Heading homeward
The Voyages of Richard and Amanda
Wed 7 Jul 2010 19:51
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POS: 48:35.98N 004:33.68W
Well we are in L'Aber Wrac'h and are at last
in the Channel. If we sail due north we will hit the English south coast
somewhere near Falmouth. We left St Evette at 5.00am this morning (local time -
one hour ahead of UK time) because we needed to arrive at the Raz de
Sein at slack water. The Raz is notorious for rough conditions because of
the high speeds of the currents over an uneven bottom. The pilot books suggest
getting there at 5.5 hours past high water at Brest, you will then carry a
favourable tide all the way north, through the Chenal du Four and on to the
Northern Brittany coast.
In fact partly because its neap tides when the
currents are slowest and partly due to my expert timing, we didn't see any tidal
effects in the Raz, just an uncomfortable swell coming in from the West that
meant we spent a lot of time trying to balance as J G rolled from side to side.
We were motoring at this time because the wind hadn't really started and we
wouldn't haver been able to make any speed with just sails. From the Raz de Sein
we motored north to the Chenal du Four which is our passage through to N
Brittany.
The only problem with the Chenal du Four is the
high speeds of the currents, which can get up to 3.5 knots in Spring tides, so
you need to have your pilotage plan ready to tick off the buoys as you race
past. We got a helpful 1.5 knot assist in the right direction which was
very welcome. The Chenal du Four is the furthest West we go on the journey home
since La Coruna, from now we are heading North and East back towards
home.
The final few miles to L'Aber Wrac'h was along the
coast, which is decidedly rocky so you do need to know where you are.
Fortunately we are now back onto the chartplotter detailed maps. For all of
Biscay we have been working with the plotter world map. This is a very basic map
that comes free with the chartplotter showing the rough outline of the coast,
without depth information or any details of lights, rocks etc. Sometimes
according the the world map we were actually sailing across land. Now we have
returned to more local waters the proper map software that I have paid for is
working, I can now see exactly where we are in relation to the land and is a
great confidence booster.
We covered the last few miles with the wind behind
us, which makes a great difference to how warm you feel, because if the wind is
blowing at 15 knots and you are moving at 5 you only feel 10 knots of wind. If
you were going the other way at 5knots you would feel 20kn of wind and that is
quite different. So as we were sailing along I was was sunbathing in just my
shorts, when we passed another yacht going in the other direction where the crew
looking very windswept in their foul weather gear gave us an envious wave.
It makes a change, as it seems like weeks that it has been us doing the beating
into the wind
We arrived at L'Aber Wrac'h just on 2pm after 9
hours of motor sailing and had covered 50 miles. We entered the harbour between
rocky groups of islands and eventually tied up in the marina between two other
British boats.There are dozens of British boats here, it is obviously a very
popular place. It is a great sailing centre for kids, all over the place there
were groups of children on different types of watercraft from windsurfers to
Optimist dinghies with an attendant instructor. It is a perfect sailing
venue. After a quick lunch both of us felt exhausted. It was too hot to sit
outside so we chilled out below and before I knew it it was 7pm and I had slept
most of the afternoon.
We will probably stay here for two nights then see
what the weather is going to do. It is possible we might head directly back to
the UK, possibly to Falmouth before coming along the South coast back home. It
depends a bit on what the wind strengths are going to be.
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