Thistles & another puncture

Well, this is it - the final blog.    We got back home yesterday afternoon and I dived straight into rescuing plants from a thistle invasion that has to be seen to be believed.  Rich took Bear for a bike ride and promptly had a puncture!!   We were away 60 days, visited or revisited 35 ports, clocked up around 1800 nautical miles (our log stopped working so that is a rough guess), used 2 gas cylinders, filled the fuel tank 3 times and had 1 bath.   We have had such a fabulous time and would encourage anyone thinking of taking a sabbatical to JUST DO IT!

Jackmans Reunited



Home amongst the thistles



Back to Blighty

We reached Alderney on Thursday late morning so hired a bike for Charlotte and did a round of the Island in beautifully sunny, but v. blowy weather.   Charlotte’s bike developed a clonk with every peddle so the engineer was desperate to take it to bits and fix it - I think he is seriously missing not mending punctures every 20 minutes.  Friday we had a fabulous crossing from Alderney to Poole  It was sunny, blowing F4 from the west with little sea so we had our fastest ever crossing and reached Poole harbour just over 8.5 hours after setting off.   Connie & Zanna arrived down Friday evening and we have had a very happy weekend in Poole Harbour/Studland Bay.   SO good to see them again.   Rich and I plan to return to Duck St at the end of the week.   Will do one final blog from there just to round things off and give you the vital statistics of our epic voyage.   

PS Tragically no photo of Jackmans reunited as wifi in Studland can't handle it!

Sleigh Riding & Roast Lamb

Plotting tomorrow's passage

Sunrise over Sept Isles

Arrived yesterday afternoon in St Peter Port, Guernsey after a real sleigh ride of a sail from Trebeurden.   We were just flying downwind with an impressive following sea.   Not the most pleasant of motions but a really fast passage.    We had spent the previous night anchored off Trebeurden with Rich sleeping in the cockpit, which had nothing to do with a tropical heatwave, but everything to do with a dodgy anchorage.  Last night we were treated to delicous roast lamb and all the trimmings by Sukey (Rich's sister) and Mike Perry.  Our first roast dinner for 2 months - it was DIVINE!

Charlotte brought the rain...and chutney!

Our latest crew member

Charlotte arrived yesterday on a flight to Brest bearing proper chutney, branston pickle, newspapers, magazines, dvds & news from blighty.  So lovely to have her on board (and her goodies), despite the fact the weather has been miserable since she arrived!  Thought we were going to get stuck in Camaret for 24 hours today, but the visibility improved in perfect time for us to get the tide north through the Chenal du Four and we had a fabulous sail, storming along at 9/10 knots.    Now in L'Aber Wrach and it is still wet and miserable -  so much for flaming June!

PS Charlotte also brought new brompton tyre and inner tube, so we now have cream with our treacle tart again - Yeah!!

Wind - lots of it!

Biggest buoy in the bay 

Sea crashing over wall at Ste Evette

We left Ste Marine very early yesterday morning after hearing the forecast which was for strong winds later in the day.    We arrived at Ste Evette as the wind rose to Force 7 and attached ourselves to the biggest buoy we could find tucked well in behind the harbour wall.  It looked like a huge WW2 mine, without the prongs.     We put two lines on and after an hour one of them had chafed through as the wind rose to F8/9 so we put an anchor chain on and felt alot more confident.    We then watched the waves crashing over the seawall mightily relieved to be tied to something so substantial.    This morning we woke to a reduced wind and so decided to leave to go through the Raz du Sein and onto Brest.   Nomad coped with the remains of yesterday’s huge seas with remarkable ease.    Charlotte flies out to join us tomorrow - Hurrah!!   

Rain & beachcombing

The great british man abroad

Spent yesterday afternoon exploring Ile de Groix in the rain.    Walked round half the coast, rewarded ourselves with a hot chocolate/beer and came back across the middle of the island.   The island has a lovely gentle feel to it, very unspoilt and quiet (the rain could have had something to do with that).   A bit like Alderney.    FABULOUS sail today across to Benodet/Ste Marine where we picked up a buoy and dinghied up the river for about 4 miles.  It is a stunning wooded river with the odd chateau along the way and no-one around.  We are definitely coming back here to lose ourselves in the backwaters.   Had to wait for the tide to turn before we headed back so Rich went beachcombing.  Managed to persuade him we really don't need another plastic chair with no legs.......

