Passage to Brest, France

Nav passage plan

After an extended 11 days in Guernsey the weather was finally favourable to depart for our passage south. Our first planned stopover was Camaret, France with the option of continuing if the weather was favourable. 

This passage started with excellent weather in 15-20 kts of breeze but as we neared the Channel de Four the wind increased and headed us (wind on the nose).  The passage through the 20 mile channel was the most challenging so far with 45kts on the nose (bow) with wind against tide and a cross swell through the channel!  Unfortunately, there was not enough room to sail through this narrow channel with the wind dead on the nose so we had to motor-sail with short tacks straight into very rough seas (classic wind against tide producing short steep seaway) for the last 7 hrs to get through the channel - literally just crawling our way south.   John thought we may have to bail and head back but we finally turned East into the Brest port entrance- just before the tide turned and pushed us back out the channel!! Phew!!!  


Our sailing log recorded a 204NM passage over 34 hours with five hours at Force 8, technically called 'a fresh gale' with winds up to 40kts. 

Hard to spot this fort

  This was not predicted but provided a good opportunity to test the boat, our ability, and our resolve!  It would have been much easier if the wind had turned SE 20-25 kts as predicted but unfortunately it held dead Sth and continued to increase.  While initially the trip was relatively comfortable with a good sailing breeze and large Atlantic swells, these conditions deteriorated as the wind increased and visibility reduced as the rain and breaking waves developed.  These conditions were incredibly fatiguing with team work critical as we worked our way through the channel in 40kts in minimal visibility.  We finally arrived at our planned anchorage off Camaret at about 2200hrs wet and tired but safe! 

So many to choose from

The one positive was this passage has certainly increased our confidence in Sabbaticus as she can really handle the weather which is comforting.  It is just the crew that need to improve now!  We both suffered bouts of seasickness this time which takes the fun out of the sailing.  One moment of anxiety experienced was during Leanne's watch in the early hours of the morning she had finished updating the log and went to make a brew - all of a sudden an alarm sounded and the auto pilot failed.  After bolting to the helm and yelling loudly to John who was sleeping, and a few moments to think when getting the boat back under control, Leanne realised she had mistakenly turned off the auto helm on the switchboard in lieu of turning on the gas switch (we normally turn the gas solenoid off when not in use as an extra safety preoccupation).  The 24V switch board has 30 different switch's so no surprise the wrong switch may inadvertently get turned on at times. Thankfully this was an easy fix to turn the auto helm switch back on - much to John's relief!

After two days at anchor to recover we then moved to the Marina du Château in Brest.  Of interest was stepping ashore and seeing the walk of fame at the marina for the Jules Verne trophy winners including Peter Blake and Robyn Knox-Johnson for their record circumnavigation of the world in 74 days, 22hrs, 17m, 22 secs in 1994. If you are interested see the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Verne_Trophy
 

Brest Castle behind Marina du Château

Brest has significant maritime history with impressive fortifications entering the harbour, and the second largest military port in France opposite the marina, with the Brest Castle looming over the marina. During WW1 Brest was the disembarkation port for US troops to the front lines and in WW2 the Germans had a large submarine base at Brest. In 1944 the city was almost totally destroyed during the Battle for Brest and has been rebuilt into a relatively modern city with lots of parks and tree lined streets. Of note the Brest harbour is now an important base for the French nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines (John was quite excited over this!).  I guess we shouldn't be mentioning the Rainbow Warrior here! 

 

After seven days in Brest (waiting for weather) we have had plenty of time for walking around, visiting the Brest Castle and Maritime Museum, catching up on domestics, enjoying the baguettes and pastries, and attempting to find a local red wine that equals the Australian reds.  While we have appreciated the French fashion style we dislike the dog poo - taking a bag and  cleaning up any mess seems a foreign concept here.

So far France has the record for Custom Officer's visiting Sabbaticus - five turned up on our third day to visit.  Thankfully they did not come onboard and only required us to present our passports for a stamp in their office. The marina had previously called Customs for us and confirmed we did not need to visit them.  Maybe it was a case of 'lost in translation'.

We can't miss the opportunity for some military history. This photo shows a German Navy Seehund Midget Submarine which were built in 1944 and had a crew of two with average mission length of 7-8 days.  At the end of WW2 the French Navy found some abandoned midgets and salvaged four. This small French fleet conducted 858 missions before decommissioning in 1953. 


We are now both keen to get moving again and cross the Bay of Biscay.  The forecast is favourable for Mon with light winds so our next stop is hopefully La Coruña in Spain.