Yo folks, relax. Your resident agent provocateur and enfant terrible is still on the high seas. Well actually I am rocking gently on a mooring buoy in Fowey digesting an excellent Cornish pasty purchased from that expensive delicatessen on the high street.
The cruise so far...
August 5th - Singled handed over to St. Malo from Gosport in one 28 hour passage, bit gruelling particularly the keel attachment testing in the Race at 6am in the morning.
Rested for a couple of days before picking the swmbo up from Dinard airport. Chatting with other visiting yachts in the old basin it seems many were using St. Malo for crew rotation. I had a brief chat with LadyInBed @ Scuttlebutt across the mooring lines. First time visit to St. Malo for Trina so we spent a full day walking the ramparts and all the alleyways. Had forgotten just how special St. Malo is.
Cracking summer sail from St. Malo, west of Cap Frehal we hoisted the new asymmetric. Progress was so good we turned away from St Quay Portrieux and pushed on to Lezardrieux. Picked up a mooring buoy off the marina and would prefer this option in future visits, was peaceful but the experience is marred by the Camp Stalag marina flood lights that risk holes in the retina. Was disappointed by the small town at Lezardrieux but a memorable long dinghy trip up the river estuary to Chateau Roche-Jagu made up for this.
Harbour master had mentioned an approaching weather depression so we moved on to Treguier after 2 nights. Had to abort using the inner La Passe de la Gaine when belated reading of the pilot guide mentioned a minimum 5m rise of tide, we had just 3.7 and falling at the time. The low spring tide entry up river to Tréguier was more challenging than my 3 pilot guides indicated.
Tréguier is a far better place to be weather bound than Lezardrieux plus we had the bonus of the final Wednesday night music festival of the summer season. After 4 days in Tréguier Trina’s return flight from Dinard was approaching leaving just two full sailing days to get back to St. Malo. Following a lumpy ride around to St Quay the 2nd Atlantic depression of Trina’s 10 days on board arrived.
Having dismissed a 200 euro taxi ride quote, the ever helpful marina staff at St Quay located a 1 day car hire. This turned out to be a bonus way to end the Trina’s stay onboard because we squeezed in a trip to Paimpol for dinner, a supermarket stock up and a brief walking tour of Dinan before check-in on the Sunday.
Monday to Thursday. Stuck in St Quay as the north European weather seized up with strong winds from the north. Two lows in a 10 day cruise and then a bizarre face off between a low stuck in Germany and a high loitering off the Hebrides, ha the summer of 2007. On Thursday evening I had a pleasant couple of beers with the ex owners of Gosport’s Landers in the cockpit of their 50ft Beneteau. The sun made a brief appearance that evening and we debated how many days or weeks had passed since we saw some blue sky.
Friday was my escape day. I wanted to try another solo overnighter as a test for a longer solo cruise next year so at 2pm I headed NW with a vague intention of ending up in Cornwall somewhere. The seas west of Isle de Brehat were as bad as ever and I eventually lost sight of the French coast north of Les Sept Iles. After sailing for 13 hours the bank holiday high squashed out the 8kts of NE wind that had allowed for pleasant passage so far.
26 hours out of St Quay the Fowey harbour master directed me to a raft in the Pill off Polruan. To celebrate my second solo Channel crossing in Perfect Match, Fowey laid on a fireworks display.
Some regular Skuttlebut lurkers on their HR39 were rafted alongside the other night, they broke the news of the Peters/Opal receivership which made me realise that 3 weeks without the internet was enough so I signed up for a day on Fowey’s wifi network. This network puts the feeble Solent marina wi-fi networks to shame.
Monday bank holiday evening and I am still lingering but 3 days of Cornish pasties is enough so soon I will head east to Gosport, stopping at the the Barbican or Yealm. From the mooring I could hear Polruan in the middle of its summer’s party, earlier in the day the silver band was excellent close up. During my walk out to the Polruan headland I saw some real coastguards with binoculars and a view of the sea, they call themselves Coast Watch – what a novel idea.
