Breeze

Poole to Cherbourg

Fun day sail out into Poole Bay, dodging showers in a fresh NW’ly wind.  Excellent work by new helm Matt with first rate support from First Mate Mark.

Day sail from Poole

Straightforward motorsail across the Channel with a moderate NNE’ly leaving the sails doing most of the work and the engine just keeping a reasonable pace up, to avoid arriving home after dark.  Shipping lanes were interesting with Breeze plus two other vessels converging on the same area right in the middle of the E-going shipping. 
On approach to Poole spotted a yacht I had been trailing from France appearing to be drifting in the dying wind with its AIS now switched off.  Motored 2 miles to their location to find the Sigma 38 with engine and electronics failure.  Offered them a tow into Poole Harbour which they gratefully accepted.  Had the RAF display Typhoon displaying for us then the Shieldhall escorted us down the Maun Channel into Poole and 5 Marines RIB’s came screaming past us too.  Quite an adventure with a successful outcome.

Cherbourg to Poole with a rescue diversion!

Not a breath of wind until the last hour so motored all the way, after a quick overnight stop in St Peter Port.  Berthed next to Mike & Eileen on “Belfast Child” and spent a couple of days with them before heading home.

Guernsey to Cherbourg

F3-4 SE’ly left me motorsailing the whole way, pretty tight to the wind.  Had a good lift from the tide for the first 4 hours or so thankfully.  Lovely and sunny though, with a low westerly swell giving me a little surf every so often.

Roscoff to Guernsey

Early start, at slack tide.  Motored down the river, negotiated yet more rocks and then, with a heap of tide beneath us, headed west towards Roscoff, cutting inside Les Sept Isles (we couldn’t count seven), hitting sustained speeds well over 11 kts SOG.  Berthing in the Bloscon Marina at Roscoff was a delight, friendly and helpful staff and with loads of manouvering room we were able to park up quickly, square the boat away and rush round to the ferry port to head home to Plymouth 2 days earlier than expected, with about 10 minutes to spare before they closed the ticket office. 😅!

Treguier to Roscoff 

Quite a trek dodging rocks and trying to identify the myriad day marks and lights.  Only around 5 miles as the crow flies, but 22 miles by boat with so many navigational challenges (ie. mind the rocks!!).  An excellent welcome by the marina staff, as we’ve come to expect around here and spent an enjoyable couple of days here with time to explore the old city and surrounding countryside. 

Lezardrieux to Treguier

Short trip round from Paimpol to Lezardrieux. Frustrating wait to get into the lock, after missing the first lock out, followed by an equally long wait for the gates to close.  As ever in this neck of the woods, dodging rocks and following transits all the way.

Paimpol to Lezardrieux

With a light SW’ly this was a great opportunity to try and unfurl the “Yellow Peril”, aka the Gennaker.  Came out quite smartly and added a turbo boost to a gentle sail towards Paimpol from St Quay.  Small group of dolphins playing nearby as we approached the tricky navigational bit; watching height of tide, buoys and transits to ensure we made it to the Paimpol lock without running aground.  Inbound lock takes an age, not sure if it’s a three times per tide philosophy or if they just wait until the lock is full.  Whatever, it unlocked the delights of Paimpol, which we found a little touristy, rather like a Breton version of Padstow!

St Quay Portrieux to Paimpol

Motorsail on a tight reach with apparent wind into the low-mid 20’s.  Friendly welcome into St Quay Marina with plenty of eating options on hand and the best recycling facilities I’ve ever seen!

St Malo to St-Quay-Portrieux

Motorsail to St Malo. Assigned an impossibly tight berth in the large outer marina. Spent a couple of days exploring.

Chris Monk