Our day started at 8.00am with a tricky departure from Cherbourg, due to the wind wanting to push Wind Singer down onto the boat in the next berth. Having successfully exited the marina without incident we were off for a day and a half sail to L’Aber Wrac’h on our way to setup for the jump across The Bay of Biscay. The trip took a day and 6 hours to cover the 147 miles. Through the night watch we had a 4 hour dual watch system overlapping each other for 2 hours with 4, 30 minutes stints on the Tiller. At night it is difficult to keep your concentration on the instruments to steer for longer than half an hour.
It was a reasonable passage F4 - F6 and the sea state was Moderate. Good visibility and the usual dance with French fishing boats that don’t like using their navigation tracking, so you don’t see them easily and expect you to guess their next manoeuvre. Particularly when you’re close……Always a challenge! A highlight was our first sighting of Common Dolphin who escorted us for a while before Dusk.
The entrance to L’Aber Wrac’h has got to be treated with respect due to lots of rocks and strong tides that want to take you onto them. Good fun piloting in though and we found a great berth in the marina with a great internet connection that extends out to the boats. The locals fish for crabs from the marina pontoons with great success. The people close to us caught a number of them in under an hour. Then presumably went home to eat them!
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| Departure track from Cherbourg |
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| line tidy up at Sunset |
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Overall track to L’Aber Wrac’h
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| Paul D prepares the fenders for arrival |
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| Over head view of our approach track |
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| The marina |
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| Local crab |
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| Jim, Nick and Paul D |