Walking now.....the tyre has finally been laid to rest

Spent yesterday exploring Vannes & its environs by ferry and bike.    Rich’s tyre needed constant attention on the way, but made it back to the boat OK where we discover the French curriculum probably includes rowing as there were loads of children messing about in dinghies being taught by a rather unenthusiastic frenchman who kept showing off by using the oars with his toes.    Left Vannes in sunshine to catch first opening of the swingbridge at 4.30pm  Only hindered slightly by man rowing 7/8 dinghies across the very narrow channel.  Had a great sail up to Ile de Groix this morning and are now off on an island explore - by foot.  I know you will all be devastated to hear that the tyre has finally been declared DEAD after many, many miles of remarkably gallant service and unbelievable support from duck tape.

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RJ Cooking supper in Morbihan

Gentle sail to Vannes

We had a lovely gentle sail this morning all the way up through the Morbihan.   Took the sails down before going through a swing bridge and a gate to Vannes (medieval & pretty) where we are tied up in the middle of the town.  Thought we had missed the swing bridge opening time as there was no one waiting, but the yachtsmans bible - Reeds - was wrong on its info - phew - and we got in fine. The Morbihan is like Poole Harbour but 3 times bigger and with hundreds of little islands  & thousands of boats - a magical cruising ground.  I have a sneaking admiration for the French - they seem to sail everywhere, even when there is practically no wind, they often anchor under sail, leave under sail, moor under sail and let go under sail.  But I don’t quite understand why they motor backwards through moorings and anchorages at top speed for miles - what is that all about? 

CLJ propping up a menhir

Gallic Machismo and more punctures

We spent yesterday anchored off a beautiful sandy beach at Houat Island (pronounced What to rhyme with That).   We had planned to spend the night there but the forecast was F6 winds and rain so headed for the shelter of Crouesty - a huge boating park (1300 berths).    We arrived amongst a myriad of racing yachts to discover ALL130 visitors berths were reserved for Le Grand Prix du Crouesty.   Luckily they found us a residents spot and we are now watching all the boats go out for Day 2.   It is pouring with rain and blowing a hooley but the competitive streak is too much for most of them to resist so they are short tacking out of the harbour and the aggressive gamesmanship has started -  the gallic machismo is positively tangible.   

Morning rush to the startline

Treach er Gourhead, Houat

Later.... Went for a bike ride this morning to check out the entrance to the Morbihan and Rich had 2 more punctures!   He admitted that the tyre that has held together with duck tape for 100's of kms has finally bitten the dust.   However, after a good lunch he has decided he can probably fix it one more time with yet more duck tape.    Bring on the chocolate!  Charlotte joins us on Sunday and top of her list of things to bring out has to be a new tyre.   Along with chutney..... how come the Spanish and French don't seem to do chutney?

Spoons are always useful

Future anchorage - Ster ouen 

Rich & spoons

A blissful night’s rest in very sheltered anchorage had me fighting fit again so we set off in the morning sunshine on a bike ride, round the northern part of the island.   It is so pretty and unspoilt, very sleepy and gentle.  We checked out a couple of possible future anchorages and then headed across the island to Le Palais  - pretty town with small harbour and enormous ferry.  On the way Rich had TWO punctures but being the man he is managed to fix both - not only do we travel with a puncture repair kit and a spare inner tube, but spoons to use as levers, not only that, but hand wipes too - Duck tape not needed on this occasion.

Back to South Brittany

Fishing boat in the evening light

The just crossed Biscay look
We are back in Brittany having left La Coruna on Tuesday morning.  We picked up a buoy off Sauzon, Belle Ile, 50 hours later.  The weather & sea were kind to us again and we had a straightforward trip.  It would have been an hour less but Rich spotted a Naval exercise going on and was taking far too much interest in it so they warned us off and we had to go the long way round the military exclusion zone.    I cannot tell a lie, I had to dig very deep to survive the trip as I woke up on Tuesday feeling headachy and sick, the worst possible way to start a long voyage.   Rich on the other hand managed to crack through 2 books of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy.  The highlight of the trip was 3 separate large schools of dolphins who all joined us for an hour or so - a great morale booster.

