The 'Chenal du Four' is a well marked passage between the west coast of the Brest peninsula and the off-lying islands of Ushant, Molene, Quemenes and Beniguet.

This route, according to the pilot book is relatively straight forward in reasonable visibility so long as you carry the tide in your favour. You must reach the south end of the Chenal du Four before LW Brest, when the tide turns strongly against you in the shallow southern part of the Chenal.

From a passage planning point of view, the weather forecast for Tuesday was ideal for our travel down the Chenal. We would have to leave by 0930am at the latest in order to meet the deadline of being at the south end before LW Brest.

However, we awoke to thick fog. We got ourselves and the boat ready, whilst keeping an eye on the fog to see if it would lift in time (fog is notorious in this area). Neither of us wanted to spend the day again in fog and especially not going down the Chenal du Four as the pilot book recommends good visibility and we ideally wanted to see the coastline of France and the islands opposite.

Between 0830am and 0930am with a cuppa in hand we waited to see if the fog would lift. Making a decision can be really difficult (and stressful). Do you go and hope the fog lifts; are you really happy to put your whole trust in computer technology if the fog remains with you; will the same wind conditions come again soon if you don't go today and how long will you have to wait until the next opportunity presents itself (Arggg...)

At 0930am we decided not to go and instead do the weekly shop. Can you believe it, 10 minutes later the fog lifted significantly and we decided to go for it. You've never seen such a rush to leave and I must admit we do work quite well as a team (when we have to).

We needed to make up for lost time so Drummer's engine was put to the test and did us proud! Whilst leaving the entrance to L'Aber-Wrac'h we noticed another two yachts following in our wake that had come to the same conclusion. The fog continued to lift and by the time we got to the start of the Chenal it was a warm and sunny day, with no wind and mirror calm sea.

The current of the Chenal picked us up and within a couple of hours we were at the southern end, slightly later than planned but safe enough to get through. We even managed to sail the remaining miles to Camaret as a light wind arrived.

During our trip, we had our first experience of a slight Atlantic swell which was really graceful. Each long wave gently lifted us up, over and back down to the next wave. This was a really different experience to the short and steep waves typically encountered in the English Channel.

We arrived in the Marina early afternoon.

Total distance this season: 229.84 nautical miles