A Passage to France

Up at 0445 to the sound of Bob’s alarm. We planned to be off the dock at 0500 sharp. Bob to do the tea and David and I sort the lines to cast off.

The well oiled machine delivered again. We were off at just after 5 in slack water and heading out of the River Dart at 5kts. This was going to be a long trip with some weather on the way. A direct passage to Brittany – perhaps Roscoff, but the precise location didn’t matter.

We made good progress throughout the day with the wind just a little forward of the beam doing 7.5 kts was easy. We had estimated a passage time of 15 hrs at 6 kts – it was a little over 90nm. By late morning we were passing through the shipping traffic – not the shipping lanes but about 20nm West of where they stopped. The ships still adhere to approximate lane discipline, although you cannot guarantee they will not change course. With the AIS it is more of a computer game judging whether to pass in front of behind. There were no close calls and we passed the two lanes in a couple of hours without incident.

With the fun over it was time to settle to the long passage down to France. We needed the wind to veer a little to make as far West as we could. The wind picked up quite a bit and was gusting to just over 20 kts but averaging around 18. With a reef in the main and the headsail furled a bit the boat was heeling to about 30 degrees – a bit uncomfortable but fast.

We reached the French coast near Tregier at 1700. We knew this area from last year. We navigated in carefully through the rocks - it was well buoyed. The contrast between the windy sea and the tranquil river was complete. A lovely motor up the river - perhaps 5nm - and were tied up on the pontoon opposite the town with a beer in hand at 1900.

A very long and tiring day but we had achieved the objective; a good jumping off point for the rest of the Brittany coast (Chapter 3 on "The Secret Anchorages of Brittany" was within our grasp).

David cooked an excellent prawn risotto. A couple of glasses of red wine made for a convivial evening and to bed for the sleep of the dead at 2300 (midnight French time).