From Newlyn to L’Aber Wrac’h – Among the big ships
Well, here we were.
We had been preparing the crossing of the Channel, if only mentally, as the main course of our whole adventure.
In fact, what was there to it?
Our main concern was the intense traffic that shown on the AIS locator websites we consulted. Gina, who was looking at the same websites from home, was also anxious.
This is what it looked like, the blue line beeing our planned route:
AIS traffic !
Seen like that, it looked that we would be like a ball in a pinball machine.
In fact, wether you zoom in or out, the size of the little ships pictos doesn’t change. In reality, they are of course much smaller than it shows, and more spaced than on the screen.
As for the rest, all we could fear was fog. The sea state didn’t bother us, we had been used to bad weather and were entirely confident, both in our hull and our engine.
The morning fog had completely evaporated when we left Newlyn, at 14h00. We had duly informed the coast guards on the VHF, about our departure and our destination.
We had 100 miles to go, and wanted to arrive in l’Aber Wrac’h at day time, because this harbour lies inside a loch (an aber) with many islands and rocks, and must be navigated along a definite path.
The sea was calm, the tiller easy to hold.
As I had time to loose while John was steering, I dug out the old undersized autopilot from the aft compartment, and arranged a DIY set up to see what it would do in action.
After a few adjustments, against all odds, the damn thing started to steer the boat!
John was mad at me. “This thing could have saved us hours of steering, if you had put it out before!” .
To which I replied that it was not supposed to work in the first place, it had been tempered with and all his screws were gone, it was undersized for our 12 tons boat, and I could dump it straight back to where it came from if he went on complaining.
Well, if I didn’t say it, I strongly meant it.
Home made autopilot setup
Anyway, later on, the sea got rougher and the autopilot could’nt cope anymore. We had to remove it.
(I tried to use it again a few days later, but it was definitely cooked).
The first ship we encountered was a big trawler steaming ahead dragging his nets. We were on a collision course, he had right of way, so I made a large detour to cross behind him, well away from whatever it was dragging.
We didn’t see anymore traffic until late evening, as we approached the big ships routes.
I found that the night made seeing ships easier. The sea was calmer, the sky was clear and full of stars. One quick look around the horizon would rapidly detect any faint light, that had to be taken care of and cautioulsly monitored.
It was an interesting pastime, looking at the ships lights to determine their course, their size, their speed and their distance from us. If they would pass ahead of us or behind us. Seeing their lights reflecting on the water was a good indication that they were very close, but we didn’t have to alter course more than twice.
Of the myriad of ships displayed on the web, we probably saw only a dozen. Some were crossing in front of us, some behind, some followed different routes.
We had our AIS transducer switched on, set to trigger an alarm when it detected another echo in a 2 miles radius. In fact, every time it signalled a ship, we had already spotted it a long time before.
John and I did 2 hours shifts, allowing us enough time to rest or relax, specially in my case in the morning, when I realized I had left my crewmate 4 hours on deck! We were in sight of land already.
We had been motoring all the time, but had the front sail up. There was not enough wind to keep us going, but it gave us an extra knot and helped stabilizing the boat.
Somehow, we had been so relaxed that we were 4 miles off east when approaching the coast, probably due to a current we had not accounted for.
In case my tablet would fail when I needed it, I had kept it off during the night. As we entered the loch that leads to l’Aber Wrac’h, I switched it on to be sure we were following the precise route I had plotted on its chart.
I admit that it was an easy solution, but it felt really reassuring as we sailed through numerous little islands and rocks.
As we were closing to the marina entrance, a harbour guy approached us in an inflatable rib. Seeing our flag, he first tried to talk English, but my south of France accent immediately put him at ease. He asked us to follow him, and guided us to our berth to help us moor. We were very pleased to have such an professional welcome.
L’Aber Wrac’h
There was a good reason for us to choose l’Aber Wrac’h for our landing in France: my brother Frédéric, living 2 hours away, was there to take us to his home to spend the night there, after a good meal underways.
Karim, my french crewmate!
My nephew Karim, a 33 years old bachelor, had volunteered to be my next crewmate, John having completed his duties. We fetched him at Saint Brieuc station, and we spent the evening together with my old crew and my new one.
As always, an evening with my brother, who I see maybe twice a year, was promising to be… interesting.
Besides we wanted to make it special for John, who was taking the train the next morning for a long journey to York.
It really was a nice moment, with very little sleep for some of us.
Karim and I also took a train later the next day to l’Aber Wrac’h.
I wanted to spend a day with him before sailing, to show him China Blue and tell him what would be his mission.
We also took a bus to do some grocery shopping, and in the evening had dinner at a small restaurant with Fanny, a nice young girl from Brest Karim knew. She had already been of a great help the day before, kindly driving us from Brest to l’Aber Wrac’h as our train had been delayed and the last bus was gone.
Well done. We have done the Channel three times. As long as the weather is ok, it’s never as bad as feared with all those ships. We only ever had to dodge a few.
I hope we cross it again, I want to see the Solent, and Brixham… Now that I have met other junkists in Roscoff AGM! Including Johnathan Snodgrass on Lexia, who asked me to send you his sincere regards!