Snork Maiden redux

Snork Maiden Lifts Out Monday, September 21, 2009 Equinox, Port Le Foret Equal day, equal night. It must be a propitious time to crane out. Here at PLF there is a very posh travel lift. Apart from a slightly botched exit from the pontoon, when SM took me quite by surprise, rearing across two spaces like a frightened horse! I spoke quietly to her, released the last moorong line, and we were off. Nice entry into the lifting bay - it looks like a concrete canyon, especially at the lowest of low tides. Herve and another of the matelots jumped on and Snork Maiden was soon cosily in the slings. I jumped off - well, sort of more like a gibbon really - reaching for the ladder on the side of the canyon and swinging over the gap. Then the lift trundles away at slow walking pace - always reminds me of a funeral, although this was more like a frisky wedding with the lift driver threatening to squish a couple’s car on the way. We rumbled into Technical Area 1, where the Figaro boats live, s...

Port La Foret Sunday, September 20, 2009 Sunset exactly in the West So this is the last blog afloat this year - or at least, that’s the plan. As we know by now, it’s not always how things work out. I though you might want to know what I do all day. First thing - after 2 cups of tea - I went for a run-walk along the coast towards Concarneau. I was going to say ‘passed’ but that would give the wrong impression - I encountered quite a few French runners and an old bloke who I think was having a bit of a laugh at us all. On my way back, he pointed out that was a yacht caught on the Concarneau rocks, which just goes to show that you can’t take too much for granted. It’s my theory that its usually the locals that do that sort of thing - the rest of us follow the pilot book and in the absence of horrible mistakes, do all right. It’s hard to explain how impressive the tides are here. Tonight is the highest tide of the year and the yachts are practically peeping over the harbour wall. Mos...

The Snork Maiden and Me Port la Foret Wednesday, September 16, 2009 Well, now we have some sailing to tell you about! The forecast today wasn’t too good, but since the forecast wind hadn’t happened by 0900 this morning, I thought I might give it a go. With one thing and another, it took a while to get the boat ready. I went to buy bread, and on the way back thought I should withdraw some more cash. The machine thought differently. Card disappeared without trace, as if it had never been! The phone number given for complaints didn’t work, so I cut my losses and left it there. Then back to get the boat ready. Having decided yesterday that I’d leave on Friday, it took me a while to get the inside and outside into sailing mode. I usually look after the inside - including the navigation prep - and Al looks after rigging the sails, readying the mooring lines etc. So on my own it took we twice as long and it was almost noon by the time I was ready to go. (Last minute delay while I de...

Sailing, Dolphins and Night Entry Sunday, September 13, 2009 PLF Al says that I never talk much about sailing in the blog - only our adventures on dry land. I suppose that’s partly because we spend more time on land, but mostly because the being at sea part is a very different experience, and what happens there is to an extent covered in the ship’s log. On the hour (more or less) we record the atmospheric pressure, any changes in sail set, where we are according to the GPS, any navigational marks we can see, with very occasional remarks like ‘DOLPHINS!!’. And that’s what it’s like. Our last trip went through a couple of days and a night, a bit too short to really pick up the rhythm of passage-making, but long enough to remember what it is like. During the day we don’t have an official ‘watch’ system - seems excessive with just 2 of us. But each of us gets some time to rest and some time out of the sun. That’s important - on completely clear days, with little wind, it’s easy to get...

Woods and Water Port-la-Foret Saturday, September 12, 2009 Well, here we are again… we made our difficult decision not to go last Tuesday. Well, we did leave Le Guilvinec but not, unfortunately to go North. Too little sleep, too little visibility, too little confidence in the autopilot (now defunct) and too much wind predicted for the channel. And now, as some of you already know, too few crew. Al’s had to go back to work on the music for upcoming BBC Children in Need ’80 Days’ - a sort of minor celeb relay race around the world. We (Snork Maiden and me) are in Port-la-Foret, around the corner from Concarneau. It’s an 1000+ boat marina, base for the Figaro race and several Open 60 teams. There’s a few restaurants, a bar, and some of the time, Internet. There’s a pleasant path through the forest to the village of Foret Foutsnant, (boulangerie, huit a huit, tourist office, Sunday market etc.) - also a beach on the other side of the marina. The weather has been hot, sunny and windy...

Le Guilvinec 7 september I exaggerate - 2 days and a night and a half have got us halfway up Brittany. But what to do next? Crystal ball gazing the weather - has many adverse aspects and we are running out of time! Meanwhile we are in the second largest fishing port in France on an out-of-use visitor pontoon. We came in well after dark, down a channel bordered by cute rocks (I jest, they are scary). We emerged from rocky seascape into midnight fishing fleet - Al said 'looks like we have arrived in Mordor' - images of cranes, rails, cauldrons, banging, people loading big frigo lorries by lamplight. Huge boats in an endless line down the harbour. Not a place for yachts - a huge outdoor fish catching factory. Then we groped around amongst the yachts and day boats at the end of the harbour to find depth - spring tides just now. Anyway - good things about the trip - full moon, great dawns and a pod of dolphins came to play. Bad things - autopilot screaming like banshee, swell...

Thursday, September 3, 2009 St Martin. Ile de Re Oh no, where does the glue box go? When we get ready to go on Snork Maiden, there appears a very long list of Things That Must Be Done. These range from packing everything away to changing the gear box oil. Thanks to Al’s daily bike trips to the supermarché, we are stocked up with everything from toilet rolls to tins of fruit, and we’re really almost ready to go. We could have left today if it were not for near gale force winds coming from the NW - pretty much exactly where we want to go. (Listeners to Radio 4 pay special attention to Biscay, ‘cos that’s where we’ll be.) The long-range forecast from Sat afternoon is pretty favourable, so keep your fingers crossed and watch your seaweed closely. (My weather forecasting is mainly of the ‘if there’s enough blue sky showing to make a sailor a pair of trousers, the afternoon will be nice’ variety. Fortunately there are more sophisticated models out there on the internet. You’ll be gl...