The Great Escape: the story so far
21 May 2016 | Port Pendennis
You may think we have dropped off the radar again - my apologies. What follows is a brief summary of the last two weeks.
At the start of the month I spent an entire week getting Guapa ready for the Great Escape (the move to her new mooring in Brittany). A busy, but rewarding time.
I got the opportunity to get reacquainted with every nook and cranny. Made some interesting discoveries too. Found stuff I thought was long lost. That should give you some idea of the vastness of our storage.
Engine and prop serviced, Coppercoat bottom abraded, stores taken on board, OBS (on board spares) inventoried and stowed, fuel and water topped up. All in all we were in pretty good shape. All shipshape and Bristol fashion.
The Great Escape itself: standard Thames Estuary crossing and an overnight stay in Ramsgate. Last one for a while. NSTR (nothing significant to report) except maybe some minor battery niggles.
Then onwards to Falmouth. Easterlies were forecast for the next few days. Too light to sail, but better than on the nose westerlies (the prevailing wind direction in the Channel).
Lots of motoring - virtually non-stop - sometimes in dense fog. AIS helped a lot. Battery problems were caused by user error.
Then I received some bad news from Belgium. Everything is a bit of a blur after that. Not going into details, but I hurried to Belgium and left Brigitte and Yanni to sort the boat. What a rock that woman is.
Back aboard now and we're sailing for Brittany in the morning. All going well, and weather permitting, we should be on our new mooring Tuesday or Wednesday.
L'Aber Wrach tomorrow then on to Audierne en finally Sainte Marine. The forecast for tomorrow is looking reasonable. But the looks of it, I will have to worry more about sea state (still some swell from the storms the last few days) than wind (westerly 4-5).
All in all pretty confident about tomorrow. It's the day after I'm anxious about: Chennal Du Four and Raz de Sein. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Singing off now - early start tomorrow. Hope to catch you on the other side.