Position: 48:38:09N 02:01:38W

Concarneau, Southern Brittany, France

St Malo to Concarneau

Timing of the currents and the lock ‘opening’  meant that we left St Malo at around 5pm ready for a night sail almost immediately. We had a fantastic sail that evening. Great winds, smooth seas and not much traffic.

Listening on the VHF marine radio that evening we listened to the great work of the Jersey lifeguard and other marine services in real time. Unfortunately a fisherman had fallen into the sea and disappeared. We listened as the Mayday played out and all the various agencies worked together to find him – but without success in this instance. Finally they had to move on.

The next morning the weather began to shift such that we were forced to decide whether we should continue our sail or put into a local port and wait 24 hours or more. It was clear that the sail would continue to be close hauled (very close to against the wind) and require a good deal of tacking. In addition the currents would not be in our favour. There was no question of danger – rather a difficult, messy sail. We chose to continue.

As it turns out the sail was indeed messy, cold, wet, uncomfortable and slow. With a fair amount of fog thrown in to for good measure. The currents we encountered were so strong that when we tacked we had to be careful we didn’t go backwards!

We also learnt about night watches. We had chosen to rotate every two hours previously and this had worked out just fine but in these conditions the two hour break didn’t really provide enough of a break leaving us both very tired the next morning.  It seems it’s true that a crew gives in way before a good boat! Anyway, we now rotate every 3 hours which works much better.

Les catches the very first fish on Timeless!

During one of Les’ night watches she caught the very first fish whilst on Timeless – it was a bit ugly, but it was a fish non- the-less. She did this without a line or a net or bait. It seems that all you have to do is rough up the ocean and then blast through it. The net result is fish jump out of the water and land on your side decking! Well done Les!

All in all this confirmed that sailing close-hauled in big seas is not fun for us and to be avoided at all costs!