Cameret
Beowulf
Tom Fenton and Faith Ressmeyer
Sat 23 Jun 2012 16:02
48° 16' 44.9904"E 4° 35' 46.4382W
Cameret sur Mer, just south of the Goulet de Brest, to relatively narrow water leading into the bay or estuary in which Brest lies. This is real maritime France, with a strong naval tradition. It has also been the start and finish point for many record breaking sailing voyages. In recent years a crew from Brest sailied round the world in 44 days, 7 hours, 48 minutes and 52 seconds. They count their circumnavigations in seconds, these French. It has taken us almost that long to get here from Essex. A crossing of the Atlantic was completed here in 7 days, 13 hours, 38 minutes and 6 seconds. Well if that's all it takes...
So we are here waiting for some strong wind tomorrow morning to pass, and then we will set of to cross the Bay of Biscay. The weather looks good all week. You can check it out on passageweather.com. When the first page opens, click in the middle of the North Atlantic. In the next page click on the small orange rectangle covering Biscay, just to the North of Spain. A window will open showing the wind speed and direction now. If you click "next" or "animate" it will take you through the next week. The forecast is updated daily, but we will not be able to connect once we are offshore.
Bill Kippen arrived the day before yesterday. Yesterday we made the water tank more secure. Another Vega sailor who crossed Biscay a month ahead of us reported that his broke loose during rough weather. Ours had clearly been a problem to previous owners. Bill and I reinforced the bulkhead and replaced the board that holds the tank down with stronger marine ply and some battens. I had these cut at the Chantier du Guip, an amazing naval carpenters' yard which just happened to be right beside where we were tied up in Brest. As I waited I watched the men working on six wooden boats. Enormous pieces of timber were being curved and planes to precise tolerances. Every so often the men would gather at one or other of the boats and there would be an earnest discussion about some technical issue. It is wonderful to find these skills still alive.
This morning we clocked up 500 miles since we left England (Dover) and almost 600 since we left Wivenhoe. Very satisfying. Soon we will be old salts. Today we sailed in a good breeze and bright sunshine. That was more like what we expected. T
Cameret sur Mer, just south of the Goulet de Brest, to relatively narrow water leading into the bay or estuary in which Brest lies. This is real maritime France, with a strong naval tradition. It has also been the start and finish point for many record breaking sailing voyages. In recent years a crew from Brest sailied round the world in 44 days, 7 hours, 48 minutes and 52 seconds. They count their circumnavigations in seconds, these French. It has taken us almost that long to get here from Essex. A crossing of the Atlantic was completed here in 7 days, 13 hours, 38 minutes and 6 seconds. Well if that's all it takes...
So we are here waiting for some strong wind tomorrow morning to pass, and then we will set of to cross the Bay of Biscay. The weather looks good all week. You can check it out on passageweather.com. When the first page opens, click in the middle of the North Atlantic. In the next page click on the small orange rectangle covering Biscay, just to the North of Spain. A window will open showing the wind speed and direction now. If you click "next" or "animate" it will take you through the next week. The forecast is updated daily, but we will not be able to connect once we are offshore.
Bill Kippen arrived the day before yesterday. Yesterday we made the water tank more secure. Another Vega sailor who crossed Biscay a month ahead of us reported that his broke loose during rough weather. Ours had clearly been a problem to previous owners. Bill and I reinforced the bulkhead and replaced the board that holds the tank down with stronger marine ply and some battens. I had these cut at the Chantier du Guip, an amazing naval carpenters' yard which just happened to be right beside where we were tied up in Brest. As I waited I watched the men working on six wooden boats. Enormous pieces of timber were being curved and planes to precise tolerances. Every so often the men would gather at one or other of the boats and there would be an earnest discussion about some technical issue. It is wonderful to find these skills still alive.
This morning we clocked up 500 miles since we left England (Dover) and almost 600 since we left Wivenhoe. Very satisfying. Soon we will be old salts. Today we sailed in a good breeze and bright sunshine. That was more like what we expected. T