After having engine voltage problems the previous day and deciding to return to Jersey, we find ourselves back in St. Helier. Wim checks everything, and after a few fuses blow, he figures out the problem is a relay. It needs to be replaced, but it isn’t urgent, so we can be on our way again!
Highlights – the overview
In the morning, it’s rainy. No problem, we will leave in the afternoon to have the current with us to Iles Chausey. Sher finishes her first cockpit cushion. It looks fabulous!
Once out of port, we set sail to Les Iles de Chausey once more! There’s a 8-10 knots breeze from the west so we gently sail in the south-east direction.
We arrive in the early evening and are surprised that the anchorages indicated in the pilot book appear to be pretty exposed to wind and waves. We take the second area they propose, thinking it might be more protected, and drop our anchor between two big rocks in 15m of water. The holding seems good but it is a crazy anchoring location. At high tide (which is now), it is actually open sea!
After breakfast, we pull up our anchor. It was dug in very solidly. We sail between the rocks and cardinal markers (these indicate which direction to stay on – N/S/E/W) to the south side of the archipelagos.
It looks like a nice calm harbor with moorings for visitors, but that changes quickly! Boats arrive, packed in, and tie up on the moorings right in front and right at our stern. Around noon, a French sailboat comes alongside to tie up along side of us, without even asking!
After they leave and another boat comes to raft up, we’ve had enough! We decide we need to get out of this mooring jungle of masts ASAP. We take the dinghy to check the anchorage further down the creek, a shallow lagoon. The tide is falling rapidly. We check the depths with the boat hook. More than 2 meters. Let’s go!
Ahhhh… much better! We enjoy the peacefulness and our beautiful view. We laugh about all the boats packed in at the moorings! 🙂 We don’t want to hear others’ conversations or smell the cigarette smoke from front, back, and side neighbors!
In the afternoon, we dinghy to the island. We walk a bit over the hills, enjoy the the views and buy some provisions at the small store. But after that, let’s get out. The island is overcrowded with daytime tourists!
While we have time at anchor here, the next cockpit cushion is finished. It is gorgeous! Look how all the teal and turquoise colors match with the sea around it!
At low tide, we take a dinghy tour to the drying beaches east of the bay, and from there, we do some practicing with the drone. The goal is to be able to use the drone while we’re underway, which will take some practice to fly (Wim) and then to catch mid-air on its return (Sher). We then continue on and row into the shallow little creeks.
After a lovely day, we finish with a sweet treat… dessert of French flan and butter cookies with a glass of sherry in the cockpit! The next day, we work our way through the jungle mine-field of boats and head to the Brittany coast. Bye-bye Chausey!
Captain’s Log (T+37, 38… 42) – the complete story
After having engine voltage problems the previous day and deciding to return to Jersey, we find ourselves back in St. Helier. Wim checks everything in the engine’s electrical system and finds a blown fuse at the back of the engine. After replacing the fuse, the dashboard has power again. We try to start and when we put the ignition key at preheat position the fuse blows immediately. So, it seems to be caused by the preheating circuit. Wim replaces the fuse once more. The dashboard lights up. Let’s try to start without preheating and use the emergency start button we installed in Koudum just before we left. The engine starts and the fuse doesn’t blow! Wim checks the preheat relay and it appears to have a short circuit in the coil. He disconnects the relay and we can start with the ignition key again. So, this relay needs to be replaced. This it not urgent because the engine starts perfectly without preheating. Wim knows a Solé dealer in Brest and we will email them to have the relay ready for us once we get there in the near future.
August 6 – to Iles Chausey!
In the morning, it’s rainy. No problem, we will leave in the afternoon to have the current with us to Iles Chausey. Sher finishes her first cockpit cushion. It looks fabulous!
In the afternoon, it stops raining and at 1400 we leave the port of St.Helier. Our British neighbor comes out to help and overloads us with compliments for our boat. He just can’t stop complementing while Sher steers off. He says: no, you certainly don’t need any help from me 🙂 Sher says: oh, now it’s going to be extra difficult to steer Dione IV out of here, she’s so puffed up with compliments now 🙂
Once out of port, we set sail to Les Iles de Chausey once more! There’s a 8-10 knots breeze from the west so we gently sail in the south-east direction. After 1600, we get the current with us and at 1900 we arrive at the archipelago. Well, the anchorages that are in the pilot book appear to be pretty exposed to wind and waves. Anyway, we take the second spot they propose and drop our anchor between two big rocks in 15m of water. The holding seems good but it is a crazy anchor location. At high tide (which is now), it is actually open sea!
