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ActivityActivity dateActivity description
CI & France 2015 - Brixham to Guernsey 2015-05-22 A sail across from Brixham Marina to St Peter Port in Guernsey. Quite foggy when leaving Brixham, not so foggy crossing the shipping lanes (phew) and very foggy making landfall on the Guernsey side (having more than one chart plotter available amongst the various nav aids made this easier). Note - the photos may be rubbish but they are not that out of focus - it really was that foggy). Stare hard and you'll see things in the photos!
St Peter Port to Sark 2016-05-29 A lovely sail from St Peter Port, Guernsey across to Dixcart Bay, Sark. Having seen, from the sea, the high, narrow path from Sark to Little Sark (La Coupee - Google it) I'd never have thought that I'd actually walk across it. Worth it though for some of the photos taking looking back to Guernsey and Herm. The ship that can been seen in some of the photos of the yachts at anchor is believed to be the Patricia seen two days previously off Torbay!
Sark to Treguier, France 2016-05-30 A long downwind sail from the overnight anchorage at Dixcart Bay, Sark to Treguier in Brittany, France. The wind was just about dead aft so lots of goose winging (with preventer set) and running. We were going to go south of both the Plateau des Roches-Douvres and Plateau de Barnouic but Julian P on Kinfolk had the good idea to go between - there was lots of room for this when we looked at the charts. This meant that we got to Treguier quicker than expected so we abandoned the plan to anchor in the lower reaches of the river and continued all the way up to Treguier. Treguier Marina has a fearsome reputation for cross tides causing havoc but as it was quite neapy we all moored up safely in the marina. The pilot books make the approaches to Treguier sound very complicated but the "Grande Passe" route in was very straightforward - we'll leave the Basse De La Gainer route for another time! Simon T's cat was attacked by dolphins just inside the fairway - I'm sure there's a Sun headline in there somewhere...
St Peter Port to SYC 2016-06-04 Up at the hideously early hour of 03:00 to catch the first of the tidal flow up the Little Russel at 04:00. A lovely clear night at 4am with all the navigation lights clearly visible. After Platte Fougere we "turned left a bit" to allow for the strong Spring tides. For much of the time the weather forecast was correct and what little wind there was was on the nose. However, the visibility was good making crossing the shipping lanes a lot easier than on the way out. The photos of the Channel Light Vessel show an absolutely flat sea. The wind did pick up for a bit after this which made for a lovely sail with flat seas. A while north of the shipping lanes we were joined by about 6 to 8 dolphins for about 20 minutes. An hour or so later a much smaller porpoise made an appearance. Amelie's engine held up well and we were back on the mooring at SYC by about 19:30.
Brixham to St Peter Port 2017-05-27 After a delay of 12 hours waiting for the weather to improve a little, we set off at lunchtime for the channel crossing to St Peter Port. The wind was a fair bit stronger than forecast making the first part of the journey much harder work than expected. A decision was reached (as the wind started to ease a little) not to abandon and return to Brixham. This turned out to be a good call as the wind continued to drop. The TSS crossing at night - with no moon - was eerie. We had to stop at one point to allow about 5 boats to pass ahead while allowing one to pass behind. The completely dark night (no moon) made this TSS crossing very different to previous night crossings. Also the tide was very strong - as can be seen from most of the track across the TSS where we end up being taken down much of the TSS while still maintaining a boat aspect at right angles to the traffic!. The last part of the crossing was under motor arriving at St Peter Port just at first light (with an easy trip down the Little Russel).
SYC to Brixham 2017-05-26 Down from SYC on the Exe to Brixham ahead of the channel crossing to St Peter Port on Guernsey.
St Peter Port to St Helier 2017-05-30 A lovely sail from St Peter Port on Guernsey across to St Helier on Jersey. Ideal winds and weather.
St Helier to St Quay Portrieux 2017-05-31 After a light wind start, a lovely sail down from St Helier, Jersey to St Quay Portrieux on the Brittany coast. Sailed under cruising chute for most of the way. St Quay has the huge advantage of being an "all tide" port (i.e. no need to wait for there to be enough water over a marina cill).
St Quay to Ile De Brehat 2017-06-02 Up from St Quay-Portreaux to Ile de Brehat. The Ile de Brehat is a small island on a rocky shore. Somewhat similar to Sark (no cars and a very small population like Sark but no cliffs).
Ile de Brehat to St Peter Port 2017-06-03 After getting up an hour too early (confusing French and English first light times!!!), we sailed from Ile de Brehat for St Peter Port on Guernsey. The sail around the north east corner of the Ile de Brehat was notable for two things. First, we hit some fairly strong overfalls. It was neaps and a middling wind so we weren't expecting much. Given how lumpy it was, this is one to avoid at Springs. Secondly, Peter S caught a bunch of weed and plastic around his prop while going through the overfalls. Peter was able to sail on OK and got enough motor back to be able to motor into St Peter Port later. The rest of the sail was lovely - under cruising chute for a large part of the journey.
St Peter Port to SYC 2017-06-04 A very fast sail back from St Peter Port, Guernsey to SYC on the Exe. For most of the way the wind was quite strong - maybe a force 5 - but was on the port rear quarter. This meant that most of the sail was done with just a small amount of reefing and lots of sailing down the following waves. Long and tiring - but fun! The speed meant that we were unexpectedly back at the Exe before low water so we were able to sneak in and be back on the mooring at SYC just before it got dark.
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