Cherborg to Roscoff
Day One
After a goodnights sleep and breakfast, Marco and I went to the customs office to try and get the boat cleared. However they were shut, you had to arrange a meeting by phone etc. so that was that. We had to leave – we needed to get to Roscoff. We filled up with fuel (nice and cheap) and set off. The weather was lovely with great clouds as you can see. It was a very calm and pleasant departure, hence the little video.
The first part of the sail was quite chilled. A little bit chilly helming. We mainly sailed as the winds were favourable. We went through the famous Alderney Race where the water positively boiled around the boat. We (Marco and John) were to learn that the tides in northern France have a massive effect on things . Sometimes they run at 3 knots. When you are doing 5 knots then speed over ground is not even walking pace.
This meant that later on in the day we had to motor along. With a bit of sail up this was quite comfortable. We knew we had a long night ahead of us. The sea state was of interest. As we headed into the night time, what would it be like, nice and smooth? a bit bumpy?
It was quite variable during the day. We would see how it would be as the day progressed.
Here we can see the boat on the vessel finder app motoring between the Channel Islands. Most of this was on the motor as the tides were still rather challenging and we had to sail too close to the wind. We(I) spent a fair amount of time trying to work out which island was which.
Below we can see Stark, is this the Barclay Brother’s house. All very weird.
Also good to note, that even when making the tea you get a lovely view!
I did a bit of helming, but the autopilot is better than most of us, especially me. There is a solar panel (gaffer taped on to the roof) which keeps the batteries toped up, so it was used quite a bit.
I avoided going below as I wanted to do everything possible to avoid sea sickness. I was grateful that John slaved away in the galley making dinner. He made a a fantastic chicken harissa stew. As the sunset approached it was looking like a good one!
The night was beckoning, and the boat was bouncing… quite a lot for a land lubber like me!
