Michael Lithgow

Quiet night but around 0500 a lot of swell from boats. Suspect it was passing yachts or fishing boats leaving at high water Bembridge. Anchor came up fine. Light winds for around 4 hours tacking across Solent. But nearing Hill Head increased to 16-19kts.

Solo sail to Priory Bay. Light winds most of way. Anchored in 3.5m at low tide. Put 25m chain out to take account of rise of tide. Winds increased in the afternoon to 19-20kts. But anchor held well in mud. Quiet night with only one other boat for company.

Well…. The last leg of our summer cruise that has been to Yarmouth, Cherbourg, Sark, St Peter Port, St Malo, St Cast, Paimpol, St Peter Port, Alderney, Cherbourg, Studland Bay and finally home. Over 400nm. The last leg was on blistering heat and no wind. It would have been nice to finish with a sail but sadly not. We are now back on our berth sharing a bottle of chilled white wine.

Phew. Crazy day sailing. Started off with 25th close hauled in big seas off Cherbourg and finished in calm seas motoring the last 3 hrs into Studland Bay. Sea lanes went fine and a kindly freighter offered to alter course as I was under sail. 12 hr day fro leaving. Harbour to picking up a buoy in Studland Bay tonight.

We overnighted on a buoy in Alderney. It was unusually calm although the slapping of wavelets at the stern prompted me at 0200 to shift my berth to the saloon. We left the buoy around 0900 as the tide was turning East to take it down to Cherbourg. Wind was light 5-6kts which was just about enough to sail but the strength of the tide coming up the Alderney race was pushing us too far north so we ended up motor sailing. Even thought the sea state was calm the effects of the tide and the whirlpool like conditions off Cap de La Hague could be felt 2 miles out. It was quite a short trip and we made Cherbourg in under 4 hours. Port Chatereyne was pack with the J-199 European Cup but we did find a good berth and settled down for a pleasant few days in hot weather in Cherbourg.

It took us a little time to decide whether to leave St Peter Port as for the 2nd day in succession there was thick sea mist. We could just about see the entrance to the harbour and the fog horn was blasting every 10 seconds from the breakwater. But we decided to chance it and hope it cleared up. Visibility was around 200m so far enough that we could spot lobster buoys and react to slow moving vessels. We assumed anything fast would have AIS. There was no wind so it was a motor all the way to Braye. The sea mist did eventually lift around half way through the 23.5hr trip. The tide carried us at a fair pace. Even in calm seas and no wind the Alderney Race was still turbulent. We picked up a buoy in a surprisingly busy harbour and caught the water taxi ashore for lunch.

Key timing was lock opening at Paimpol. We waited for free flow at 0900 and motored up the channel to the Anse de Paimpol. I had to plot the course manually in Navionics as both when we arrived and departed it insisted on taking us out a different and not recommended route. So I did manual plot to La Jument and the an automatic route to St Peter Port. It was worth reading the pilot book in detail for this port. The trip to St Peter Port was a very long motor in nil wind. One of those trips when you are glad it is finished and you can switch off the engine. Arrival at St Peter Port was as welcoming as ever with a dory meeting us and escorting us to one of the outside berths which I always take. Although there is no electricity it gives you greater choice on departure. We had also arrived at low tide and would have had to wait a number of hours before we would be able to get over the sill into the inner harbour.

This was plan Z! We were going to g to go to St Quay but most of the comments we received were not favourable especially as ablutions are bing renovated and temporary facilities are available. So we opted for Paimpol. To get here we needed to leave high water St Cast to have tide with us. But this would mean we arrived at low water. Harbours dries out for around 3 miles. Tidal range is 30feet. We found a spot to anchor in the bay on a rising tide and went to bed for 3 hours. By the. The tide had risen sufficiently to get I to Paimpol via a lock. Lock only operates a couple of hours either side of HW. It was in free flow when we arrived. Quite a tight harbour/marina but found berth and opened the wine. Including stop for anchoring an 11 hour day.

We moved from Vauban Basin to Port Sablons yesterday afternoon sharing the lock with a large freighter. It was still windy but we berthed okay on A pontoon. Strength of wind coming through the entrance created a significant swell which made life on board uncomfortable. This morning we left with around 2.8 over the sill and with the level of swell we could not have gone out with the tide any lower. We motored into wind nearly all the way to St Cast. Lumpy sea and cold wind for June. Arrived after a couple of hours. Marina pretty full as quite a lot of boats had been stuck here due to weather. Rob met us and showed us to a berth.

Rather than tide the key timing was the last lock entry at Port Vauban. Anu waved us off at 0730 and with a light breeze from the SE we set course for St Malo - around 55nm. The route took us between a wind farm to starboard and the Minquiers to port. Breakfast was croissant and jam with lunch baked beans and pasty. The sailing was lovely - around 12kts. As the trip was 10 hours the tides sort of cancelled each other out although we probably had a helpful E-SE for more of the time than an unhelpful tide. We motored the last 3 hours to make the last lock opening at St Malo. After waiting on a buoy on very hot weather we were through and into Vauban basin. Having pre booked we quickly found our berth.