Tuesday 11th June – St Peter Port – Roscoff
Start Time 0500. Finish Time 1700 (1800 CET). Distance 75nm
Late afternoon on Monday I had managed to move the boat to the end of the pontoon to make the departure as easy as possible. I was up at 0430 aiming to depart at 0500. The weather forecast was NW F4 for most of the day with the wind dropping late afternoon. The navigation was straight forward, once clear of the southern tip of Guernsey it would be a single tack for around 55 miles until after we had passed Les Sept Iles on the port side and skirted around Plateau des Triegoz. There were few other boats out. The main danger leaving Guernsey were the lobster pots off the southern tip. They went out a long way – 4-5 miles but widely spaced and easy to spot.
On long passages I keep an hour log – barometric pressure, weather, COG, SOG, wind plus any notes engine up/down, change of course. Location is plotted on a paper chart. I find this useful to measure progress against expectations but it also provides a marker as each hour passes. I was expecting this trip to be 13-14 hours which with just your own company and little in the way of navigation to do can at times become a bit not so much tedious as repetitive and if you are not careful you can loose some concentration – the log helps you keep focused.
Meals and snacks were the same. I allowed my self a snack on the hour – biscuit, kit-kat, banana. I had made three bread rolls up and these were rationed out as we progressed towards Roscoff. Keeping hydrated was another risk as you became tired and the boat rolled about. To prevent this I had made up a couple of bottles of squash as well as making tea or coffee.
Once passed Plateau des Triegoz there was a little more chart work to do (as well as scenery to look at) as we travelled the last 15-20 miles to Roscoff. We left Plateau de le Meloine to port and once passed here Roscoff did seem close and a little more traffic as local yachts made their way into Bloscon Marina.
I was a little over cautious and took my sails down well outside the harbour entrance – now having been here there is plenty of room close in before you go past the harbour wall. entering Roscoff you go past the ferry terminal and sharply to port to enter the marina. I had set up for starboard side which is where the throttle control is and had radioed ahead on Ch9 to let them know of my arrival. The tide was ferocious – I had arrived at exactly the wrong time – fast on the flood. The marina is open at both end – the reason given is that it is then self dredging. As well as the tide half the pontoons were out of the water for maintenance. The helpful person in the tender that met me did not speak good English. I was beginning to have a not too good a feeling about this single handed docking. I thought I had understood him correctly and reversed into a spot only to be told – not there. Getting out was not a big problem as I had to turn to port with the tide pushing me onto the boats on the other side of the fairway. The inevitable happened and I became pinned into the boats broadside. The person on the tender was quite calm. Told me to just put engine in neutral and he would pull me off against the tide till I was clear. This was done successfully and when I realised where he wanted me to go it was an extremely easy hammer head location – if only!!!!
There was little traffic, one lobster potter, one trawler and one sailing boat going in the opposite direction. Looked as if they were on a reciprocal course from Roscoff.
That evening I should have been very pleased with managing a 75 mile sole crossing but in the end I was quite deflated and determined to leave Roscoff the next day. However after a chat with Gillian, a good nights sleep I was feeling less downcast! Worse things happen at sea! Other than my pride and a small scratch on the boat from the propeller of the outboard of the boat was was broadside to – all was well.
I decided to stay here a few days until a front came through – this could be 5 or 6 nights.
Booking in was starighforward. I had dropped the marina and the Douane the Preavis 24hrs before departing St Peter Port. I received an acknowledgement requesting me to report to the Ferry Terminal in Roscoff with passport at 0900 the morning following arrival. The The ferry port is quite sprawling despite only one berth for a Brittany ferry! The Douane is locarted in the departure terminal and essentially you wait till the ferry has departed and they then come and collect you and stamp passort. They had my form already printed out. The only question was how long I was staying in France.
Purrfect Tale 