Now the forecast as could be best interpreted was NW around Falmouth F4/5 then we could expect the winds to go SW same strength, then the nearer we got to France the winds should move back to NW or N and easing. Well for the first time I can recall it all worked out as per our combined interpretation of the weather forecast.

We set out from Helford River and had a really good sail with Sun Dog loping along at a heady 5-6kts in 15-20 kts of breeze OK not in the same league as the modern boats that would be doing 8-9kts but it was one of those special periods in time where time wasn’t an issue as long as we arrived in daylight, as on the charts it looks pretty rocky all around the approaches to L’Aber W’rach

This continued for a while until we began to get headed by the wind, and Sun Dog has many virtues but sailing close to the wind is not one of them – so mainsail stayed up and the old faithful Perkins got fired up.

We came across this lovely old boat on the way over, and as you can see from the photo it was hard to capture a good level photo in the swell, and this is the best one!!

We were expecting commercial traffic on the French side going into and out of the Traffic Separation Scheme off Ouessant but jumping Jesus I didn’t expect it to be like Piccadilly Circus or Sauchiehall Street on a Saturday. All this in the pitch black, and therefore not so easy to gauge distance/size of vessel – other than via their navigation lights which indicate whether they are under or over 50 metres in length. At one point I ended up being the meat in a sandwich between two of these huge boats coming at me at different angles – simplistically one would have been coming from say 90 degrees and the other coming from 80 degrees. As I was slowing to nip around the back of the first one, it was shortening the distance between us and the other one coming along. AIS is a big help in figuring out their headings but some of these are huge vessels travelling at high speeds so real vigilance is the name of the game.

One of these boats was just short of 300 metres and going at 20 kts (AIS gives the vessels details) and in cases like this I always remember one of my Dads saying “it’s not a question of whose right son – it’s a question of whose left”! Anyhow I could witter away but suffice to say that I have never been at sea with such a volume of commercial traffic. As for the odd one or two that came along separate from the groups Old Hawkeye AKA Sara, who has an amazing aptitude for picking up the lights on boats, and separating them from the light of stars. In fact I think she can see them before they have cleared the horizon – must be a wee bit of Celtic mysticism still in her blood? I can also say that for someone who has never experienced the ocean swell before this trip, she has been simply amazing and unfazed by anything we have experienced thus far – apart that is from the shark encounter in Irish waters. In fact coming into L’Aber Wrach the swell builds higher as the waters become shallower, but she was quite happy taking the helm, or getting the binoculars out and using her old Hawkeye skills to pick out markers etc – excellent support.

We arrived at low water and it was quite a sight seeing the swell crash over the rocks as we were running up the approaches,but in truth with all the markers around it would be hard to get it wrong in clear conditions. We were met at the marina by the mooring guy who pointed out an inner berth as the visitors’ pontoon was full. This berth was way shorter than the length of the boat and unfortunately as Sara was getting off with the lines she got her leg caught in one of the fender lines – looked really sore – but Hawkeye doesn’t give in easily and she freed herself and got the boat tide up. It could have been nasty, but turned out well enough as she “only” has a sore leg. Well that’s it for this leg (no pun intended), we have now covered over 700 miles since setting off and cannot believe how quickly the time is passing.

Love to everyone
G n’ S