The cruise so far...
August 5th - Singled handed over to St. Malo from Gosport in one 28 hour passage, bit gruelling particularly the keel attachment testing in the Race at 6am in the morning.
Rested for a couple of days before picking the swmbo up from Dinard airport. Chatting with other visiting yachts in the old basin it seems many were using St. Malo for crew rotation. I had a brief chat with LadyInBed @ Scuttlebutt across the mooring lines. First time visit to St. Malo for Trina so we spent a full day walking the ramparts and all the alleyways. Had forgotten just how special St. Malo is.
Cracking summer sail from St. Malo, west of Cap Frehal we hoisted the new asymmetric. Progress was so good we turned away from St Quay Portrieux and pushed on to Lezardrieux. Picked up a mooring buoy off the marina and would prefer this option in future visits, was peaceful but the experience is marred by the Camp Stalag marina flood lights that risk holes in the retina. Was disappointed by the small town at Lezardrieux but a memorable long dinghy trip up the river estuary to Chateau Roche-Jagu made up for this.
Harbour master had mentioned an approaching weather depression so we moved on to Treguier after 2 nights. Had to abort using the inner La Passe de la Gaine when belated reading of the pilot guide mentioned a minimum 5m rise of tide, we had just 3.7 and falling at the time. The low spring tide entry up river to Tréguier was more challenging than my 3 pilot guides indicated.
Tréguier is a far better place to be weather bound than Lezardrieux plus we had the bonus of the final Wednesday night music festival of the summer season. After 4 days in Tréguier Trina’s return flight from Dinard was approaching leaving just two full sailing days to get back to St. Malo. Following a lumpy ride around to St Quay the 2nd Atlantic depression of Trina’s 10 days on board arrived.
Having dismissed a 200 euro taxi ride quote, the ever helpful marina staff at St Quay located a 1 day car hire. This turned out to be a bonus way to end the Trina’s stay onboard because we squeezed in a trip to Paimpol for dinner, a supermarket stock up and a brief walking tour of Dinan before check-in on the Sunday.
Monday to Thursday. Stuck in St Quay as the north European weather seized up with strong winds from the north. Two lows in a 10 day cruise and then a bizarre face off between a low stuck in Germany and a high loitering off the Hebrides, ha the summer of 2007. On Thursday evening I had a pleasant couple of beers with the ex owners of Gosport’s Landers in the cockpit of their 50ft Beneteau. The sun made a brief appearance that evening and we debated how many days or weeks had passed since we saw some blue sky.
Friday was my escape day. I wanted to try another solo overnighter as a test for a longer solo cruise next year so at 2pm I headed NW with a vague intention of ending up in Cornwall somewhere. The seas west of Isle de Brehat were as bad as ever and I eventually lost sight of the French coast north of Les Sept Iles. After sailing for 13 hours the bank holiday high squashed out the 8kts of NE wind that had allowed for pleasant passage so far.
26 hours out of St Quay the Fowey harbour master directed me to a raft in the Pill off Polruan. To celebrate my second solo Channel crossing in Perfect Match, Fowey laid on a fireworks display.
Some regular Skuttlebut lurkers on their HR39 were rafted alongside the other night, they broke the news of the Peters/Opal receivership which made me realise that 3 weeks without the internet was enough so I signed up for a day on Fowey’s wifi network. This network puts the feeble Solent marina wi-fi networks to shame.
Monday bank holiday evening and I am still lingering but 3 days of Cornish pasties is enough so soon I will head east to Gosport, stopping at the the Barbican or Yealm. From the mooring I could hear Polruan in the middle of its summer’s party, earlier in the day the silver band was excellent close up. During my walk out to the Polruan headland I saw some real coastguards with binoculars and a view of the sea, they call themselves Coast Watch – what a novel idea.