On a bright sunny Friday afternoon, the crew, Charles Clark, Chrissi de Quincey and Chris Maughan gathered at Universal Marina just as our Skipper, Vern Bush and First Mate, Jane Mancini returned on Eagle from organising a gear box oil change at Hamble Point before the voyage.
With an efficient strong human chain, all bags and stocks were stowed quickly, and we were soon off on the SESC Summer Cruise. A beat down to Lymington that afternoon made us realise that, with strong winds forecast overnight, it would be prudent to postpone our departure from familiar waters into the channel towards Guernsey. So, on the first day of the cruise found the crew busy with a variety of tasks on the boat; fixing locker hinges; cleaning the Genoa drum to ensure it furled smoothly; cleaning marks off the hull; splicing ropes and A walk into town for a break for lunch in a local hostelry in Lymington was welcomed. It really highlights that the maintenance is never ending and goes on behind the scenes a lot of the time. After finishing all our chores, we were well fed with the first meal from the well planned yet flexible victualling menu prepared by our Skip.
With decision made to depart Lymington at 23:30 on Saturday, once on our way, through the Needles Channel and St Peter Port bound, a 3 hour watch system was set up, with Chris and Chrissi first up, with Jane and Charles next and Skip, Vern, floating around between the two. Wind from the west made for a comfortable crossing though the new engine made an appearance to keep us on schedule for the Alderney races.
Crossing the channel can be as exciting or as boring as you want it to be. But navigation of the separation zone is always a highlight, albeit requiring vigilance and care to assess appropriate course changes. The watch system worked well with time passing quickly and a late afternoon arrival in St Peter Port gave the girls time for a quick gin and tonic ashore before dinner on the boat, expertly cooked by Charles.
Our delayed departure from the Solent meant some re-assessment of the passage plan for the rest of the week. A key objective was to get to St Malo and have a day off mid-week which meant we had to forego a stop at St Quay. Tides facilitated the St Malo plan was still a viable option. Otherwise, there may have been mutiny from the First Mate who has been seeking a St Malo visit, to no avail, for a couple of cruises now.
Our time on Sunday in St Peter Port was limited and we left on Monday morning for Lézardrieux. We departed, and with Guernsey, Herm and Sark fading into the distance the French coast felt always present with the cloud formations hugging the land. We were delighted when Jane, at the helm, spotted a pod of dolphins nearby and immediately dismissed our CTS to motor towards them. Chris sat on the bow as the dolphins played all around the boat, with us all exclaiming in delight when they jumped out of the water.
France announced new protocols for pleasure craft entering France from outside the EU, with the summer months opening secondary ports of entry making it possible for us to arrive in the marina of Lézardrieux on the Bréhat archipelago. Lézardrieux offers a stopover in the heart of a beautiful and unique landscape and we timed our entry for low water, so the huge stone tower marker buoys loomed above us and signalled the incredible rise of tide that the area experiences.
Our port of entry experience was straightforward. We were asked to wait a few minutes by the harbour master staff but that ended up as a stooge in lazy circles for 30 minutes, in hot sunshine, while we waited for our entry into the country to be validated. Vern had pre-submitted the paperwork in advance as required. Once they decided we were a harmless bunch we were directed to moor on on new robust hammerhead pontoon that was also being used for boats transporting staff to the off shore wind farm that would featured on the horizon for most of the passage to St Malo the following day. This kept some crew happy as the comings and goings of the men and women in uniform were monitored. Another gin and tonic pass time a few hours later was to watch small boats in the river pass us at a rapid rate of knots as the tide started to flood, then ‘hand-break’ turning in they hope they had no overshot the marina. There were of course a couple of poor souls that had read the tide times wrong and remained static whilst trying to exit the vicinity…
The next days passage to St Malo, required an early start and we slipped close to high water and not long after the engineers boats had departed, making for an easier exit. There was a slight error with timings by the girls with a reveille from the fore peak which got everyone up one hour earlier than required. Boat time was then continually checked against what became known as “forepeak” time. With Chris being tasked as Skipper for the day, he navigated us through a scenic channel, with Île de Bréhat on our port and soon we were bathed in sunshine sailing along the Golf de St Malo. The sun screen stocks certainly took a bashing this day though the sails did not!
