and I was a little bit nervous whether we would also have enough water under the keel at low water especially with the swell that intruded into the harbour. But everything went well and no fisherman waked us up during the night asking us to leave his mooring. Because it was late and the whole situation was not very inviting we did not go ashore.

Saturday, 4.10.2014
The next stop was Camarinas in a ria as the fjords are called here in Galicia. There another crew member was waiting for us, Marcos from Madrid. He was already on the pontoon when we arrived and helped us with the mooring. We walked through the littel village which made all in all the impression of being a poor place.

The water front of Camarinas, here one as well finds the typical Galician glass fronts.

Camarinas back street

But we probably found the best restaurant of the place, the marina bar. Usually such places are not famous for their food but the owner was very welcoming, speaking fluent German because he had worked 19 years in Switzerland and he served us a locally caught and freshly prepared fish. Before the fish was prepared he showed us the complete fish. We even had our own dining room. Actually it was the main meeting hall of the local water sports club but is was furnished with dinner tables and we were the only guests in this room. We had asked for a quiet corner because the bar room was packed with people and a TV blarring.

This is a traditional grain storage. It is elevated so that no animals can climb into it. And mushroom-like form of the columns prevent that rats can climb them up.

Sunday, 5.10.2014
On Sunday we sailed to Ribeira. It was an excellent day with mostly sun, a good wind from the right direction but also needed because we had to go 50nm.

Marcos

In Ribeira we anchored off the beach next to the marina. When we arrived just before sunset we had a moderate wind blowing from Land which died around 10pm. But we all woke up during the night at around 4 am because the wind was now blowing strong onto land and producing short steep waves. The anchor was holding perfect so there was no urgent need to do something, it was just a bit uncomfortable also worrying. We tried to get a little bit more sleep unitl sunrise so that we could move to the marina.
So we did after sunrise. But it was an awful day with heavy rain and strong wind and we were stuck to the boat. In the afternoon the wind eased and we took the chance to walk around the little town. It was not much to see and one of our main interests was the coach station because we were planning to go to Santiago de Compostela the next day.

In the marina after a rough night at anchor. You see the anchorage in the background.

Tuesday, 7.10.2014
So we did and it was a very good decision, Santiago de Compostela is a great place even in rain. We got a private tour through the university because some parts of the normal tour were not accessible and no other tourists for the tour anyway.

View from the roof top of the faculty of the faculty of Geography.

Rosi, our guide showed us some of the formal reception rooms that are used by the university adminstration.

In the bigger one the doctorate ceremonies are performed and sometimes the King of Spain is present and we were allowed to sit on this chair.

Faculty of Geography

From the roof top of the faculty of Geography we got a superb view over the city and we even got to see the so called American Library which was initially said to be closed.

And also the actual library where the students were busily working.

Students busily working in the library of the University of Santiago de Compostela. Note that there are no books in the shelves. That is because the library had just been renovated and the books have not yet been put back.

The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela

Galician bag pipe player next to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela

Wednesday, 8.10.2014
From Ribeira we went to the Ria de Aldan just north of Vigo were we again anchored over night.

Thurdsy, 9.10.2014
From there we went around the corner to the Isle of Cies which is part of the Spanish Atlantic National Park.

Rainy but happy on the way to the island of Cies near Vigo

One needs a permit to go there by boat and thanks to our Spanish crew member Marcos we had already gotten via telephone the information what information we needed to hand in. It were the boat driving license, the ID of the skipper and the registration paper of the boat. Then a form had to be downloaded, printed out, filled in by hand. So the printer I had bought came in very handy. And thanks to modern communication possibilities we could do it all via smart phone while lying at anchor. Marcos took photographs of all the documents with his phone, sent it via e-mail ot the national park administration and the next morning he called them. And within 2 hours we got a e-mail back with the permission to go to the island.

