Gathering on the dock our crew was comprised of Gareth ,Peter, Brian and Martin. The craic was mighty but the conditions were grey and rainy. We were seen off at the dock by friends and family, and with a bit of an audience we slipped lines, only to snag our stern line and after brief kerfuffle we were off! 5 minutes later we were called to be told that Gareth’s phone was still ashore! It had been handed over for pre trip photos and never taken back. We hovered off the Cunnigar as Seamus kindly brought out the phone in one of the club boats.
NOW we were departing around 11am and we set out (as usual) in less than ideal conditions. The wind was from the SE and the sea was quite confused. Lots of wet weather gear and the heater was used to a great extent, particularly for drying the wet weather gear. The wind was initially 16kn E but gradually fell to 6kn overnight though conditions gradually cleared and the next morning we were greeted by sunshine as we passed the Bishop Rock. We decided to pass the Isles of Scilly to the west skirting the TSS, which was uneventful apart from a course change to avoid a ship. We decided to pass Ouessant to the west, which means staying well out to sea to avoid the very busy traffic separation scheme (TSS). The distance between the end of the IOS TSS to the Ouessant TSS is only 53nm, although the English Channel itself is over 100nm across. We had a glorious crossing, on a broad reach gaining at one stage 11kn boat speed!
Under sail, crossing the channel, we had an impromptu sing song with Brian on guitar and Gareth on Ukulele, which was surreal. We got into an easy pattern of watch changes and hot food and coffee and soup and porridge for breakfast and felt like we could have kept going like this indefinitely! Martin had us flying the asymmetric spinnaker at sunset on night 2 as we approached the TSS. We came on to the exit from the Ouessant TSS around 1am night 2, and had all hands on deck initially as we had many ships in play. At one stage we heard a voice on channel 16 announcing “Chinese Warship coming through, we are on your starboard” which was an eye opener.
On morning 3, keeping 20-30nm offshore, we had glorious sunshine though the wind was (as forecast) very light. The seas were oily calm and it was difficult to judge where the sea ended and the sky began. South of Iles de Glenans, we had hundreds of dolphins all around us, breaching and playing in our bow wave. At sunset, Brian and Gareth went for a swim off the boat, 20nm offshore in 97m of water. accompanied by a small shark, which we only noticed afterwards . After hosing down on deck. that doubled as a shower. As we had quite a distance to La Rochelle and since everyone was feeling fresh and well rested, we decided to push on for another night and make for Ile d’Yeu.
We were skirting the exclusion zone of a wind farm under construction north of Ile d’Yeu and there was a regular “Securite” announcement on the VHF, the English version being given by a familiar Irish accent!
We arrived into Port Joinville and after a quick stop for an eye watering amount of diesel (after all the running of the heater in the Celtic Sea and the motoring though flat calm conditions), we tied alongside at the Marina at Port Joinville. As we were there early we got a prime spot, although later on, the marina staff packed in a very impressive amount of boats by rafting.
Ile d’Yeu was idyllic, and the scorching hot sun was a stark comparison to the rainy, grey conditions we had left behind at home. We rented bikes and cycled to La Meule on the other side of the island where we had a swim right next to the ” Baignade interdit” sign, though all the locals were doing likewise! After a lovely drink at the little Bar La Maule next to the little harbour we returned to Port Joinville for a lovely seaside meal, a few drinks and a very well earned full night’s sleep!
We had done 420 nautical miles in 3 days, non stop, averaging 140 miles per day and we were all feeling quite proud of ourselves.
