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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After 5 hours we could turn the engine off and sailed up to the marina where we found  a good place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We quickly went shopping and had a very nice dinner of lamb with rice with sage (Salbei) and parmesan and zucchini with lemon juice and egg.

Friday, 8. August 2014

This day was simply a rainy day. And because there is actually nothing to do in Carteret on a rainy day I took the opportunity to lay new cables to the fore ship. The toilet, the wardrobe and most important the front cabin did not have any light any more because apparently the cable somewhere on the way by corrosion did not conduct any electricity any more. After all it took me 11 hours to put in the new cables and to connect the lamps. Many panellings (Wandverkleidungen) had to be removed, the insulation at the cable ends had to be removed and so on. And because it is a boat and not a house, most time I spent on figuring out on how actually to get to a certain spot or where the heck to lay the cable along so that afterwards it still looks nice. The actual cabeling was the least problem. But afterwards I was very glad that it all worked but I also knew why I had pushed it for so long. I knew that it would take a lot of time.

Saturday, 9. August, 2014

This day was nice and sunny again so I walked the 2,5, km to the supermarket in the next village to stock up for the week with Wilko. Because I bought a lot to drink I took a taxi back to the boat. Actually the best way to do big shoppings. It saves you the trouble with your own car.

Sunday, 10. August 2014

Today my friend Wilko from Hamburg arrived. Because Carteret is quite a remote holiday resort it is not well connected by public transport. He actually arrived the evening before but could only get up to Valognes, about 30 east of Carteret and the last bus went already at 17:00, so he had to spend the night there and take the first bus the next day, which was 13:00!

Sailingwise it did not matter because there was very strong wind out at sea and I was not in the mood to sail in it. Instead we did a beach walk and here you can see how strong the wind was at times:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked down to the beach and up the cliff to the Carteret light house which naturally makes a good land mark.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and got a phantastic view over the beaches, the harbour entrance and the harbour channel:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, 11. August 2014

This day we left Carteret as soon as the gate was opened with destination St. Helier on Jersey. It was still quite strong wind and wavy water, but sunny and not cold. The Wind was alright and the currents did the rest so that we almost did not have to tack and got to Jersey quite quickly.

Here is a little video: From Carteret to St. Helier

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived there in the late afternoon and went straight for a fish and chips but we picked the wrong fish and chip shop „Sunhill Fish and Chips“ I have to admit, it tasted from old frying fat“) and therefore needed a good English Ale afterwards.

There we met two nice guys who were there with their catamaran, a Wharram catamaran. After the pub I had some whiskies with them on the boat during which time they showed me their boat and we talked a lot about building boats, sea worthiness and anchorages.

Tuesday, 12. August 2014 and Wednesday 13. August 2014

This day we both were a bit sleepy and did not much except for walking around town, taking a shower and the like. On Wednesday we went on a bus tour around the island so to say together with our french neighbours who were rafted up (im Päckchen liegen) next to us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By conicidence they had the same idea. A generally speaking funny guide talked us around island. We again saw a lot of Wehrmachts-Bunker from WW II, more interesting were the unique Jersey towers all around the island, typical jersey style house and all the time I was stunned by the vast areas of seabed uncovered at low water. The water was literally miles away and although I knew it intellectually it is still a thing that amazes me everytime again that in six hours at the latest it will all be covered by water and the boats afloat again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, 14. August 2014

This day we left at 7 am to go to Paimpol on the Brittany coast. The wind was still quite strong and we had over 40 nm to sail. At first we had the tide pushing us side ways in the same direction the wind pushed us against we sailed up. But after two hours as calclated we had slack water (Stillwasser / Tidenkenterung) and when the tide had reached its full speed it was pushing us back so that we could steer a direct course to Paimpol although our course to the wind was pointig much further east. But even though it was a long day, 13 hours. It rained quite a bit, we got many showers from the waves flying over the deck and we were very happy after arrival in Paimpol.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And as a reward for the hard sailing we treated oursevelves to a dinner in one of the many restaurants around the harbour.

Friday, 15. August 2014

We had to get up early because Wilko needed to catch his train at 8:35 to Paris. I afterwards cleaned the boat and walked along the cliffs at low water and saw what had been under our keel when we came in the day before.