When we arrived we saw a beautiful beach and us being the only yacht. We rowed ashore and took a two and a half hour hike up the mountain to the light house and back. Besides the park rangers we did not see anybody else.
But when we came back to the beach we saw three other yachts sailing into the bight. One Swedish and a German boat that were travelling together and a Spansich yacht. So Before we left there were 4 boats at anchor in off-off-season on a remote island!
We then motored to Vigo where we went out for dinner to celebrate the last day of Matthias stay on board. We had a plate of seafood for 4 persons. Most of us ate for the first time several of the food, e.g. crabs, langustines and certain shells.
When we came back and we were asking for the toilets of the yacht harbour we met the crew of a German and of a Norwegian boat the happened to be in the other basin. We chatted with them for a while but met them again the next day.
The yacht harbour at the Real Club Nautico is really good because it next to the old town, has a sauna and swimming pool that are included in the harbour fees.

Here I found the time to repair the Windpilot self-steering system. Matthias had brought a new central axis because in the old one the inner threads (Gewinde) of the central holding bolts were broken, another damage caused by the accident in Eastbourne already back in July. Thanks to the reliable, quick and friendly service of Peter Förthmann of Windpilot I got the spare parts prompt and easy.

Repairing the Windpilot self-steering system in Vigo.

It looks like home: Next to the marina in Vigo is a shopping mall with a Media Markt in it.

We spent two days there. The weather worsened while we were there and for the whole week a southerly wind was forcasted. Everybody was discussing whether to go or not.

Sunday, 12.10.2014
We decided to go on Sunday afternoon over night to Leixoes near Porto. As it turned out it was the perfect decision because we had a wind of 4 to 5 Bft all through the night from north blowing us south. A little while after we had arrived in the middle of the night at 4 am the wind started to turn to west and rain started. We went to sleep and got woken up by the wind howling in the rigg. But that turned out to be only the start. During mid day it must have been in gusts around 9 to 10 Bft. This was the time when Julia arrived to sail with us for some time. The boat was heeling (krängen) so much that the fenders were to low and we got some marks on the boat side from a nail sticking out of the pontoon. So we adjusted the fenders and also moved the boat to the other side of the box. That way it was blown away from the pontoon and no damage could be done by the pontoon.
In the evening the heavy rain stopped and the wind eased and we four, Asa, Julia, Marcos and I, went to nearby Porto and had a very nice dinner to celebrate Marcos last evening on board.

Military playground in the way

Veröffentlicht am 27. September 2014 von admin

From Royan Jacob and I started with the first sun light to sail south towards Spain. We had very calm weather, almost no ocean swell. But the main “obstacle” or awkward thing was the firing range (Schießübungsgebiet) of the French military reaching out 35 miles from the coast from the Gironde estuary down to Capbreton which you are not allowed to enter at any time. They only leave a 3 mile wide strip off the coast on which you can sail between the coast and the firing range. So we had two options. Either to go around it outside but that would have meant almost 200 miles and the logic port would have been Bilbao. The other option was to go along the 3 mile strip. But here you are caught between the coast and the firing range. So in case of bad weather one could easily get into a dangerous situation if you can not sail out to sea to gain room. And on this 100 mile distance there are no harbours. Arcachon is in the middle but it can only be approached at high water and only in good weather the actual harbour is 10 miles into the bight of Arcachon. In and out makes already 20 miles for nothing.
Because the weather was very calm and the forecast was the same we decided to sail on the narrow strip over night. In all the books and charts it was highly advised to get latest up to date information about the firing activities because even this narrow strip is not always safe. So I called the phone number of the operation centre of the firing range and luckily I even got somebody on the phone who spoke good enough English to tell me that only on the Thursday morning it would be unsafe in the area of Mimizan. But we had started on Tuesday morning and the plan was to have passed the whole thing by Wednesday morning. So the Thursday firing practice should not affect us.

The dune of Pyla near Arcachon

At sunrise the next morning we were through and came out at the south end of the strip. Besides some fishing boats there had been no obstacles on the way. Navigation is easy because the coast is straight as a line, no shoals (Untiefen) and all deep almost up to the beach. The easiest thing is to follow the 20m-depth-line. Due to light winds we had to motor half of the distance.
Since it was so early and we were not too tired we skipped Capbreton, which would have been the first port after the firing range and went directly to Hondarribia, the first Spanish port directly on the border to France. At 11:30 we arrived there and after our habitual mooring drink we went to the beach to relax. I wanted to go to this port anyway because I expected my next new crew member here.
The evening we went to town were the streets were packed with people partying with some stages with music and bars playing music outside. It was the festival week celebrating a victory over the French some 300 years ago.
The next day I spent with washing my clothes and Jacob went out to explore the city.
On Friday Jacob had to leave to Bilbao to get his plane back to England.

