Post by Deleted on Jun 21, 2013 21:51:30 GMT
Hi all,
We just though we would update you on our adventures last year, having met a few of you at the Moody owners get together on Pete’s boat Churinga last year.
This is the delayed, promised update for when we got back to Cardiff… but…. we didn’t get back! More of that later.
We had 4 weeks’ holiday booked but set off more than a week late because of the rain which delayed the refitting of the doghouse windows.
A nice quick sail down to Ilfracombe got the holidays off to a good start with a sunny beam wind 3\4 and a night on the visitors’ moorings. Padstow beckoned about lunchtime after
painting the rudders at low water early in the morning . The trip was mainly motoring in nearly no wind but was not uneventful as we hit a large submerged tree trunk off Hartland Point
with one of our rudders!! It didn’t seem to be a major bump, so we dried out outside Padstow and gave the rudder blades another coat of paint noting one blade had a slight bend .
The trip continued round to Newlyn mainly motoring in calm round Lands End with a little swell. We had originally intended to stop at St Ives to meet a friend who lives not far from Pendean,
but the weather was so good the meet was rescheduled to Newlyn . John said he would take a few photos of us as we passed the chimneys at Botallack and good as his word we got them at Xmas.
John looking at us looking at him!
Well, after a night at Newlyn and a ritual cleaning of the carb’, we did a quick trip to anchor at Mullion Cove for a quiet afternoon steak and snooze before setting off for Chanal Du Four in the early evening.
Mullion Cove
On setting off we had a light westerly wind with a little swell which increased at maybe 5am and moved round to a northerly 4/5. The French fishing boats were a real pain overnight, with the AIS proving invaluable. It was well worth the £99!. The increase in wind and change in direction proved to make helm heavy, so much so that in the early morning Jackie couldn’t maintain the helm. I also had difficulty maintaining and couldn’t hold a course, yawing 30 degrees port and starboard of our 180 degree course. This persuaded us to divert into L’Aber-Wrac’h. We continued to swing wildly up the long channel to L’Aber-Wrac’h and the Marina’s ‘man in a rib’, who put us on the first pontoon on the river side, later told us he had thought we were inebriated! In fact, after noticing one of the rudder uphauls had snapped, I said to Jackie that the river was very cloudy on the marina side as I could only see the top of the starboard rudder. A minute later it dawned that the 5 mm plate had snapped a third of the way down! The heavy helm was explained. To cut it short the Marina office pointed out the local boat mechanic, who agreed to find some plate steel and make a new rudder using the other as a pattern. This led to a serendipitous stay at L’Aber-Wrac’h . We would never have explored this area if our stay had not been enforced as L’Aber-Wrac’h is normally just an overnight resting place prior to going round the corner.
Entrance channel to L’Aber-Wrac’h
Punch and Judys arrival was expected!
On a future trip we will probably go over to the other side of the river and dry out for free at Keridaouen a dink trip to L’Aber-Wrac’h and within walking distance of a really nice corner shop in Lilia ,the like of which L’Aber-Wrac’h sadly lacks. We had several bus trips out as the rudder plate took 9 days to arrive!! The mechanic did a good job if a little slow but the cost was probably 6 times that which we would pay in the UK. Hey ho such is life.
Europes tallest light house .
L'Aber-Wrac'h from the monument on the road to Plougerneau
The buses are very cheap, less than 2 euros for the day for any number of trips and they include an hour on the tram upon arrival at Brest. We visited Plouguerneau, well worth a bus trip but the feet hurt after leaving the dink at the rowing club between Beg-An-Toul and Port de Paluden and walking into town. The “Round the Finisterre race “ paused for a night when the 250 contestants were sardined into the marina for a noisy boozy party. Speaking to one of the contestants he told me their boat was not going to continue as there engine had got stuck in reverse , However..
The frenchies seem to like reversing as we all know !
Several boats were heading south and were weatherbound but we look forward to meeting them again. While in L’Aber-Wrac’h, a religious festival occurred which I now forget the name of. Saints on poles carried round the village, blessing of the waters, and such like. The surprise was the strength of the links with Wales, Cornwall, Isle of Man, Scotland and Ireland which we discovered during the Celtic festival, compulsory attendance. All the Bretons were singing in English - but it took us 30 mins to recognize it - in a roofless Abbey which they are trying to restore.
