10th July Camaret to L’Aberwarc’h
Departure time 0230. Arrival Time 0830
Distance 35nm
Time of departure was dictated by the tidal gate through the Chenal du Four. We either left early in the morning – 0230 or late afternoon. Alternative times were not feasible without pushing a lot of tide either in the Chenal du Four or as we popped out the northern end. Departure was fine and we put sails up on the bay. The wind seemed to be starting to increase so we decided to put in a first reef. Quite a lot of work in the dark when you cannot see where the reef is sitting near the mast. But we go it done. And yes………. 1 hour late the wind dropped! However we left it in until we were sure the decrease was a trend rather than a moment in time.
We came passed Ponte St Matthew around 0430 as planned. By this time there was a strong tide flowing through the channel and it took us along at 7+kts for the next few miles. There were no other boats about – we seemed to be the only ones doing the early (very early) morning option.
We altered the shift pattern for this leg from 2 hours to 1.5hrs with Andrew and Clement take a watch together and did a solo stint. It was dark and slightly un-nerving navigating through the Channel – but as Bob Stimpson reminded me – in days of yore he did it in fog and pre-GPS – he did admit that it was a bit of a seat of the pants trip!
Daylight broke as we passed Le Four lighthouse. There was a ferry that was steaming up behind us and a one of the racing trimarans bearing down on us. The latter despite the lack of wind was racing along at 11-12kts.
We were mainly being carried by the tide all the way up the channel and then out the top along the coast to L’Aberwarc’h. We cut inside Grand Basse and nearer to Basse Pupian. It was at this time that the boats going South started to come past us and a trickle became a flood the nearer we got to Le Libenter. The wind had go up to 16-17kts and we were flying along on a beam reach.
At the entrance to L’Aberwarch the number of boats coming out was so large we decided to take sails down before we entered to dodge those leaving. We were the only boat arriving.
However the advantage of our timing was that the marina was empty when we arrived and we got a place inside the wavebreaker. A visit to the cafe was required for coffee and croissants. Sadly no croissants to we bought a baguette and shared that between the 3 of us! Clement and Andrew walked into town and I decided to tidy up the boat and do a little work.
As we were planning to leave early the next morning the marina asked us to move off our current position and raft with a boat on a hammerhead so that we could leave easily without disturbing anyone. So – we moved of – rafted up – and I then decided to do some boat work. I had found some oily sea water in the bilges but could not work out where it was coming from – I was not loosing oil, coolant level were fine and it was not diesel. Eventually I discovered it was overflow from emulsified oil in the sail drive. There were then a flurry of calls to different people to work out what to do. It is probable that one of the seals has gone on the sail drive which will require the boat to be lifted, sail drive oil drained, and seals replaced.
Purrfect Tale 