During the week-end and until Tuesday I spent with some repairs, going to the beach and eating good food in the tapas bars. During all these days it was very hot and almost no wind.

Tuesday evening Asa, a woman from Sweden, arrived by train. The next morning we left for Getaria, a small fishing port ca. 20 miles west of Hondarribia.

It was a nice sunny day but only 10 minutes after we had arrived in Getaria a heavy rain shower came down. We didn´t mind it because we wanted to go to a restaurant. We ran through the rain and our shoes got soaking wet. But we were wearing sandals and it was warm. After dinner the rain had stopped and we were more or less dry. So in the dark we walked through the city.

The peculiar thing about the city was that they have a very big and modern museum about the region in a newly built building that looks far too expensive for this small town. Next to it they had built a tower with a lift in it so you could get up to the upper areas of the city. I have to admit that the city is situated on a very steep slope and that such a lift is a very convenient thing. But it just looks a bit overdone.

The next day it was again calm sailing with not very much wind but we made it to our planned port of Elanchove. This is a tiny little fishing harbour with no marina and only moorings. There wasn´t even a free mooring, we had to squeeze between a 43ft sailing yacht and and motor boat. But it was very calm in there and free of charge.

On Friday morning we left to go to Bilbao to pick up Bernd who had come from Germany.

Parts of the trip we could sail but towards the end the wind had died completely so we had to motor the last third especially because from the outer harbour entrance to the yacht harbour was 3,5 miles of port area.
The marina of Las Arenas, a suburb of Bilbao, is nice with a luxurious yacht club including a swimming pool, is nice but also the price is luxurious. 35 Euros per night including electricity. Nevertheless we booked two nights because we wanted to visit the city the next day.
So we did and between rain showers we looked at the Guggenheim Museum from the outside, saw one jump of the artistic jumping from one of the bridge columns into the river that took place that day, went to the old town and we got all three of us Spanish SIM-cards for our telephones.

On Sunday we sailed further west ward and picked up a mooring at the yacht club of Laredo. The place was nice but after sun set the harbour master came and we were quite shocked when we had to pay 25 Euros for the night. 25 Euros just for the mooring, there is no shower, no electricity. So the mood on board was a bit depressed because we had thought that after the expensive stay in Bilbao we could make good something in the budget.
So the next morning we left as soon as possible after breakfeast with the clear determination to anchor the next night. In the bight of Santander we had identified a corner where we wanted to anchor. When we arrived there we found out that it is not as quiet as we had assumed because we hadn´t taken the ocean swell into account. And on top the anchor did not hold very good. But it was holding good enough in the swell, there was no wind and also no wind forecasted for the night. So we stayed there, with the anchor alarm on the GPS set to 0,02 miles and the echo sounder depth alarm set to 5 metres.
At first I could not sleep as I was worried whether the anchor would hold or not. But eventually I fell asleep, woke up in the middle of the night, checked the situation and our position but it was all in best order. We were only circling around the anchor as the chain and rope permitted. At sunrise we got up, had breakfeast and continued our journey. This day we wanted to go to San Vicente de la Barquera. The books kind of warned to got there but only because there were no facilities for yachts. That fact made it even more attractive for us because it sounded as if the port should be at least cheap.
The approach was easy and we were there at the right tide. Shortly after us came in an English yacht called Stillblue of similar size with a father and his adult sun. We both moored at the quay of fishing boats. We had to bring out very long lines on the bow and stern so that the boat would not hang in the lines when to tide went down.
We looked and asked for a harbour master but the fisher men just shrugged their shoulders. Well, we did not mind the absence of a harbour masters as it meant there is nobody to pay any money to or who would came and charge us.
We went to town for dinner with the two English men and had a very nice evening.
The next day, we spent on sight seeing to the medieval cathedral and castle, interrupted by a lunch in a small restaurant in the narrow streets of the old town.

Before dinner Asa and I went to the beach where many surfers were and we took a swim and tried to body surf a bit.
For dinner we had fish we had bought in the town during the afternoon.