The Bay of Angels Taken near the Abbey
When the boat was ready for return several days of F7/F8 winds caused us further delays but when the swell forecast dropped below 2 metres and the wind subsided down to F5\6, lines were dropped and a course was set back for Newlyn. A largely uneventful trip but for French fishing boats again playing games ,switching lights off, AIS transponders switching off in rotation and VHF jamming calls . Our VHF jammed on to channels with a recirculating screen message offering commercial transactions. How? Who knows! A brief stop in Newlyn overnight then a course for Padstow passing close inshore inside the Runnel getting a huge push from the tide then up the inside channel round to Padstow in just short of 8 hrs ! With a brief pause by Sharks Fin to say hello to a couple of basking sharks, the passage to Padstow resumed, passing between The Quies and Bull point just in time to be surrounded by a thick fogbank but the channel was negotiated using the Garmin track with a weather eye on the depth sounder. Two RN boats were noted on the AIS anchored in the approach to Padstow we never saw a thing!! Apart from that, there was a very close encounter with a rib at high speed, who swerved out of the fog just missing us. The berthing master in Padstow confirmed the RN Boats were changing crews.
Force 5/6 Back to Newlyn
One of the Two Basking Sharks
Trevose shrouded in Fog ,even the light could not be seen
We arrived in Padstow a week late and Jackie was overdue back at work, so a mooring was arranged with the intent to return at half term to get back to Cardiff. Harupfff . Half term had no weather window. So the winter was spent in the inner harbour at Padstow, which gave us a couple of nice winter weeks on the boat.
Spring brought us a nice Sunny week for the Wee Oss day, a really glorious week only marred by a sad weekend.
Padstow Oss Day
Now we have a mooring for the summer which gives us a good start on the ‘Return to Brittany’ this year.
So the return to Cardiff may be delayed for quite a while…….
We wish you all fair winds for the summer and don't forget to say hello if you see us
Adrian and Jackie
We just though we would update you on our adventures last year, having met a few of you at the Moody owners get together on Pete’s boat Churinga last year.
This is the delayed, promised update for when we got back to Cardiff… but…. we didn’t get back! More of that later.
We had 4 weeks’ holiday booked but set off more than a week late because of the rain which delayed the refitting of the doghouse windows.
A nice quick sail down to Ilfracombe got the holidays off to a good start with a sunny beam wind 3\4 and a night on the visitors’ moorings. Padstow beckoned about lunchtime after
painting the rudders at low water early in the morning . The trip was mainly motoring in nearly no wind but was not uneventful as we hit a large submerged tree trunk off Hartland Point
with one of our rudders!! It didn’t seem to be a major bump, so we dried out outside Padstow and gave the rudder blades another coat of paint noting one blade had a slight bend .
The trip continued round to Newlyn mainly motoring in calm round Lands End with a little swell. We had originally intended to stop at St Ives to meet a friend who lives not far from Pendean,
but the weather was so good the meet was rescheduled to Newlyn . John said he would take a few photos of us as we passed the chimneys at Botallack and good as his word we got them at Xmas.
John looking at us looking at him!
Well, after a night at Newlyn and a ritual cleaning of the carb’, we did a quick trip to anchor at Mullion Cove for a quiet afternoon steak and snooze before setting off for Chanal Du Four in the early evening.
Mullion Cove
On setting off we had a light westerly wind with a little swell which increased at maybe 5am and moved round to a northerly 4/5. The French fishing boats were a real pain overnight, with the AIS proving invaluable. It was well worth the £99!. The increase in wind and change in direction proved to make helm heavy, so much so that in the early morning Jackie couldn’t maintain the helm. I also had difficulty maintaining and couldn’t hold a course, yawing 30 degrees port and starboard of our 180 degree course. This persuaded us to divert into L’Aber-Wrac’h. We continued to swing wildly up the long channel to L’Aber-Wrac’h and the Marina’s ‘man in a rib’, who put us on the first pontoon on the river side, later told us he had thought we were inebriated! In fact, after noticing one of the rudder uphauls had snapped, I said to Jackie that the river was very cloudy on the marina side as I could only see the top of the starboard rudder. A minute later it dawned that the 5 mm plate had snapped a third of the way down! The heavy helm was explained. To cut it short the Marina office pointed out the local boat mechanic, who agreed to find some plate steel and make a new rudder using the other as a pattern. This led to a serendipitous stay at L’Aber-Wrac’h . We would never have explored this area if our stay had not been enforced as L’Aber-Wrac’h is normally just an overnight resting place prior to going round the corner.
