Cherbourg to Roscoff - Day 2
This was my first night sail for a very, very long time. We all stayed up to a reasonable time with people resting as we went, Chloe took the helm for quite a while in the evening. The boat cockpit is very roomy and so there is plenty of space and it is easy to rest up. Cups of tea are always a good idea and conversation is good, even if it is John wittering 🙂 on to keep people awake.
After the fabulous sunset I must admit I left them to it and got my head down until just after midnight.The boat was bucking around a bit, but I was just relieved that I wasn’t feeling seasick and so went down to my cabin. I had felt slightly queazy in the afternoon and so I tried a bit of Wim Hof Breathing and that seemed to make it all go away. I managed to get some sleep, apparently 3-4 hours. Or so John and Marco reckoned. Chloe managed to sleep even better than I did, I don’t think she surfaced until after dawn. Although she did do a good amount of helming the evening before!
I think the auto pilot was on and there wasn’t much to do, apart for keep a bit of a look out for other ships. There were not many boats about though. I think I managed to make a cup of tea.
There was a bit of discussion about a light off to the west that we were not sure what it was. The navigation instrumentation on board (tablets) can sometimes give you a little bit too much information. We kept well clear and all was well! You can see the light from the navigation tablet lighting up John’s wizened features 🙂 .
Dawn was not as spectacular as the sunset, with a low bank of cloud just above the horizon, blocking out the sun after it rose. Marco is here, autopilot on again well wrapped up against the cold of the early dawn. We just got a peak of the sun before it went behind the clouds.
As we approached Roscoff the sun was back out and low behind the boat. We also began to get phone data coverage… wha – hey. Sad really but always nice to keep in contact. The harbour walls were very impressive, although it was not clear where we went in so we followed another yacht. Also, it wasn’t clear who we had to contact on the approach, John eventually got through to them. A very nice man with an impeccable American/French accent met us and then spent the next 10 minutes trying to get us a berth. Sadly there wasn’t one. Marco had to spend about 10-20 minutes yo-yoing around the entrance avoiding other arrivals and boats returning to their berths.
Eventually we had to more up alongside a very nice wooden boat ,with splendid teak decks, sunken stainless steel cleats that had Marco and John drooling for the rest of our time here. After we tied up along side them, we were a bit concerned that the outboard motor might hit there boat so we turned Awaydays (our boat name…. did I mention that?) around the next day.
It was great to get it berthed, time to chill out, have a shower and relax.
Then off to have a look at Roscoff. There was a free bus to the centre, but it wasn’t that far from the port so we walked.
Roscoff is a beautiful town, lots of old houses, a cathedral , bars , restaurants , harbour, boats etc. A truly lovely place to be. Also, due to covid, no Brits! Well, very few. We had a bit of a wander and then got a table outside and had some food; 3 of us had moules mariniere and Chloe had a steak. The moules were a bit small, but very tasty. John got very excited about a house with his name and onions mentioned. Apparently, Roscoff onions are the very best; you live and learn.
On the way back we had a nice sunset, that I managed to get a quick snap of. We passed a interesting , faded looking boulangerie… would it be open in time for breakfast? Yes it was…. wasn’t that great , I think I have been spoiled by sourdough.
