1/10/06 Anyone who is thinking of buying Simrad Navico instruments or equipment should think again…….there is absolutely NO after sales service, nor any wish on the company’s part to offer assistance. Promises by various suppliers to have the belt with us in 24 or 48 hours have all come to nothing and with no hope of getting one before the 7th of this month, we have decided to sail without an operational wheelpilot. It is possible we will be able to pick one up as we head westward, but I am tempted to dump the whole lot into the sea and buy a replacement from a more reliable company. It is similar to the camshaft belt on your car snapping – and finding there isn’t another one in the country – what a shambles!!
I’m particularly annoyed that we have wasted over two weeks, during which time there has been good weather. It has now changed and last night was very windy, it isn’t looking good for passage to Eastbourne but we are hoping to sail at 0500 tomorrow - though it seems unlikely with the wind from this direction.
The new satellite phone is up and running, so, as well as being able to make and receive telephone calls, we will be able to send and receive e-mails whilst at sea – Ann (shore support) will provide the number to ring on request, to anyone whom she thinks needs to know.
Thank you to all who have sent e-mails via the Rhumb Do site but could I ask you all - please do not send anything other than plain text mails, and please start each mail as new – not by clicking on the ‘reply’ button. This is because of the very slow connection speed of satellite comms - and therefore expensive airtime.
Tony Kierney onboard his yacht "Mohican", returning to Ramsgate
after his five month solo voyage to the Arctic.
3/10/06 Sailed from Ramsgate (without wheelpilot belt!) for a half day sail to Dover.
4/10/06 Slipped at 0330 from Dover, motored to Dungeness, then hoisted all sail and made passage to Royal Sovereign Marina in Eastbourne, the last hour being in a WSW force 7 blow…….adrenalin time!! Met up with my old buddy George, sadly Jean was unwell and unable to come to see us in the marina. We wish her a speedy recovery.
Made friends with Darren and Vicki, sailing their Seeker yacht “Sentito”, who are intending to make the passage south across Biscay, and whom we had seen in both Ramsgate and Dover. However, with a forecast of SW Force 8 occasionally severe gale 9 for the next few days, both boats are now weather bound in Eastbourne – I don’t do kamikaze sailing!
8/10/06 Sailed at 0700 in company with “Sentito” who were making for Brighton. We motor sailed to Beachy Head Light, then hoisted full sail and had a cracking close hauled sail at 9.6 knots to Langstone Harbour, (65 miles) only to have to wait several hours for enough water to enter the narrow channel to Southsea marina. Purchased a complete new wheelpilot, sadly a Simrad again because of compatibility and fitting problems – but at least it’s an updated model. Also collected the new windows, made by Geoff (details on the sail-trek site), storing all in the after cabin for later fitting.
11/10/06 Sailed at 1300 and headed for Bembridge under engine and mainsail, then hoisted headsail and made course for Cherbourg. Saw the “green flash” at sunset, without the aid of rum…I thought that only occurred in the Caribbean? Sailed into the night, something eerie about going headlong at 9 knots into the blackness. Arrived Cherbourg at 4am, spotted “Sentito” and tied up close by before grabbing a few hours sleep.
12/10/06 Strolled over to supermarket and stocked up with essentials during the day. Went ashore with Darren and Vicky in the evening and found a great “Irish” bar with a friendly(?) French barman. Soon, people started to trickle in with instrument cases, then set up in a corner of the small bar….and started playing Irish music (a la "Dubliners"), absolutely great stuff, made me want to don the Michael Flatley shoes!! Sank several pints of Guinness during the great evening and staggered back to the boat.
13/10/06 Friday the thirteenth! Sailed in company with Darren and Vicki, heading for Jersey through the dreaded Alderney race, which turned out to be a bit of a damp squib with no noticeable acceleration of speed. The wind was not favourable to us and we wallowed a bit with a fairly gentle breeze dead astern. Decided to alter course and make for St Peter Port in Guernsey instead. We arrived there and tied up on waiting pontoon at 2000hrs, Sentito rafting up alongside to wait for enough water to enter the marina. Cracked open a bottle of rum while we waited! Berthed at 2200hrs and went ashore to find something to eat and drink. What do you know…….found another ‘Irish Bar’, so we wriggled our way through the crowd to the bar and downed a few more Guinness’s – a good ‘craic’ was had by all, then off to the Chinese takeaway and back onboard.
Photo's here14/10/06 Had a good look round town and bought some fishing tackle, not that either of us knows anything about fishing, but we'll have a go and see if we can catch anything to eat as we go along. Also managed to get on-line and send off some e-mails as well as updating this site. Planning to sail tomorrow and thinking of going to Camaret - a fairly long hop in comparison to previous sails.
