Four Weeks and a lot of learning

It is 4 weeks since we left Poole on Easter Monday,

In our last blog we told you that we intended to leave Guernsey to sail to Jersey.

We had a good sail across to Jersey on a warm Sunday afternoon (having visited Holy Trinity Church St Peter Port for their morning service first.)

As we made the crossing we listened to Radio 2 and Sounds of the Seventies. BBC stations are broadcast from the Channel Islands. It was a bit odd listening to Sally Traffic and her reports on congestion on the M62 whilst sailing in an empty sea.

We had intended to stay in Jersey at least 4 nights but when we arrived we found that the visitors’ marina was closed due to the Jersey boat show. ( We knew about the boat show but no mention was made of the fact that the visitor moorings were restricted.) When we arrived we could not get an answer from the marina on the radio so we progressed into the marina. We only found out once we were in the marina that is was closed and Judith spotted a string of small yellow buoys blocking our way and we had to make a quick about turn.

Once back outside we found a floating pontoon and tied up temporarily. We radioed and phoned the marina for advice again but still no answer. We worked out that boats were rafting up so we headed over. There was little space and the boat we rafted up to was leaving at 7am. We decided that we would also leave for France in the morning so 4 nights became 1 in Jersey and a quick walk around St Helier.

We sailed over to Treguier about an 8 hour trip, this lovely town is about 5 miles up a river from the sea. The town is up the hill (we have realised that all towns will be uphill from a boat) and is a “Petite Cite de Character” and has an interesting cathedral with holes running through the spire. On Wednesday we shopped at the market for dinner.

Our next port of call was Perros- Guirec a seaside town, the marina is only accessible for a few hours either side of high tide through a narrow gate. In the summer months, this is a popular resort with a number of good beaches nearby, even early in the season, there were plenty of people around. We watched a group of people “sea walking” they were wadding chest deep in water along the shoreline, this seemed to be a popular activity with the 60 plus, we were too young to join them.

Moving on from here we visited Roscoff. I expected a modern port town but the town is medieval and very quiet. The town fronted on to the old harbour that dried out at low tide so was home to fishing and local boats that could sit on the mud at low tide. The ferry’s berthed adjacent to the marina, we had to time our entrances and exits to avoid the ferries.

Leaving here took us through a narrow channel between the Ile de Batz and Roscoff, the channel is strewn with rocks waiting to rip the bottom out of yachts so careful attention to the marks and navigation is required to make sure you stay in the correct channel. From here we had a good sail to Aber Wrac’h. We tried fishing on the way but no luck. The swell was quite big and I spent too long untangling the fishing line. For the first time I was seasick.

We plan to move on Tuesday morning having spent three nights here. The next big challenge is Chanel de Four. This is another one of those places that can be dangerous if you get caught at the wrong state of the tide and in poor weather. We will be planning and planning again to make sure we head off at the right time for an uneventful passage to Camaret . From here we move on to the South Brittany Coast.