The pre mentioned Saint-Brieuc wind farm is the second large-scale offshore site in France and the first in Brittany. Capable of generating enough clean energy for 835,000 people. The wind farm is located 16.3km off the coast and consists of 62 turbines spread across 72km2 (and counted at least 62 times by the crew as it felt like we would never pass it during our day of motoring…)
The days passage had been carefully timed for arrival outside the St Malo lock for the first opening 1900 (1800 boat time or 1900 “forepeak time”!) Pilotage into the waiting area required concentration with strong cross tides but this worked extremely well if you know where the leading lights are! We arrived with 20 minutes or so to stooge and ‘elbow our way in the queue’ before the lock opened; the order of entry being facilitated by a small craft buzzing around informing us that the catamaran was going first. The local commercial and fishing vessels though seemed to ignore this and just did their own thing.
After half an hour we were through the huge lock into the expansive marina area and a warm evening and the site of the incredible old city walls welcomed us. Our First Mate was not disappointed with her gin and tonic view that evening as the sun set the the walls lit up.
Given the limit of stay requirements in an EU/Schengen country, the first task next morning was to ensure all our passports were stamped “in” so that we could then be stamped “out” the next day. Armed with the paperwork from Lézardrieux and our passports Vern headed to the PAF (Police Aux Frontières), a 15 minute walk away from the berth. However, we were all required to be present for the passport to be annotated with our Port of Entry so we started our morning exercise with a stroll to join our skipper. The following day we also all had to walk to the office near the ferry terminal for our exit stamps before our departure so worth knowing this in advance.
Our day off in St Malo passed quickly and in sunshine with pleasant walks around La Ville Intra-Muros, a leisurely lunch (and some wine of course), strolls at low tide out to Le Grand Bé, and finished off with a meal ashore at La Duchesse Anne. The restaurant had been recommended to Jane by a fellow sailor she met on a recent sail around Corfu, and it lived up to its reputation.
The day off was appreciated as we had three long sail days ahead of us to head home. Contrary to the arrival day in St Malo, the departure day for St Helier was warm but with cloud and wind, so the sails went up and the engine went off for the entire day. On arrival in St Helier we opted to moor outside the sill for ease of early departure to Alderney the next day. We rafted up against one of the John Lewis Partnership yachts, whose home berth was also Universal Marina. The crew were reminded of how important it is to appreciate the taxing role the RNLI perform as a crew of volunteers, on their iconic orange and blue boats, headed out for weekly training exercises (AKA watching men and women in uniform again!) Dinner was hastily put in the oven and then the crew headed into town to raise a toast (or two) to Chrissi’s birthday.
At this point in the article, it is important to state how these events would not work without dedicated host skippers and to this end, Vern has set the bar very high. The next morning, cooking five cheese and ham omelettes for breakfast on the course to Alderney, when the sea state was more than slight, was exemplary and was very much appreciated by all. After a lengthy channel crossing from Alderney into Portsmouth he also dished up a roast chicken dinner for us all which fuelled us into the early hours of Sunday, the last day of the cruise. Of course its not all about the food, the passage planning undertaken by his First Mate, was rewarded with an exciting, spontaneous ride in a rib in the Solent helmed by SESC Training Co-ordinator, Richard Foulkes. If this was not enough, Skip arranged for the Red Arrows to do a fly past as we headed back across the Solent to Universal. (Or so he says!)
Although at the start of these cruises, because of the usual constraints, we never really know where we will end up and what experiences we will have. But take that in your stride and it can be guaranteed that a great time will be had by all, with stories to reminisce about on the next cruise. So here is to the next one!