Journey to Camaret-Sur-Mer
Stargazer of Southampton
Susie and Adam (both think they are skipper)
Fri 30 Jul 2010 11:01
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28:07.10,
48:41.17N 4:39.63W We
took a day off on Tuesday in Alderney - after getting up at 4 in the morning
(again), we got up, made tea etc. . . before looking out and realising we
couldn't actually even see the shore which was only about 200 yards away - pea
soup - so it was back to bed! Had a nice day in Alderney though - walked
around the island (which only takes a day but is very pretty) and explored the
old German forts and underground bunkers - which are quite spooky as there are
lots of rooms and tunnels (if we were still 10 years old - it would have been
the ideal place to play 'war'). Tested out our 'new' outboard for the
dingy - Adam got told off by the Harbourmaster for trying to race the
Alderney supply ship with his dingy.
Wednesday
morning - another 4 o'clock start was needed in order to get us to the NW
of France in time to catch the tide through the Chanel-du-four which takes you
inside of the Isle de Ouessant - if you miss it then it's a 6 hour wait for the
next tide (why is it always 4 o'clockl?!).
Much
better day on Wednesday with no fog at all. Within a few hours we were
sailing past Guernsey and spotted a Pilot Whale just 2 metres from the boat -
they are like a really big Dolpin, it dived into the clear water next to the
boat. We had a fairly fast sail for most of the day and got to finally
test one of our new purchases which is a device to generate power by lowering a
little propeller into the water behind the boat - it was brilliant - loads of
Power! However - the joy only lasted about 2 hours before we realised that a pin
had sheared off and the power stopped - we blame the fact that we were just
going too fast! - so that is a job for Adam to fix......... .
Going
into the night the wind died so unfortunately it was time for the engine.
The night was quite foggy but luckily there wasn't much shipping around that
area - only one ship we had to avoid. I had gone to sleep and had to be
ordered to go and check the Radar by Adam. half way through the night the
moon came out and we got some quick sailing in although it was back to motoring
again by Dawn as we approached the NW tip of France. . . . . . .
There
isn't much to take pictures of in the middle of the Channel - but the sun at
Dawn through the clouds was quite pretty so here's a
photo.
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