This is not a boat but a restaurant!

Veröffentlicht am 11. September 2014 von admin

On 27.8. Brigitte flew in from London to come on board.

Birgitte cooking dinner with us.

Because she had not sailed so much before and the weather was actually horrible with rain, 5-6 Bft from ahead we took it easy the next day and sailed only to Camaret 11 nm away from Brest.

We picked up a mooring and had Spaghetti Carbonara for dinner. Afterwards the harbour master took us to shore with our dinghy towed for our return to the boat later. We had a nice evening in one of the bars and luckily it had stopped raining when we went back.

The next day, Thursday 28.8. we set sails to St. Evette which included as a navigational challenge the rounding of the Raz du Sein where the hand book strongly advised to be there exactly at slack water (Stillwasser) because otherwise tide against wind could build up dangerous seas. So we started with plenty of time, the weather had improved and we perfectly well timed got through the Raz du Sein.

Sailing vessel just befor Raz du Sein

Coast south of Raz du Sein

Raz du Sein Lighthouse

In St. Evette we also picked up a mooring, slept in the next morning and in best sunny weather wanted to start to sail to the 100nm distant Ile d´Yeu. But the engine did not start. I tested the starter battery but the mulitmeter said that it had a good voltage. So I thought the starter had a failure. But as we were at a mooring it was no problem to leave under sail and wait with the repair of the engine until we are in a proper port.
So with light winds and sun we sailed all through the night with Brigitte and Jacob in one watch and me alone in the other watch. There were almost no other ships and we were far out from the coast so also no other obstacles.
Unluckily the wind got less and less during the night. In the morning we put the genoa and the main sail in butterfly position which helped a little bit but when the wind had died almost completely we were doing only 2 – 2,5 knots. We already well saw the Ile d´Yeu but because the engine did not start we had to be patient. I thought that this would be the right moment to try out the spinaker. I got it out, arranged the sheets (Schoten), barber hauler, down haul and the spinaker boom lift. The spinaker itself is in a long canvas tube (Segeltuchschlauch). So you first hoist this tube and with a line you can lift up the tube from the bottom to the top to unfold the spinaker. This way even with a small crew of just three people it was no problem to set the spinaker. Even with two persons and an autopilot it would be possible..
The spinaker instantly gave us one knot more of speed.

First time under spinaker

In the late afternoon we had finally reached Port Joinville on the Ile d´Yeu. Because the engine was still not working we had to moor under sail. It almost went alright but I had underestimated the turning circle of the boat. When turning in the harbour basin under sail to go alongside the pontoon we hit the pontoon with our bow a little bit. A little bit of wood had been scratched off the pontoon and on the boat the metal rail on the bow took most of the impact. So no serious damage had happened. We hooked up to shore power to charge the batteries. After some quick shopping for dinner I tried to start the engine and it started! So it had been just the flat batteries and nothing was broken on the engine. That was a great relief. So I was very happy that evening even despite the little damage on the bow.

Les Sables d´Olonne

The next day, Saturday 31.8. we very nicely sailed the 30 miles to Les Sables d´Olonne. But when I wanted to set the spinaker the spinaker halyard (Spinakerfall) got caught in the furling system of the genua and jammed it (blockierte es). That meant we could not set the spinaker neither furl in or out the genoa. So with a ¾ of a genoa and the main sail we sailed to Les Sables d´Olonne. In the approach to the harbour we furled (wickeln) the genoa by hand around the forestay (Vorstag). That was quite difficult because we had already 4Bft of wind an the sail was madly flapping in the wind.
After we had moored Brigitte and Jacob hoisted me up to the mast in a bosuns chair (Bootsmannsstuhl) and I untangled the halyard.
Afterwards we went to the bars and had some beers.

Drinks in Les Sables d´Olonne

The next day, Monday 1.9.2014 we sailed 42 miles to La Rochelle. The day started with little wind but we made the best out of it and took a swim in the ocean from board.

Jacob jumping

Jan jumping

Because we arrived only after sunset and the handbook had recommended not to go to the old harbour at dark, we went to the modern marina with 4000 (!) places.