At low tide (at 0430 tonight), there should be good protection.
We have a quick dinner and we watch the beautiful sunset.
August 7 – the town of Chausey
After breakfast, we pull up our anchor. It was dug in very solidly. We sail between the rocks and cardinal markers (these indicate which direction to stay on – N/S/E/W) to the south side of the archipelagos.
There, we enter the creek along the little town Chausey.
There are mooring buoys and we pick up one of them.
It looks like a nice calm spot but that changes quickly! Boats arrive, packed in, and tie up on the mooring buoys right in front and right at our stern. Around noon, a French sailboat comes alongside to raft up to us, without even asking! They say: only 2 hours for lunch, then we’ll be gone. Well, okay… But right after they have left, another French boat comes alongside, again without even asking. The French skipper hops over the railing onto our boat to tie his lines, again without asking! This is the limit. We see other boats with 3 alongside and we fear this is going to happen to us, too. We decide we have to get out of here ASAP. We take the dinghy to check the anchorage further down the creek, a shallow lagoon. The tide is falling rapidly. We check the depths with the boat hook. More than 2 meters. Let’s go! The French skipper next to us is a bit embarrassed and he’s a gentle guy. He says: we don’t want to chase you away. But we untie from the mooring buoys and from his boat and we sail to the little bay. We have 2-3 meters so no problem. We anchor in the middle of the bay. White sandy bottom, beautiful turquoise water and only 3 boats here. Much better!
At low tide, we stay afloat by just a half meter. That evening, at high tide, the swell comes in a bit but there’s still a good protection from the little islands/rocks.
We enjoy the peacefulness and our beautiful view. We laugh about the masts-jungle at the mooring buoys 🙂
But the French love that, closely tied together, yapping and drinking wine all day 🙂
But we don’t want to hear their conversations all day and smell their cigarette smoke and their barbeques.
August 8 – another beautiful day at anchor
A beautiful sunrise!
Our New-Zealand tide clock was on the bookshelf since we were in the painting hall. It’s time to hang it now so that we can easily see what the tide is!
In the afternoon, we dinghy to the island. We walk a bit over the hills, enjoy the the views and buy some provisions at the small store. But after that, let’s get out. The island is overcrowded with daytime tourists!
Hey, there’s a beautiful boat in the bay! Un bateau tres jolie, as we hear the French often say, as the pass by us 🙂
August 9 – cushions and drone practice
The second cockpit cushion project! We draw out the shape of the foam on the Sunbrella fabric on the foredeck, we cut the parts with the heat cutter and Sher starts sewing.
Wim prepares the drone to fly. It has been a year since it flew and the software isn’t working anymore. So, that needs some research on the internet and downloading and installing. After that, the drone is operational again. Charge the batteries and tomorrow we fly it.
The day closes with a beautiful sunset.
August 10 – enjoying our time at anchor
In the morning, the cockpit cushion is finished. It is gorgeous! Look how all the teal and turquoise colors match with the sea around it!
In the afternoon, we do a dinghy tour to the drying beaches east of the bay. From a beach, we do some practicing with the drone.
Find us on the little beach!
We row into one of the creeks. The surroundings are beautiful!
Yes, this lovely day must be closed with a lovely dessert!
August 11 – ready to sail away
In the morning, we dinghy to the island to buy a few provisions. At 11, we pull up our anchor and sail out.
We pass the long row of mooring buoys. We called that “the jungle” 🙂 It’s a jungle of masts. Sometimes 4 or 5 boats tied together alongside on a mooring. It is very crowded. It’s holiday time, weekend, and beautiful weather so, a lot French boats come here from St.Malo. Also, our anchorage got busy. Last Wednesday, we were almost alone in the bay. Now, there are like 30 boats anchored. And the French are such careless sailors: they anchor way too close to each other. Every boat should be able to swing around its own anchor. And because of the huge tidal difference, you set a long chain here. We put out 30 meters. So, the circles are quite big. A French skipper dropped his anchor 15 meters aside of us. We yelled, “you are way too close! We will hit each other when the wind or the current changes.” He answered: “on va voir….” (we’ll see)… No way! Luckily, another French skipper started shouting at him and then he pulled up his anchor and went to another place, also way too close to others. But they didn’t comment…
Well, we’re happy to escape out of this, today!
Bye-bye Iles de Chausey!
We set sail to the mainland of Brittany.
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