Entrance channel to L’Aber-Wrac’h
Punch and Judys arrival was expected!
On a future trip we will probably go over to the other side of the river and dry out for free at Keridaouen a dink trip to L’Aber-Wrac’h and within walking distance of a really nice corner shop in Lilia ,the like of which L’Aber-Wrac’h sadly lacks. We had several bus trips out as the rudder plate took 9 days to arrive!! The mechanic did a good job if a little slow but the cost was probably 6 times that which we would pay in the UK. Hey ho such is life.
Europes tallest light house .
L'Aber-Wrac'h from the monument on the road to Plougerneau
The buses are very cheap, less than 2 euros for the day for any number of trips and they include an hour on the tram upon arrival at Brest. We visited Plouguerneau, well worth a bus trip but the feet hurt after leaving the dink at the rowing club between Beg-An-Toul and Port de Paluden and walking into town. The “Round the Finisterre race “ paused for a night when the 250 contestants were sardined into the marina for a noisy boozy party. Speaking to one of the contestants he told me their boat was not going to continue as there engine had got stuck in reverse , However..
The frenchies seem to like reversing as we all know !
Several boats were heading south and were weatherbound but we look forward to meeting them again. While in L’Aber-Wrac’h, a religious festival occurred which I now forget the name of. Saints on poles carried round the village, blessing of the waters, and such like. The surprise was the strength of the links with Wales, Cornwall, Isle of Man, Scotland and Ireland which we discovered during the Celtic festival, compulsory attendance. All the Bretons were singing in English - but it took us 30 mins to recognize it - in a roofless Abbey which they are trying to restore.
The Bay of Angels Taken near the Abbey
When the boat was ready for return several days of F7/F8 winds caused us further delays but when the swell forecast dropped below 2 metres and the wind subsided down to F5\6, lines were dropped and a course was set back for Newlyn. A largely uneventful trip but for French fishing boats again playing games ,switching lights off, AIS transponders switching off in rotation and VHF jamming calls . Our VHF jammed on to channels with a recirculating screen message offering commercial transactions. How? Who knows! A brief stop in Newlyn overnight then a course for Padstow passing close inshore inside the Runnel getting a huge push from the tide then up the inside channel round to Padstow in just short of 8 hrs ! With a brief pause by Sharks Fin to say hello to a couple of basking sharks, the passage to Padstow resumed, passing between The Quies and Bull point just in time to be surrounded by a thick fogbank but the channel was negotiated using the Garmin track with a weather eye on the depth sounder. Two RN boats were noted on the AIS anchored in the approach to Padstow we never saw a thing!! Apart from that, there was a very close encounter with a rib at high speed, who swerved out of the fog just missing us. The berthing master in Padstow confirmed the RN Boats were changing crews.
Force 5/6 Back to Newlyn
One of the Two Basking Sharks
Trevose shrouded in Fog ,even the light could not be seen
We arrived in Padstow a week late and Jackie was overdue back at work, so a mooring was arranged with the intent to return at half term to get back to Cardiff. Harupfff . Half term had no weather window. So the winter was spent in the inner harbour at Padstow, which gave us a couple of nice winter weeks on the boat.
Spring brought us a nice Sunny week for the Wee Oss day, a really glorious week only marred by a sad weekend.
Padstow Oss Day
Now we have a mooring for the summer which gives us a good start on the ‘Return to Brittany’ this year.
So the return to Cardiff may be delayed for quite a while…….
We wish you all fair winds for the summer and don't forget to say hello if you see us
Adrian and Jackie