Sunset off the coast of the Ile d´Oléron

It had just been extended and apparently due to the construction work the navigation marks on the harbour entrance had not yet been corrected, at least it was all different from the sea charts. But with great caution, a very strong search lamp and the chart plotter we safely found the entrance and eventually a free place.
Early morning of Tuesday 2.9.2014 Brigitte had to leave to catch her plane from La Rochelle to London. We were sad to say good by, it was such a enchanting trip with her.
Later Jacob and I moved the boat 2 miles up to the old port of La Rochelle. And that is really one of the best harbours for yachts to be. You are in the middle of an old harbour basin, on the quay there are all along restaurants, the next bakery and super market are near by within 5 minutes walk and street musicians play.

So while we cooked our dinner, lamb with salvia (Salbei), zucchini with lemon and rice with eggs, salad and pineapple with yoghurt as dessert, we first heard two old men playing jazz and for dinner we got very good cover versions of rock and pop songs.

Dish of the day: Lamb wiht rice and zucchini

When we were finished it was already almost 10 pm and we went to sit directly where the music was. Unfortunately the musician had to stop playing because of the people living there. But it turned out that the musician is a German, Julien Müller is his name, under way with his voicycle., and maybe he becomes famous. At least he is participating in the German casting show “Rising Star” on RTL and he got into the next round last time and the next show will be in September. So watch out for him.
He invited us to have a glass of wine with him and some other friends at a nearby wine bar. So we did. During the evening we also met Clarisse, a young french woman living and working in La Rochelle and invited her for the next evening for dinner. Originally we wanted to cook fish, but the fish market closed already at noon what we did not know. So we had pork with carrots and mashed potatoes. Afterwards we again went to meet Julien and had once more wine with some people.
For the next day we had planned to have a barbecue on the beach because a new crew member, Maria, from Germany was expected. And because they were all so nice people we invited also Julien, Clarisse, Annabell, Louis and some other french guys making street music to the beach barbecue.
Our main challenge was to get a grill. We had to walk for almost an hour to get to a big supermarket were we got the last grill, but only the actual grill, not the stand and hold for the charcoal. On the way from the super market we had picked up Maria from the station and she was very delighted when she heard that we had prepared a barbecue.
Without the stand and hold for the charcoal it was even nicer on the beach because we simply took some of the small rocks, arranged them in a circle so that we could place the grill on it.
Everybody had brought something to eat and drink and it was put in the middle on a big blanket. We had a wonderful party on the beach, undisturbed by the police. It is actually not allowed in France to grill on the beach.

Maria

The next day, Friday 5. September 2014, we sailed again just a short distance to Saint Denis on the Ile d´Oléron and on Saturday, 6. September we sailed to Royan on the estuary (Mündungsgebiet) of the Gironde. Due to little wind we did more than half of the distance of 42 nautical miles under engine. When we entered the estuary the tide was fully against us. We knew that before but not that it would be 4 knots at the maximum. According to the books and tidal charts it should have been only 1,5 knots. But it did not matter as we were too early for the harbour anyway because it is only accessible 2 hours after low water and we still had to go 15 miles. So thanks to the good wind. we out sailed the current, but at some times doing only 0,1 – 0,5 knots over ground.
The last 200 metres to Royan harbour were the most exciting ones because it was very shallow, the shallowest point we came across left us just 10cm of water under the keel. But that was the litteral one hand width of water.
On the next day, Sunday 7.9.2014 we slept in, had breakfeast with croissant and baguette. During the day we visited the modern cathedral built by a scholar of Le Corbusier, Guillaume Gillet, and afterwards went to the beach. Before the shops closed I bought light wind spinaker sheets in expectation of our next leg along the French coast to Spain with light winds from the back.
On Monday, 8.9.2014, Maria had to leave already again, as well early in the morning to catch her plane from Bordeaux.
Just after she had left the sky cried, it poured with rain until the afternoon. So Jacob and I did some reading, route planning and put a shopping list together. After it had stopped raining we went shopping for the over 100 mile long trip because there are no harbours between Royan and Capbreton. Except Arcachon, but that is only accessible in good weather, is 10 miles inland, and one needs to be there at the right tide.
For dinner we invited our neighbourgh, Guy, a retired Swiss man from Geneva, and enjoyed together with him our carrot risotto.