Heading north again soon

La Coruna main plaza

Back in Coruna and the rain is coming down, but the good news is  the wind is moving round to the west so we are planning to set off in the next couple of days to head back to South Brittany so no more blogs for 3 days or so.  Met lots more people here  ALL of whom are away for a whole lot longer than 2 months - we feel like we have only scratched the surface of living on a boat in comparison.    Last night we met a couple from Falmouth who are off for 2 years round the world and happen to be in a Malo 39 - they tried hard to persuade us to join them.  Tempted?   Oh yes!   But not quite yet....    

Pilgrims & Paradors

Santiago de Compostela - LOVED it, but for pilgrims, who have made their great journeys, what must it feel like arriving into such a bustling throng of tour groups and tourists flashing their cameras and craning their necks into every nook and cranny of their beloved sacred cathedral?    I just hope that most of the pilgrims first entrance to the great place is for a service where the tourists are kept at bay.

Our first impression of Lugo - a city with its walls in tact - was not great.   The bit we had started at had modern buildings on either side interspersed with falling down old ones.   The roofs are made of stone and the rafters of many seem to have given up the unequal struggle.   Despite finding the attractive end of town decided Lugo didn’t have enough to hold us there for a night.   The possibility of going back via a parador in Vilalba was mentioned but I had forgotten my swimmers so decided I would have to buy something.  Well, its not that easy when you are over 50 with an ample derriere that likes to be held in its entirety within the garment.  Rich didn’t seem to understand why I couldn’t buy just anything......I had a grumpy wobble and we ended up back at a cafe for a concillatory coffee.    Decided to come to the Parador anyway and here we are in the most amazing tower - and who cares about swimmers!?  Our room is two thirds of the way up and quite splendid.

Vilalba Parador

View from Santiago Cathedral

To the end of the earth...

Coast south of Finisterre

We drove to Cape Finisterre yesterday morning and good old Dorling Kindersley pointed out the obvious that Finis Terre is the 'end of the world'.  Never thought of that before - duh!   It's an amazing headland but had a somewhat tacky feel to it (bit like Lands End?).   Many of the pilgrims that have been to Santiago carry on to Finisterre and traditionally burn their pilgrimage clothes here.   The only trouble is that they have caused alot of fires in the scrubland so there are signs begging you not to do it.   So there are many pilgrims wandering round furtively with plastic bags of dirty clothes that they don't know what to do with -- Another entrepreneurial idea is flashing through Rich's mind.......   We then drove south along the coast - stunning white beaches and wild landscape, before heading inland to Santiago which is lovely and full of pilgrims and yet more protesting students all mixing it in the main square and the narrow winding streets.

VERY splendid isolation.... for 13 euros

Last night an Irish man told us about the posh yacht club here where if you dress up (tie, jacket etc) you can have a jolly good meal in splendid surroundings for 13 euros including pre dinner drinks, wine and coffee.   Well, it seemed too good an opportunity to miss so we get all dolled up and find real shoes for the first time for 5 weeks and off we trot.   The club has all the hallmarks of a wonderfully traditional gentlemans club - all v. splendid, but ladies only allowed on the first ‘deck’.   When we walk in we decide we will only stay for drinks (9.30pm - thought we were being v. spanish) as we are the only people there apart from about 20 incredibly well dressed, well coiffed, well shod Spanish ladies of a certain age playing bridge. - think they may have been there since lunch.    But no, the man on the door has mentioned that we are staying for supper so we are ushered to our table and eat good traditional food - prawn cocktail, stew and ice cream & bread & butter pudding, in VERY splendid isolation being waited on by very attentive, charming staff.      Best 13 euros ever! 

Cracking sailing.....

Have had two great days sailing in a row.   First from Viveiro to Cedeira which is a lovely village - one of the prettiest on this coast - so Dorling Kindersley tells us.   But we never got ashore as it was blowing 30 knots and leaving the boat at anchor just didn't seem too clever an idea, particularly as soon after we arrived we watched a tiny Polish yacht drag its anchor straight past us.   Luckily another Brit was already in his dinghy chasing after it and he managed to wake the skipper who was fast asleep having just arrived from France singlehanded.    Now in La Coruna where the marina is right by the old city.  We are planning to hire a car for a couple of days and go exploring inland.