1.37.2W

A fast trip up from Camaret overnight – arrived here at 12 noon, after a passage of c26hours. We caught the start of the tide off the Pointe St Matthieu, and carried the flood all the way to beyond Batz: up the Chenal du Four and onwards. It was a clear night with an (almost) full moon – one of those rare evenings when it is pleasant sitting out through the night hours.

The wind got up steadily – we put in the first reef at 9pm before my watch, and then the second just after midnight, once Roger had taken over. There was a fair swell from the west, which picked up the boat and promoted surfing down the waves. In consequence, speeds were right up on the log – a lot of the time the log was showing well over 8knots – and there was a lot of corkscrewing about. I spilt boiling water over my wrist in a particularly vicious lurch, and later split 2 mugs of tea in the saloon on my way to take them out into the cockpit. There wasn’t much milk in either mug, fortunately, and it was a half-cream milk: but I’ve since cleaned thoroughly – nothing worse than the smell of milk that’s gone off!

We’re anchored in the outer harbour, close to the military zone, and don’t plan to go into the marina. The weather forecast shows a major storm coming through overnight Wednesday/Thursday, so we shall sit it out here until the wind goes light – only 60 miles home.

Emails from Wendy Effer and John Kellett both commenting about the anchoring stories, and hypothesising that boats are magnetically attracted to anchor at close quarters to us!