Monday May 28, 2012
Tim passing along news from Diane: I’m in to Douarnenez :-). I think it says in the manual that you can only go upwind in the Bay of Biscay in 25-30 knots of wind. It doesn’t matter where you’re going or what day it is… that’s the forecast.
Becky and I hit the Chenal Du Four around a bout the same time: 1600. [4pm Sunday – T] At 1645 the tidal gate closes and the tide turns north. Jake (who was about 4 hours ahead of us by now) went all the way around Ouessant (the island outlying the channel).
At full stream the current in the Chenal Du Four is moving somewhere just over 4 knots… north, and I was in a south east wind… going south south east. At least the wind was flattening out the waves a little. What should have been an hour or so run in a favorable stream turned into a 4-5 hour slog upwind.
Speaking of wind, it started out light at the beginning of Chenal, but knowing that it was going to build to 15-20 I put a reef in and put the jib up so that I could have a little more manageable sail area up. I didn’t want to be on my ear sliding sideways with the stream, but then again I needed enough power to punch through the current. By the time I got to the end of the Chanel we were in 15 knots and slamming around in the roughest part of the stream.
Then the clouds got dark and the wind continued to build. By sundown we were up to 25 steady gusting to 30, two reefs in the main and a reef in the jib. We tacked our way back and forth through some cardinal marks and made the turn to Douarnenez. Sailed up to the dock and went to sleep.
Just once I’d like to do a delivery (or a race for that matter), without the drama and a really nice kite ride for more than 20 minutes :-). But the good news is that we’re in Douarnenez.
Douarnenez? That’s right. We’re going to try to squeeze in one more race before flying back. It’s the MAP and it’s 220 miles solo. The race starts on Thursday… one drive arm to repair and we should be good to go!
You can interact with this Google “chart” directly or click the link below to open it full sized:
View the UK to Douarnenez,France via Chanel Du Four delivery in a larger “chart”.
May 31st, 2012 at 1:24 am
and just once Diane i’d like to read the blog without going (hands clapped to the side of my face) OMG!!! But on another note, you go girl, i’m glad you’re at least getting to where you want to go each time. Love ya, Liz.