Highlights – the overview
We are working our way West along the North Brittany coast, from the River Trieux to Port Blanc, then on to Brignogan Plage, a protected shallow bay to dry out and clean the bottom hull. We spend a few days in each place and taking it a bit easy, as we both have a cold/flu.
Once we clean the hull, we decide to retrace our path back East for 15 miles, to the marina at Roscoff, since the weather forecast indicated that we wouldn’t be safe to stay another night at Brignogan Plage, and it would be 12 miles West, against the current, to the next safe place. We take advantage of our time in the marina to do laundry, provision, and rest up. Wim especially isn’t feeling all that well.
A few days there and the weather improves. We set out West again and when the current turns against us, we make our way up the river L’Aber Benoit. Several times we see dolphins at a distance. But then, a small group crosses our course. They come at our beam and dive under the boat to the other side!
One night there, then we catch the current the next morning, and make our way around the cape and down the coast to Brest. The weather is rainy and there’s not enough wind to sail… we rely on our Marvelous Mighty Mitsu engine to motor us the entire way, while we stay warm, dry, and snug in the pilot house.
Once we get into the strait between the islands of Quessant and the mainland, the current picks up!
The British Channel really spits us out at speeds over 8 knots!
Around 12:30h we round Cape de St.Mathieu leading East towards Brest, and the current is gone. We arrive in the bay by Brest and anchor for two nights, before we go into the marina here. From this point on, once we sail out of Brest, we won’t have the strong currents and pervasive South-West winds to contend with… new weather patterns and adventures ahead!
The Captain’s Log (T+58, 59…69) – the complete story
August 27 – We Leave the River Trieux
After we leave the river Trieux, we get a nice breeze on our stern so we hoist our beautiful gennaker and sail West.
When the current turns against us we turn into the bay of Port Blanc.
We find the moorings too close together so we leave ‘m for others and anchor.
August 28 – A Beautiful Sunrise in Port Blanc
After a nice and quiet night, we wake up with a beautiful sunrise.
We decide to stay here a couple of days and take it easy. We are both having a flu and this is a lovely tranquil place to recover. Numerous sailing classes with children in all kinds of little open sailboats swirl around us. It’s a cheerful sight.
August 30 – West on to Brignogan Plage
Today, the wind is right (North-East) so we take the current and continue our journey West. After 6 hours, the current starts to turn against us and we turn into the bay of Brignogan Plage. This is a place we wanted to visit because the bay is very well protected, has almost no current and a clean hard sand bottom. A perfect place to dry out and clean our underwater hull!
We pick up a big mooring ball, have dinner and watch the sunset.
August 31 – September 2 – Waiting for Weather to Dry Out
We wait for the right weather to dry out and in the meantime, we take it very easy. We’re both still suffering from the flu.
Because of the prolonged Northerly winds, the swell enters the bay (it’s open to the North-East). At low tide, the surrounding rock formations break the swell and the water is pretty calm. But the remaining little swell is enough to let our hull bounce on the sand, right before we dry out. Although our strong steel hull can take that without any problem, it’s not a nice feeling. Everything shakes and vibrates when our keel hits the bottom when we’re just on the edge of floating and drying out.
That happens in the middle of the night while we’re on the mooring ball. And after that, we dry out out half. There remains only 30cm’s of water and Dione IV rolls onto her starboard side. In that position, she stays at an angle of 20 degrees. Making us roll firmly against each other in bed 🙂 After an hour the water rises again and Dione IV rights herself, but we stay snuggled together (as always!) Next morning, we decide to move to the outer mooring ball where there’s some more depth to stay afloat, that’s more comfy.
The weather is changeable. Sometimes a rain shower, sometimes sunny.
September 3 – Hull Cleaning Day, then Back East to Roscoff
Today, it looks like a perfect day for our hull-cleaning job. Some clouds, some sun, light South-Westerly breeze.
In the morning, at high tide, we move to one of the inner moorings balls and wait until the water has receded.
We start cleaning the hull with the high-pressure washer.
The little pocks have to be removed manually, especially those in the bow-thruster tube.
The propeller has no antifouling, so it has collected some green weed on it. That washes away with the high-pressure washer very easily. After that, we polish the prop with fine sanding paper. There is a thin chalky layer on it and that makes growth easier to attach.
It looks bright and shiny again! This is important for a good performance and efficiency of the prop. Even a little bit of growth on it (like this) costs 0.2L of diesel per hour extra. When we motor out of here, we see our diesel consumption drop down from 2.5 to 2.3L/h at a cruising speed of 5 knots.
When everything is clean we wait for the water to flow back in. At 16:00h, we’re afloat again and we decide to sail out of here. There’s a strong northerly wind forecasted for tomorrow and that will make it very uncomfortable and perhaps even dangerous here.
Bye-bye beautiful Brignogan Plage!
There’s hardly any wind and we decide to go with the current 15 miles back East to Roscoff, rather than the 12 miles we’d need to travel West to get to the next safe place. We think the shelter of Roscoff and having a berth in the marina is the safer choice.
Entering the port of Roscoff.
September 4 and 5 – In the Marina at Roscoff
We take advantage of the stay in the marina by filling up our water tanks and doing a lot of laundry. What a luxury to have a washer and dryer on board! We walk into town for some provisioning.
September 6 – Dolphins and Gannets!
At sunrise (08:00h) we leave the marina of Roscoff.
Let’s take another 6 hours tide with the current on our tail. The current is quite strong now, it’s spring tide. We’ll have 3 knots of current max.
Several times we see dolphins at a distance. But then, a small group crosses our course. They come at the side of the boat, mid-ship, and dive under the boat to the other side!
This one kisses our bow 🙂
There’s hardly any wind so Marvelous Mighty Mitsu does the job today. When the tide starts turning we turn into the river L’Aber Benoit and tie up to a mooring ball.
Another tranquil place!
September 7 – Around the Cape to Brest
After a peaceful night, we depart at 08:15h. Today, we will leave the British Channel. We’ll go round the cape and try to reach Brest. Quite a long way for one tide (50 nautical miles) but since we’ll have a strong current on our stern we should be able to make it. It’s a gray and rainy day with almost no wind. In heavy rain showers we sit comfy in our deck salon while Marvelous Mighty Mitsu imperturbably pushes us around the notorious cape. Around the rocks of Portsall, were the Amoco Cadiz found its grave in 1978, causing one of the biggest crude oil disasters ever… The very gray and sometimes foggy day contributes to a somewhat sad feeling about that. But a couple of times, dolphins come to cheer us up and we see hundreds of gannets, which we love!
Once we get into the strait between the islands of Quessant and the mainland, the current picks up!
The British Channel really spits us out at speeds over 8 knots!
The sea is very turbulent but flat with eddy’s everywhere.
Lucky there are no big waves and high winds. We have a very calm and relaxed passage. Which suits us and especially Wim because his flu has developed in a sinusitis with bad headaches.
Around 12:30h we round Cape de St.Mathieu leading East towards Brest, and the current is gone.
The sky clears as we move to the Rade de Brest (the inner sea near Brest).
In the Rade de Brest we take a starboard turn to an anchorage near the village of Roscanvel. At 15:30, we drop anchor.
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