Possibly Roscoff

We think Kalessin is in Roscoff. Guy thinks it is because it said Roscoff on the chart plotter as he came in – although he couldn't even see the harbour wall through the fog. And we think it's Roscoff because the GPS on our car says so – although we did a couple of laps of the roads around the port before guessing the one for the Port de Plaisance, because the masts of the boats were also completely hidden in the fog.

Kalessin left Ramsgate on Friday and took 36 hours to reach Cherbourg. From there another 24 hours took her to possibly Roscoff, early on Monday morning.

Sam & I left Suffolk on Sunday and kind Mr Brittany Ferries brought us from Portsmouth safely across the Channel, so fortunately at that point we didn't have to worry about fog at all. We agreed that the best option was to rendezvous with Kalessin and agree next steps, so we drove from St-Malo along some delightfully empty French N-roads, and here we are.

Next steps turned out to be that Chris had a flight booked on Tuesday 7 June, and as Louis was being paid by the day, although we'd love to have him stay on, we felt he might get a bit expensive. We spent Monday shopping to re-stock the depleted fridge, giving Sam a shower in the very splendid disabled facilities (this marina is only four years old) and going out for a pizza and moules in Roscoff. And for Guy, Chris and Louis, relaxing over a few drinks with the chaps on the boat next door while I worried – it turned out they were all still running on UK time and had no idea how late it was.

An aside. Some people prefer to run on ship's time wherever they are, generally BST for us. This makes sense if you are sailing almost all the time and not really interacting with anything time-sensitive on land. However, if you might ever need to catch a train or bus – as Chris & Louis did – I personally prefer to run on local time.

Our original plan was to take them to the station at Roscoff this morning, Tuesday, where they could take a bus which would eventually get them to Rennes and a flight to Southend, then we would jump into Kalessin and head off for L'AberWrac'h, about 30M west. But the fog was thick, all of us were tired for various reasons, we hadn't even finished unloading the car or unpacking on the boat, let alone filled up with water or fuel. We also had a bit of a rush as Chris and Louis couldn't work out why I had woken them so early, when in fact it was only 25 minutes before their bus, see aside above....Anyway, it seemed prudent to stay another night and chill a bit.

As ever there are a few minor annoyances on board. The catch for one of the struts on the forehatch has bust, so it hangs down at awkward moments and pokes me sharply. More seriously the radar isn't working. I suspect a disconnection somewhere above the bloody main cabin headlining, grrr. Taking it down and putting it back is the least favourite job of anyone who ever works on the boat. There's also a bit of seepage around one of the joints on the engine, we think the pipes feeding the calorifier. This is almost certainly a result of the conversion back to raw water cooling – not sure if we should worry or not.

Still, we did get a new gaz bottle today – the trendy chandlery in the marina had run out of our size, but the splendid U-Ship around the corner had loads. I believe we went to a U-Ship in Morlaix 10 years ago and in fact Morlaix is only 10 miles away.

Fingers crossed for L'AberWrac'h tomorrow. And then if, as forecast, Thursday is clear and fogless, we might make it all the way through the Raz de Sein and Chenal de Four to Audierne. I make no promises.

Some of the impressive facilities at the Roscoff marina. Guy now has loads of pairs of clean socks.

1 comment:

Simon E said...

I see from a Roscoff webcam that you still have plenty of "brume". I better not tell you what the weather is like here or you will be gnashing your teeth!

Merry Christmas from just me

Video of photos made for Sam's funeral    Dear friends and family As I hope you all know, this year has been a difficult one for me. On ...