Monday Aug 4th
We left Weymouth at 11.00am. The wind was Southerly and 20 knots but predicted to veer. The crossing was windy, wet and rough but the wind did veer eventually and we tied up for the night in Braye. After a relaxing day sunbathing in beautiful weather on Alderney we cruised down the Swinge to St Peter Port and the following day motored very slowly in no wind at all towards Treguier.
We spent several days enjoying life in the marina at Treguier but feeling a little apprehensive about our engine which had been cutting out occasionally. We took the bus to Paimpol to the Maritime Festival (lots of sea shanties and classic boats). Finally we decided to move and on Wednesday morning motored down the river and then sailed around to the Ile de Brehat. As we prepared to anchor in La Chambre the engine decided not to play and we were forced to inflate the trusty Avon and attach the outboard in order to manoeuvre Phoebe and anchor safely. The crew swam to the beach and sunbathed. Bad news awaited them on their return as a hole had been discovered in the exhaust valve and there was no choice but to sail all the way home whatever the weather.
Thursday we sailed slowly from La Chambre – with a light sea breeze which died. Slowly we sailed on watching the Roches Douvres for far too long until the breeze got up at sunset and luckily increased enough for us to carry a spinnaker to St Peter Port. Tacking into the entrance we attracted the attention of the marina staff who helpfully towed us to a pontoon.
We were towed out of the harbour on Friday and set free to sail to Alderney. We put the kite up in about 15 knots of wind accompanied by the sound of the fog horn off the Casquets! Finally spotting Braye through the mist we joined a fight for the empty visitors buoys with several other boats who arrived at the same time. We were the only ones attempting to sail on to a buoy and during the attempt somebody dropped our best boat hook overboard. Thankfully it floats and we did retrieve it later.
Saturday we set off for Weymouth with no fog and strong winds and had a very fast crossing – but that was the only good thing about it as the waves were large, the wind gusted up to 30 knots at one point, it rained and although surfing down the waves is jolly exhilarating it can go on for too long. Finally we saw Portland, eventually we passed the East Shambles and at last we tacked painstakingly up the harbour and managed to make it on to our mooring.
Who needs an engine!
Submitted on 7th September 2013