Scillies, Camaret and the Glenans

We arrive in the Scillies at 3 am and awake to bright sunshine. Quickly hoist a multipurpose Celtic Nations flag to honour the Cornish nation (best I can do as regards a courtesy flag)

 Some shots of the narrow sound of New Grimbsby, between the Islands of Tresco and Bryher.

 Below is the Beach on Tresco, the island has a beautiful garden and a nice pub with rooms (hint - worth a stay!) also self catering, but numbers are small, few cars, a few buggies, feels a bit like "the Prisoner", but no sign of Patrick Magoohan (number six)

 Locals make money as many ways as they can

 So, after fish and chips, a beer, a bit of a walk and a chill on the boat we go to bed to catch the early tide the next morning - you need half tide to cross the shallows to get south so we rise at 6:30 and head at 7 am for France. Wind starts light but comes up to a nice force 4.

We blast across the channel - the first two thirds are at 7 to 8 knots, we could have made a real record crossing as we are on a perfect beam reach heading for West of the Island of Ushant (Ouessant as the French call it). We could have anchored or gone on moorings on a bay on the Island but the swell in the channel is really quite big and we decide that Ushant is unwise - it is described as somewhere to visit in fair weather.

A pity as I have sailed past it 4 or 5 times - I usually stop in L'AberWrac'h a nice village on the North French coast about 10 miles from the corner which heads South. The route south is down the Chenel du Four - a nasty place to be in a gale because of strong currents fighting with the wind - but a pussy cat if the tides are just right and the currents slack.

So we alter course from that perfect beam reach to a more rolly broad reach and speed drops to 5 to 6 knots. Still a respectable speed and I calculate we can make the Chenel du Four with tide in our favour, not slack but at least pushing us south, and wind with tide is usually ok, wind against tide produces horrible breaking seas.

 So we push on through the Chenel and get into Camaret at 2 in the morning (British time). We wake again to blue skies and bright sunshine - which basically is the weather for the next week!

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 The walk from the visitor marina into the town passes a couple of old buildings  -  a church and fort, as well as a fishing boat graveyard and the local's marina - shown below. The old boat below is standing on legs and has a liveaboard living there - there he is painting!

 The original church was built in 1467 but that might be as old as a ballymena hammer that has had its shaft replaced three times and its head replaced twice.

 I notice the sailing school has youngsters out and I caught this shot of young kids and their wee toys and older kids and their big toy - the trimaran has no-one aboard that looks over 20!

 Next moring at 7am we get fuel from the self service, credit card machine on the pontoon and off we go to Les Glenans

 The first obstacles are the very pretty rocks - you go between them if heading South, which Shirley and I had done in Otago our previous boat in the early 2000's

 I do like light houses. I wish I could have photographed the 20 lights we saw around the horizon and midnight the night before going down the Chenel du Four. The next tidal gate, south of Camaret is the Raz de Sein - even worse tides here but fewer rocks. This is the first lighthouse at the Raz - Tevennec light.

 Other lights are Le Chat

 La Platte (Yellow - Black - Yellow) and LE Vieille

 By the way you can use proper nautical charts online - at https://webapp.navionics.com/ to see the areas we are sailing through, and follow us at https://www.marinetraffic.com/

After the Raz, with a dying wind (again) we motor 25 miles south to the Point de Pen'March
It has nice lighthouses too! (maybe when I am old I will record all the lighthouses in France, or the UK - would be a nice project - for when I am old(er).

 The AIS (Automatic Identification System) Identifies a boat that will attempt to occupy the same space at the same time as Shadowmere. We make a minor alteration of course (despite being in the right. People that insist on their right of way are sometimes right, dead right...)

 And the Glenans finally approach

 These are a collection of very low lying islands that have very shallow water, we pick up a  mooring in 9 feet of water and I go swimming to look at the prop, get clean and test a rope ladder I made - a double figure of eight at the bottom and then alpine butterfly knots every 12 inches or so. The Alpine butteryfly knot is a climbing knot not known by many sailors. Worth looking up! go Google or Youtube - https://youtu.com

 

 There are many islands, the main one has ferries that bring in day trippers. The islands also host sail training, in fact the biggest sail training in France, perhaps Europe - 15,000 students a year, the Glenan methods are so good that other Glenan Schools have opened - I think there is one in Ireland at Bearhaven. I studied a Glenans text many years ago.  They teach initial navigation only using a chart and a piece of string. France in general is superb in the way it teaches it's kids to sail. I think every child, or maybe every child of a coastal department must do a learn to sail course. I wish our country would do this. Learning to sail is not about sailing, it is about self reliance, trust, dealing with success and failure, being responsible for your own destiny and learning how to live... <rant mode off>

 Moorings are a bit tight

 The narrow stretch of sand between these two islands hosts barbecues and beach games,

 Here is a a shot of one of the islands that runs sailing courses - look at the masts. By the way the boats are all pretty new, fast, exciting catamarans or some monohulls Excite the kids and they learn as a side effect of their having fun.