To the end of the world

Veröffentlicht am 4. September 2014 von admin

Saturday, 16.8.2014

This was again a shopping day. I needed a screw clamp (Schraubzwinge) in order to glue the tiller. The joint between the three parts it is glued together from at the end where you hold it had became open. I had epoxy glue but needed a screw clamp Luckily there was a Do-it-yourself-market within walking distance from the port. But as always the things I needed were almost all sold out, but the simple and therefore cheapest ones were still available.
Next door was one of the huge French super markets as well as a Lidl, so I stocked up with some food here as well.
Back at the boat I glued the tiller and the magnifier of the radar screen which got damaged when I fell against it in the moving boat in the waves. It needed real laminating with glass fibre, otherwise it would not hold. And after 15 years having it I glued the handle of one of the navigation triangles to it. It kept falling off although it was supposed to hold by tension in its hole, it never really did, even when it had been new.
After cooking a dinner I went to the Place de Gambetta where a Fete de Noz had been advertised. I did not know what it was, from the poster I had only understood that it was something with dance and music, that was enough for me to check it out. And right I was, there was a man teaching people how to dance traditional Brittany dances. They were mostly group dances but also pair dances. It looked like good fun and for the later evening a concert had been advertised again with dance.
So I went back later and really there was band playing Celtic music and the square was full with mostly village people but also many tourists, dancing to the music. At first I stood aside a bit shy because I did not know the dances. But after a while I found that many people were just doing rythmic movements and trying to do the right steps. So at one point I took all my courage and just joined it. And it really was not too difficult to follow the steps. So we all danced until one in the morning when the band stopped playing. That had been a really great evening!

Here are two little movies of the party: Dancing lessons and Party on the market square

Sunday, 18.8.2014

This morning I sanded the glued tiller and varnished it with epoxy. It looks quite good now but still needs some more sanding and varnishing. But that is only to make it look and feel nice, the substance is secured now.

At lunch time Jacob, my new Swedish crew member currently living and working in London, arrived by train from Roscoff. I showed him around the boat and afterwards we had dinner and did the course planning to go to Treguier the next day. In the evening we strolled around the city, had a crepe and then bumped into what later turned out to be a very nice live music gig. An Englishman and a french woman were playing cover versions of blues music. Already in the Creperie I had tried the local craft beer Philomenn, of which I had already seen people wearing T-shirts. It is a local brewery in Treguier and the Tourbee version was very tasty. We were very happy to read that the brewery was in the place we had planned to go the next day anyway. We had some aim there already.

Monday, 19.8.2014

Going out of Paimpol was not difficult as I now knew the way. We had to tack our way around the headland. Thanks to strong 4 to 5 Bft. wind from a more or less useful direction we made a quick journey and after some short hours at the approach to the Treguier river. We could sail almost all the way up to the town.

Treguier River

The false anchorage

I had read about moorings and also had understood the chart that there is an anchorage right at the city. When we came up we saw a waiting pontoon and some small bouys that might be moorings. There was an area of water next to the fairway which looked suitable for anchoring. After having decided for a spot were to anchor I wanted to check out the surrounding depths. As to no surprise closer to the shore it got shallower and shallower, but suddenly it was only 1,7m deep and the next moment we were stuck in what felt like mud. „OK“ I thought, „put the engine in reverse and straight back to where we came from“. But after we had started moving off the shallow piece we heard a slightly grinding sound which sounded as if we had hit a rock! Even worse, it felt as if we had hit it with the rudder, I was very worried. So I put the engine again in forward to get away from the rock, but we again got stuck. „Shit“ I thought, it is not even low water (it was one hour before low water), „will we sit on this stupid rock and may eventually fall off it?“ We waved at the harbour master who was already dashing at us in his motor boat to pull us off. But the moment he wanted to start towing, we noticed that we were free already. I do not know why, but some how the ebb tide had pushed us over the shallow piece. After this shock I gave up the idea of anchoring here and gladly accepted the offer from the harbour master for a place in the marine. Later I learned that anchoring was alltogether forbidden it this harbour, even in the places where an anchorage was marked in the sea chart.
After berthing I immediatly put my short neoprene suit and my diving goggles on to dive down to the rudder to see if I was right that we had hit something. Luckily I found out that there was no damage.

