Benodet
Pelican
Darryl and Anne Saxton
Wed 9 Sep 2009 15:23
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We were held up in Guernsey longer than originally
planned due to gale force 8 winds which even Darryl wouldn't sail in! At least
it gave us a chance to fully dry the boat out and get all ship shape again. In
the end, we left Guernsey in the early hours of Saturday 5th September once we
were sure the gale force winds had subsided. Over the next two nights and three
days we made our way along the coast of Northern France and round the Brest
peninsular. It was great to finally get out and do some sailing. The weather was
perfect - just enough wind and beautiful sunshine. On the way we were visited by
a pod of about 7 or 8 dolphins, swimming in front of the bow and diving under
the boat. It really was a magical moment. They were so quick and lively and were
obviously having a lot of fun!
On our second night of sailing we had a
rather unfortunate encounter with a fishing net. It was a drift net held up
by a buoy. As we sailed past, the darn thing got itself hooked
round our keel. After about an hour of trying to dislodge it the 'nice'
way, we decided to get tough with it. We burst the buoy which promptly
sank, taking the offending net with it. At last we were free - but I
think there must now be a french fisherman who's really hacked
off. Oh well.
On the third day of sailing, (Monday 7th
September) we lost the wind. It was down to a force 0-1. I seriously
contemplated getting my hairdryer out and aiming it at the sails! Although we
were trying to get to Vannes, by the time we reached the end of the third day we
were both exhausted and decided a good nights sleep was in order. We turned on
the engine to navigate into Benodet and then disaster struck! The engine
died. We managed to sling out an anchor to stop us drifting and on Tuesday
we took the boat into Benodet marina using just the tide and the jib
sail and a helpful harbour master to take the mooring lines and help us stop
before we hit the posh catamaran in front! The mechanics at Benodet marina are
working on the engine but we could be here a week or so as it looks fairly
serious (Darryl was talking to them about one of the valves and one of the
pistons now being welded together or something and so need to be replaced).
Anyway, Le Motor - Il Caput!
That's all for now. Will let you know when we
expect to get going again. Hopefully that's all our bad luck over with and we
can look forward to some good luck round the corner.
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