After the Glenans we head down the french islands, We pass the Isle de Groix without visiting because by pressing on we can make Belle Isle.

Bangor towards the South

Not much to post about this, after leaving Bangor in a fanfare on Sunday afternoon we motored to Ardglass, the wind was on the nose and tacking to windward would double the journey time. We also knew the wind was increasing that night and were keen to get safe as soon as possible.

Prescient decision, the wind did come up and from a bad direction of course, we ended up stuck in Ardglass for three nights! But this was good in a way as it gave time for a better prepared proper departure. And as Shirley and I live about 6 miles from Ardglass she could come for tea on the boat with John and I - she brought crumble!

In fact I cheated and spent one night at home while John boatminded. This allowed us the car the next day as we needed to use someof the tools in my garage for last minute modifications to the new anchor locker lid - John had covered this with nice Iroko strips.

So the journey South continued on Wednesday morning at 7am, we arrived in Howth at 17:15 having had two hours really good sailing before the wind came around onto the nose and increased to a gusty force 5. We motored into it. <sigh>.

Here is a photograph of my last view of the Mourne Mountains for a while.

We arrived in Howth and got an expensive berth for the night and fuel. Leaving at 10:30 for a leisurely sail to Wicklow, 25 miles to the South. Of course the weather gods conspired again and we ended up motoring into rain squalls and 28 knots of wind. Crossing Dublin Bay meant avoiding three ships and the new AIS unit proved its worth - ships come up as green triangles on the chartplotter and are tagged with the time and distance of closest approach - it even colours them red and draws a little shipwreck symbol if it computes Shadowmere and a target will occupy the same piece of Sea at the same time. Smart!

You can exit the south side of Dublin bay by going between Dalkey Island (the photo above) and the mainland - nice narrow channel and very scenic. The houses around there are a bit expensive...

So, off to go to Wicklow, I have very fond memories of calling in here, with the Kannebergs when John Henshaw and Alan Doyle and I escorted them South at the start of their adventures of cruising the Med. The harbour has wooden planks arranged horizontally on the vertical face of the harbour side - a bit like a pallette and you can moor to these and climb up and down easily. Makes Donaghadee Harbour look pathetic with its rusty ladder and awkward steps. We also enjoyed great craic in the sailing club last time I was here.  However this time around the harbour was a bit run down, we ended up being the only yacht there. 15 years ago we used to raft up in the harbour with lots of other boats, maybe everyone uses marinas now.

The sailing club was only open on Sunday, when we did have a really nice time. My cousin Pete and his wife Marion came down for a pint, it was lovely to see them.

We did observe three cargo ships coming and going so at least the harbour is in use.

always worrying when they do three point turns very near you
John also took time to feed the ducks up the river, it being too windy to do anything else.

ans we did see the sailing club put dinghies out in a force 7 - count the ones up and the ones down

Anyway, with three days spent in Ardglass and four days spent in Wicklow we were keen to get underway. We plotted to depart at 4am on Monday 12th June as several sources of data showed west winds initially strong but declining. How we laughed at 5 am when we were heading to Wales instead of the Isles of Scilly - the wind had not read the forecasts and done its own thing. We could have tacked backwards and forwards all morning but decided instead to motor 14 miles up the coast (to avoid the ignominy of turning back) put into Arklow marina for 5 hours kip and re-emerged at 13:00 to try again. <sigh>

So Monday 13:00 depart Arklow, arrive Isles of Scilly at 02:00 Wednesday, at one stage we were tacking backwards and forwards into a 3.6 knot current and basically not going anywhere for three hours but we had some good sails too, by the end we were motoring in a smooth sea and no wind. The porpoises came and went a lot as we neared the Isles of Scilly which was a delight.

I am typing this in very bright sunshine on a wall outside the (closed) marina office in Cameret. I will leave it here with a view of the sunset as we approached the Isles of Scilly (the locals don't like you using the word Scillies by the way). Next post will cover them and the trip to Cameret, then we might have little Wifi for a few days - the Glenan Islands, the Isle de Groix, the Isle de Yeu and Belle Isle beckon... bye for now

Getting ready to leave and the departure

Getting the boat into the water at Carrick meant re-attaching the (first)Forestay.

And then I left Carrickfergus singlehanded - but just across Belfast Lough to Bangor, Shirley raced me by car (I won) and Saturday night was spent relaxing...

The Sendoff Party, 

The Beer flows

And it starts to get silly

Remember the photo at the beginning of this post showing three men struggling to get a clevis pin in? well the next morning I disassembled it and put it back together again with one hand - in the old days every bosun had a handy billy - a 4:1 pulley purchase and blocks, here I use my handy-billy to pull the foresail down really easily. Felt rather pleased with myself!

And then it is time to go, rather hectic and many things left unsaid... to Shirley for her love and patience, her hardwork and her understanding and for everything. It wouldn't have happened without you. My eternal thanks and love to my best friend. (Anyway the weather is so crap I get a get a chance to say goodbye later...)