16/10/06 Decided not to sail direct to Camaret but a shorter sail to Lezardrieux, so said farewell to St Peter Port and sailed on the afternoon flood. Weather conditions yesterday were too bad to leave and the QEII anchored off the castle was unable to send passengers ashore. I used the time to fit the new wheelpilot - and named it "Uncle Albert", but as yet, it is untested.
Made our way to the south of the island before setting course for Brittany. Excellent sailing conditions with a SE force 4 strengthening to 5’s and bordering 6’s held us on course for Lezardrieux (avoiding the big rocky bit of Roches Douvres!!) We arrived off the River Trieux at 10pm which made it a rather tricky entrance and pilotage as neither I nor Darren on Sentito had a large scale chart of the area. However, we managed to negotiate the narrow river, shining torches on the rocks on either side as we crept upstream and berthed in Lezardrieux at midnight.
17/10/06 Left Lezardrieux under genoa alone and made our way down river to sea, making for Port Blanc – anchoring there just after 7pm.
18/10/06 Sailed for L’aber Wrac’h and found ourselves in some sort of high powered race with top class tri-marans – all coming towards us at high speed! Pretty impressive as they passed close by, colourful sails up and doing well in excess of 25 knots. Also played at dodgem’s with French trawlers who seemed to delight in heading straight for us, forcing me on one occasion to turn hard to starboard as one turned deliberately across our bow – we passed less than 30 feet apart, as I tried desperately to remember anything rude in French before resorting to the international hand signals.
Arrived L’aber Wrac’h in the dark again – this could be habit forming – and picked up a buoy in the middle of the fairway! The barometer had been dropping fast all day and we are obviously about to receive something nasty.
19/10/06 Up at 3am, tending to mooring lines as wind shrieked in the rigging. I could see Darren on his deck doing the same thing My wind instruments were showing F10+, ……. so glad we are not at sea tonight! The wind and torrential rain continued throughout the day and we were unable to inflate the dinghy to go ashore. The wind abated in the early evening and we decided to make a run for Camaret through the Chenal du Four, so around 10pm, both boats slipped and made for the river entrance – only to be forced back by crashing seas and high winds.
20/10/06 Most of the day spent ferrying water in jerry cans from the only tap ashore, via dinghy to the boat and pouring into oddly depleted water tanks. We also spent time in the local pub, making use of their computer to get as much weather information as we could. The Chenal du Four is a rocky inshore passage between the mainland and Ushant – it’s imperative to get both the weather and tides right when transiting this passage. We decided that our best chance would be early tomorrow morning.
21/10/06 Trafalgar Day - It should be a National Holiday in England!! Happy Birthday Sandra. On deck at 2.30am preparing boat for sea, seemed calm(ish) in the anchorage as we slipped at 3am………..wrong!! Once again at the entrance we were forced back – great white crashing waves on the rocks on either side, a 12 foot swell rolling in from the Atlantic as our bow buried itself into the sea sending waves washing down the deck to the accompaniment of a spectacular thunderstorm out to sea. Again, we returned to the buoy’s and went back to bed for an hour or two.
All the water gone from tanks again, so emptied lockers out and traced pipelines, found a split pipe which had drained all fresh water to bilge. Pumped out the bilges, repaired the pipe, inflated the dinghy, ferried jerry cans of water to and fro again, then trekked a couple of uphill miles inland to Landeda, and the nearest shop, for provisions and money!
We could now be stuck here until the weather improves – forecast to do so on Tuesday 24th.
26/10/06 Thursday – finally made our exit from L’aber Wrac’h at 0630, then wasted 45 minutes or more trying to untangle the mainsail halyard which had become wrapped around the radar reflector and steaming light. We made an un-eventful transit of the Chenal du Four and arrived alongside in Camaret at 1330. During our stay in Camaret, we had a couple of days being amused by a dolphin which enjoyed coming into the marina to play - Darren almost being capsized from his dinghy on several occasions.....Dolphin Photo's
Next leg…….across the Bay of Biscay!!
30/10/06 Monday........ and a favourable weather window until Wednesday and then winds picking up on Thursday gave us the encouragement to sail and sent us racing to the boats to prepare for sea. We sailed at 1430 with an intended destination of Bayona (Baiona), in company with Sentito and another British yacht “Moody Time” which was heading for La Coruna, and we were again treated to a spectacular display by dolphins from midnight until after 1am, their phosphorescent trails coming in to the boat like torpedoes before racing into the bow wave and leaping out of the water ahead of us.
31/10/06 Our first whale sighting, some quarter mile off the port bow, followed by many more during the day. Sailing goosewinged with headsail poled out with spinnaker pole. At 2030, an almighty bang scared me to death ……..it was the spinnaker pole crashing onto the deck! No damage and no apparent reason for it becoming unclipped from the headsail sheet.
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