TonyS
Member
We finally crossed from Yarmouth on Sunday using Simon’s accurate forecast, after a very bumpy ride up the Solent the previous day in 30 kt winds on the nose. We left Yarmouth at 4.30am, which was lovely at first light. Unfortunately we had to motorsail until just off Cap de La Hague when we could sail all the way to St Peter Port. The next morning it blew and bucketed it down so we had a rest and set off the following morning at 8 after refuelling, and motor sailed for half and sailed the rest of the way to Trebuerden. It is spooky going over all that dry land on the chart to the marina but we made it. We had a nice evening there and shopped up the hill in the morning and set off at 10.30BST for L’Aber Wrac’h. We had one of the best sails ever with F4 and then F5 on the beam doing 7 knots and sogging at 8 or above (it is nearly neaps). We got into L’A to find no pontoon berth, so picked up a buoy in the middle. I was amazed to find there was a harbour wifi but didn’t have the password and also about 10 other networks one of which is providing this link! We will leave at 11.30 for Camaret with a similar wind, we hope, to yesterday.
There is a lot of work going on at L’Aber Wrac’h there are a new set of pontoons, half finished but look as if they could be used. There is a huge barge with a crane that is very active. The wave break has been built and it looks as if there may be a floating wave break to the north. There are a lot of JCB’s working on the new hard standing and a sea wall is being built. Perhaps they will be finished by July.
Wifi has been surprising. It was possible to get on in St Peter Port but after 3 mins the system would overload and shut down making the system useless. We went to the travel bureau to use their free service.
Trebeurden didn’t seem to have any wifi.
Our boat seems very fast again. We sailed past all the fleet into St Peter Port, big and small. I think it was having the bottom cleaned last week at Cowes Yacht Haven. 100 pounds and the service was excellent. In and out twice to clean the sling area. I had time to clean and polish the prop, change the anodes and paint a 9” strip of new antifoul round the waterline and repaint the keel which is showing some rusts spots. The boat was last properly antifouled in July 2005 with Blakes Tiger Extra. It is still eroding and isn’t through yet to the previous layer. The water line I have scrubbed, when swimming down here last year, and looked off colour which was the reason for repainting it.
The Solara solar panel with the cheap Solara Regulator, that I fitted on the Friday before we left (nothing else to do) seems to work OK but the Sterling smart regulator doesn’t seem to like it. The Sterling works OK but then decides after a time to show a red light indicating an overvoltage when the NASA voltage monitor says the voltage is 13.5 volts. Anyway the batteries seem fine.
Finally my apologies to Robin and others. Despite their advice I couldn’t persuade SWMBO to cross overnight and we would only have saved a day and I don’t think in hindsight that we could have sailed it. Running is not the best point on a Bav 36 and we don’t have a spinnaker. The other thing to remember is that at this time of year with a high in, it gets very cold in the middle of the night.
We now have 8 weeks to further explore S Brittany. Our reward to ourselves for working for 40 years!
Have a good summer and we look forward to meeting Becky again down here.
There is a lot of work going on at L’Aber Wrac’h there are a new set of pontoons, half finished but look as if they could be used. There is a huge barge with a crane that is very active. The wave break has been built and it looks as if there may be a floating wave break to the north. There are a lot of JCB’s working on the new hard standing and a sea wall is being built. Perhaps they will be finished by July.
Wifi has been surprising. It was possible to get on in St Peter Port but after 3 mins the system would overload and shut down making the system useless. We went to the travel bureau to use their free service.
Trebeurden didn’t seem to have any wifi.
Our boat seems very fast again. We sailed past all the fleet into St Peter Port, big and small. I think it was having the bottom cleaned last week at Cowes Yacht Haven. 100 pounds and the service was excellent. In and out twice to clean the sling area. I had time to clean and polish the prop, change the anodes and paint a 9” strip of new antifoul round the waterline and repaint the keel which is showing some rusts spots. The boat was last properly antifouled in July 2005 with Blakes Tiger Extra. It is still eroding and isn’t through yet to the previous layer. The water line I have scrubbed, when swimming down here last year, and looked off colour which was the reason for repainting it.
The Solara solar panel with the cheap Solara Regulator, that I fitted on the Friday before we left (nothing else to do) seems to work OK but the Sterling smart regulator doesn’t seem to like it. The Sterling works OK but then decides after a time to show a red light indicating an overvoltage when the NASA voltage monitor says the voltage is 13.5 volts. Anyway the batteries seem fine.
Finally my apologies to Robin and others. Despite their advice I couldn’t persuade SWMBO to cross overnight and we would only have saved a day and I don’t think in hindsight that we could have sailed it. Running is not the best point on a Bav 36 and we don’t have a spinnaker. The other thing to remember is that at this time of year with a high in, it gets very cold in the middle of the night.
We now have 8 weeks to further explore S Brittany. Our reward to ourselves for working for 40 years!
Have a good summer and we look forward to meeting Becky again down here.