Start of the sailing adventures of the yacht Shadowmere, 2017 Belfast towards Nova Scotia via the Cape Verde Islands and Barbados

Shadowmere, a 1979 Hallberg Rassy 41 foot ketch was given a refit that included a new fridge and galley refurbishment, solar cells and a bimini as well as fitting a mizzen staysail and a twin pole arrangements for crossing the Atlantic. A windvane, a new windlass and echosounder and new mains wiring (and a 110 Volt autotransformer for the states) were added as well. A 90l/min diving compressor and a couple of sets of diving gear were added to give us something to do when in foreign and exotic places.

Over the previous few years she got a new engine and mainsail and was already a well found vessel. Navtex and Hamradio equipment augment the existing old furuno weatherfax as well as PC interfaces. The Garmin chartplotter has cartridges for everything needed and paper charts are on board as well, I will list this in a later post.

The adventure as it currently stands is;

Leave Belfast Marina, spend a month out of the water in Carrickfergus, launch and head south; the usual advice is to head South until the butter melts and then turn right.

Leg 1: With John Henshaw, From Bangor Sunday,June 4th, 2017, Ardglass, Howth (Dublin), Wicklow and the Isles of Scilly. Hence to France down to Bordeaux (probably the marina Royan at the mouth of the river bordeaux straddles or a bit further south to Archachon.  John departs June 24th

Leg 2 With Shirley, the rest of the Southern Biscay French coast and then into North Spain, picking up Eileen Kelly on July 1st 2017 in Bilbao. Cruise NorthWest Spain, Portugal and South Spain, leaving the boat at the end of August for 6 weeks to return home.

Leg 3 With Shirley towards the end of October, a weeks cruising from wherever we left the boat, maybe a visit to Seville, Cadiz etc.

Leg 4 with Ken Walsh and Eileen, a short ocean crossing from Spain to the Canaries. From end of October to beginning of November.

Leg 5 with Ken and Eileen and then singlehanded, cruising around the Canaries and working on the boat, researching the next legs of the journey and working ham radio, maybe some diving and also  talking to people undertaking the ARC.

Leg 6 From December 23rd, The McCrum and Doyle Familes have Christmas in the Canaries. Then Matt McCrum (son) and Alan Doyle and I talk the boat on December 28th from the Canaries to the Cape Verde Islands.

Leg 7 Doros Michael and Peter Kirby-Smith join Matt, Alan and I in the Cape Verde Islands on January 4th, a few days diving there and we depart for Barbados, about January 9th or later. 13 to 15/16 days should see us across. We spend a few days in Barbados before Leg 8. Matt returns home from Barbados.

Leg 8 Doros, Peter, Alan and I  sail to the Caribbean proper (Barbados sticks out into the atlantic a bit and is not part of the Caribbean chain.) Exact islands to be determined by research into their diving potential, heading up the chain of islands (Windward Islands, Leeward Islands and into the Virgin Islands - all small islands and in the main only daysails apart) Possibly spending more time in the virgin islands. Alan leaves at some stage and Eamon McManus flies in.

Leg 9 Doros, Peter and I take the boat from the Virgin islands to Puerto Rico (US) and hence to Cuba, arriving Cuba early March.

Leg 10 Cuba, up to the end of April, maybe extending to mid May as needed a variety of people come and go in Cuba! the McCrum family and partners and the McMillans Christine and Clifford for sure. Details as yet not definite.

Leg 11 Cuba to Florida Have to be well North of Florida by the end of the May as the Hurricane season starts June 1st (until the end of November)

Leg 12 Late May/June/ July From Florida up the intra Coastal Water (ICW) -  a sheltered set of canals and rivers that run for 1100 miles up to Cheasapeake bay. I hope to have brother in Law Paddy( Gordan), John Henshaw and Pearse O'Gorman for these legs or some of the later parts.

Leg 13 July/August Cheasapeake Bay, including sightseaing on the US mainland. Leading on through the Delaware waterway to New york.

Leg 14 August/September Long Island, Martha's Vineyard and maybe a bit of New England

Leg 15 October back into Cheasapeake and the upper end of the ICW, heading slowly South to arrive in Florida by the end of November - the end of the Hurricane season. May take a more Northwesterly route to include the Bahamas and down the islands NW of Cuba such as the Turks and Caicos islands.

Leg 16 December - Back to the Caribbean for a family Christmas (maybe British Virgin Islands?) and a 5 month diving excursion, might include Mexico and parts of the "Caribbean" that are harder to reach - The ABC islands, the Caymans, Jamicia, parts of Central America (unlikely but possible)

Leg 17 Back up the ICW to New England, cruising there and Nova Scotia, possibly Newfoundland and into the Lawrence Seaway. Might get the boat lifted out for the winter at the end of the summer.

Leg 18 continue leg 17, maybe the great lakes for the summer(2020) or head home. Routes home can be Northern to take in Greenland and Iceland. Less further North (travel down to a waypoint 40N 40W I think) and then turn for Ireland. Further South takes in Bermuda and the Azores.

Of course battle plans rarely survive the first contact with the enemy, we shall see...