Probably the steel keel got some marks but that is nothing to worry about.
When I checked on the sea chart I noticed that a look into it earlier would have prevented this little desaster as the rocks were clearly marked on it. Damn it! Always double check your memory, I thought. I had looked into the chart something like two hours earlier when we were still sailing up the river and thought I remembered the chart correctly, but obviously I did not. So the lesson learnt is to always double check. I know this is not a dramatic lesson but the sea always reminds you to do even of the simplest things.

Tuesday, 19.8.2014

After sleeping in (ausschlafen) we got ourselves croissants and bread from the next boulangerie, took a shower and that walked around the very nice historic city and its big church.

The afternoon we went to that said Philomenn brewery for a tour and beer tasting. It turned out to be a really smal brewery in an old locomotive repar workshop and an very basic shop. At the bar we could taste three of their usually six veriations of the beer. But they were run out of the tourbee version we had like the other eveing in Paimpol. So we only looked through the window of the brewing room but did not buy any beer. We are hoping to find some of it in a shop in the next villages we are coming to. But we had the red version in a Creperie at the harbour in the evening.

Wednesday, 20.8.2014

This day welcomed us with morning temperatures of low as 10°C, a clear sign to head south as soon as possible! So we left Treguier at 9:30 and after motoring down the river we set sail at the mouth of the river. We were tacking against a slow tide of 0,5 knots. Suddenly two dolphins showed up and accompanied us, showing us their back and white bellies. But the anyway not strong wind almost died and the tide pushed us back so we again turned the engine on. That appareantly put them off, at least they stayed behind. The higher the sun was rising the warmer it got, so eventually it turned out to be a nice sunny day, not for T-Shirts, but for pullovers and sun glasses.

With the last light we got into the brand new Roscoff Marina.

Thursday, 21.8.2014

We went out to explore Roscoff. It is an old town and the old harbour is drying out. Some yachts there have legs so they do not lay on the side at low tide. Here are some pictures of Roscoff, it is actually a very nice and pittoresque city.

But it is very touristic, it is so touristic they do even not have a proper supermarket. There is only a small grocery shop where could get the basic things.
The afternoon we spent on a little beach near the yacht harbour.

Friday, 22.8.2014

We started very early at sun rise at 7 am to go to L´Aber Wrac´h (Don´t ask how this name is pronounced correctly, it is so celtic it could be anything). It was again a nice sunny day. We had to round the Ile de Batz. Although it was a moderate wind we had quite steep waves when we rounded the island, probably again due to tide against wind and close to the coast. So we got a lot of water on deck, more than ever before. I got afraid that water might get through the ventilators under deck so I took them off and screwed the watertight lids on.

We made good way with the tide pushing us but after the tide had turned and the wind almost died we did not make any headway. We had to round one last rocky field so we turned the engine to motor for one hour. But after that we had a perfect evening sail into the fjord of L´Aber Wrac´h with a light wind from the back and the tide pulling us in.
Here we picked up a mooring and rowed ashore. After a couple of beers in one of the many bars in the small village we went back on board because we wanted to start again early the next morning. It was one of the quietest nights because there was almost no wind and no waves. Only in the morning when it got busy with motor boats it got a bit shaky on the boat.

Saturday, 23.8.2014

Going from L´Aber Wrac´h to Brest we had the choice to go through a furnace or hell. We chose the oven. The passage between the Ile d´Ouessant and the french main land was called „Chenal du Four“. Coming from L´Aber Wrac´h it was the shorter one. The other option is good when you come in from the north west and is called „Chenal de la Helle“ (Helle does probably not mean hell but that is what it can be in strong winds against the tide). The problem with the passage along this coast is that at Le Conquet the tidal stream can be up to 5 1/4 knots at spring times. That you do not want to have against you. But we were a little late so we had to motor all the way to this strait to avoid the full tide. It was clear that we would have some tide against us, but the question was how much. Well, eventually the strongest current was 3 knots against us. This was for about 1 hour, than we were through the worst and after we had rounded St. Matieu Lighthouse we had wind and tide pushing us into the bight of Brest.