Chris_Robb
Well-known member
Just returned to Plymouth from Southern Brittany bringing the boat home from storage up the Villaine river for the winter.
The weather was absolutely beautiful - until the end!
From Friday to Wednesday the sun shone non stop. The wind also followed us, allowing us to do at least half the trip under spinnaker - stopping off in Penerf - Lorient (st Louis) - Concarnou, and Morgat.
Then we set off for the final leg to L'abervrach where we planned to to stay the night and make an early day start on Thursday morning. However the wind - from the south east was so good - we broad reached up the Chanel Du Four at 8 knots under spinnaker, that we decided to skip L'abervrach and go straight to Plymouth overnight.
The French forecast for their side of the Manche was SE 4 -5 - ideal for a 13 ton 40 ft long keeled ketch.
No sooner than we were out into the channel than we were met with hugh rollers from the East and about 15 knots of wind, so we motor sailed at about 45 degress apparent. Having missed the shipping forecast, I was worried about the weather forecast, and tried to radio Falmouth Coast Guard. To my surprise they picked us up at 120 mile range loud and clear. Forecast was ENE 5-6 increasng 7-8 later then going SE 4-5 later with heavy thundery rain. Not ever liking to turn back - we went on. The motion was pretty violent and we reduced speed to 6 knots which made things a bit calmer.
At about 21:00 the wind increased to 35 knots and we double reefed the main, still motor sailing on the same course of 020. When darkness came, it was one of those inky dark nights, the waves only being seen by the friendly glow of the navlights as we crashed through the waves.
At 23:00 there were large areas of rain showing on the radar blotting out everything astern and to port of us. The wind then suddenly veered to west of south, and decreased to about 15 knots. We change course to keep a broad reach to East, stopped the engine and unrolled the jib to the first marker. Now we were reaching at 7 knots straight into the east going rollers and taking it green ower the bows (this normally only happens off the salcome bar!). We remained on ths course for a short time, whilst deciding whether to gybe onto port tack. I was worried about running before the wind with the steep rollers on our oppostite beam.
About 10 minutes later the heavens opened, the wind backed to SE, and blew up the 40 knots. We bore away on a broad reech, onto due north, tearing along at over 9 knots, with the boat rolling here gunnels under with the beam seas! This was getting just a little frightening! But she stayed on course, and remained easy to helm going absolutely straight. We some how managed to roll the jib away to a scrap and went back onto 020, still doing about 6-7 knots, but thankfully the wind was easing back to a more manageable 20 knots and started to back to the east again. Now we had about 4 ships all lining up for a go at us. Thank god for the radar as the visibility was now pretty poor. We started the engine again and started to motor sail on our course of 020 to Plymouth.
During all this my son had been very seasick and had been put into his bunk.
The wind now settled in to blow 35 knots with frequent heavy rainstorms until about 3 oclock when it gradually eased back. At 08:00 we saw the Edddy stone on radar - the visbility was still poor - and by 9.30 were in the middle of the Navy's thursday War day off Plymouth. We heard loud whistling screeches down below - was this anti submarine sonar???
Finaly we tied up at Torpoint Marina at 10.30: Despite the bad weather we had still covered 120 miles in 19 hours - an average of over 6 knots - not bad for a motor sailor. All I can say is thank god for the wheel house, I would not have fancied the trip in an open cockpit!
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The weather was absolutely beautiful - until the end!
From Friday to Wednesday the sun shone non stop. The wind also followed us, allowing us to do at least half the trip under spinnaker - stopping off in Penerf - Lorient (st Louis) - Concarnou, and Morgat.
Then we set off for the final leg to L'abervrach where we planned to to stay the night and make an early day start on Thursday morning. However the wind - from the south east was so good - we broad reached up the Chanel Du Four at 8 knots under spinnaker, that we decided to skip L'abervrach and go straight to Plymouth overnight.
The French forecast for their side of the Manche was SE 4 -5 - ideal for a 13 ton 40 ft long keeled ketch.
No sooner than we were out into the channel than we were met with hugh rollers from the East and about 15 knots of wind, so we motor sailed at about 45 degress apparent. Having missed the shipping forecast, I was worried about the weather forecast, and tried to radio Falmouth Coast Guard. To my surprise they picked us up at 120 mile range loud and clear. Forecast was ENE 5-6 increasng 7-8 later then going SE 4-5 later with heavy thundery rain. Not ever liking to turn back - we went on. The motion was pretty violent and we reduced speed to 6 knots which made things a bit calmer.
At about 21:00 the wind increased to 35 knots and we double reefed the main, still motor sailing on the same course of 020. When darkness came, it was one of those inky dark nights, the waves only being seen by the friendly glow of the navlights as we crashed through the waves.
At 23:00 there were large areas of rain showing on the radar blotting out everything astern and to port of us. The wind then suddenly veered to west of south, and decreased to about 15 knots. We change course to keep a broad reach to East, stopped the engine and unrolled the jib to the first marker. Now we were reaching at 7 knots straight into the east going rollers and taking it green ower the bows (this normally only happens off the salcome bar!). We remained on ths course for a short time, whilst deciding whether to gybe onto port tack. I was worried about running before the wind with the steep rollers on our oppostite beam.
About 10 minutes later the heavens opened, the wind backed to SE, and blew up the 40 knots. We bore away on a broad reech, onto due north, tearing along at over 9 knots, with the boat rolling here gunnels under with the beam seas! This was getting just a little frightening! But she stayed on course, and remained easy to helm going absolutely straight. We some how managed to roll the jib away to a scrap and went back onto 020, still doing about 6-7 knots, but thankfully the wind was easing back to a more manageable 20 knots and started to back to the east again. Now we had about 4 ships all lining up for a go at us. Thank god for the radar as the visibility was now pretty poor. We started the engine again and started to motor sail on our course of 020 to Plymouth.
During all this my son had been very seasick and had been put into his bunk.
The wind now settled in to blow 35 knots with frequent heavy rainstorms until about 3 oclock when it gradually eased back. At 08:00 we saw the Edddy stone on radar - the visbility was still poor - and by 9.30 were in the middle of the Navy's thursday War day off Plymouth. We heard loud whistling screeches down below - was this anti submarine sonar???
Finaly we tied up at Torpoint Marina at 10.30: Despite the bad weather we had still covered 120 miles in 19 hours - an average of over 6 knots - not bad for a motor sailor. All I can say is thank god for the wheel house, I would not have fancied the trip in an open cockpit!
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