Back to Houat!

We enjoyed a peaceful anchorage in the Vilaine River and then we were ready to take on the French at The Battle of Arzal Lock!  We were psychologically ready for them this time, but still it is quite tricky with the Admiral on the bow wielding a boat hook and quite oblivious to the French words coming at her. We came out unscathed and were off to the island of Houat (pronounced "what") where we found just Houat we needed...five bars on the cell phone, so we can check the weather for our little passage to Spain. 

8.15 am and the Battle of Arzal Lock is in full swing.....here's a crazy mishmash on the bow.....

.....while astern more sardines are being crammed in. About 20 boats in total.

Fine day but little wind so it was a motor sail.

The beach at Houat is pristine and a couple of miles with no houses or roads nearby.

Some people just have to leave their mark!

Another beauty spot on the way into the village and harbor....

...along a coastal path enjoying the perfume of wild flowers.

The village is full of opportunity for Nancy to make photographic art.

So we enjoyed our walk around Houat, even though at noon the restaurant was out of food for lunch: apparently the ferry had arrived without the food order!

So the Admiral said "Let's make a selfie from the dinghy!"

If the forecast holds, we will be arriving in A Corunna, Spain, middle of next week.

Best to all, 

Nancy and John 

Commissioning Adventuress and an unexpected swim!

We flew in from London six days ago and have been busy commissioning Adventuress after her hibernation up on the hard at Foleux boatyard. The first two days we worked on cleaning (Nancy) and painting the bottom (John), and stayed two nights in a hotel in the nearby small town of La Roche Bernard, which was a delightful treat, rather than sleeping on the boat in the yard.

We did the all our usual commissioning: cleaning, bottom painting, installing the dodger and bimini, fitting all the running rigging ("lines" that hoist and control the sails) and bending on the three sails. We checked and tuned all equipment, and tested all the instruments.  We found a small air leak in our inflatable dinghy and patched it. And the starter battery for the engine had finally conked out so we replaced it.

Our 75hp Yanmar diesel started up immediately without having to prime the fuel, so no air in the diesel lines....Hooray!

Yesterday was exciting.  John came up with a brilliant idea.  He would return the rental car to Nantes Airport, take a bus to the Nantes train station and catch a train to Redon. There Nancy would drive the dingy 14 miles up the river to pick him up ... Oops!  That’s a 28 mile round trip for Nancy on our ten foot dinghy! See the photos for the rest of that story.....

La Roche Bernard is a medieval river town and very well kept.

Dining at L'Auberge de Bretagne, a small hotel very well managed by its owners Audrey and Benoit.  Benoit is a superb chef with extensive training, and we could find no fault at this charming hotel: gets 5 stars from us!

The dinghy going for a test drive after repairs and before a long trip up the Vilaine River to Redon.....

...and here's Dinghy Captain Nancy trying to get enthusiastic about it. But she was rewarded......

....with a splendid opportunity to capture this action photo of John climbing back in the dinghy at Redon after falling in off a wobbly finger pier!  Note that Nancy was too busy laughing and taking photos to throw a life ring!

So John took an unexpected swim....and so did his cell phone! Fortunately his jacket and back pack had been left safely on the dock.

Zooming back down the river to Adventuress, the clouds gathered but John didn't care ,,,he was already soaked.

So today we put up the mainsail and staysail, and all went well: here we have just taken the main out of its winter storage bag. 

Tomorrow we leave the marina to have a shake down river cruise towards the Atlantic, and thus our adventure begins.

Our very best,

Nancy and John

This year’s adventure begins!

We always start our summer sailing adventure by saying hello to Roger Challis in London on our way to visit Dad in Northampton.  Dad is 93 years young and still dapper and as sharp as a tack.  Here's Nancy and Dad at St. Crispens Village where Dad resides.

John and Dad pose in front of St Peters and St Pauls Episcopal Church where we got married in 2010.  Tomorrow, Monday, we drive to the Cotswolds for two nights before we fly to southern Brittany, France to reunite with Adventuress and get ready to head South.

Parked for Winter

After sailing into the Gulf of Morbihan we visited Vannes where we found that they did not have a winter berth big enough for us. After a look at the chartplotter and the Cruising Guide we tried our luck in the Vilaine River a bit further West  La Roche Bernard was a pretty little town, but again we were too big.  But four miles North at Foleux, we found our winter spot, on the hard at Multi Nautic boatyard.

On the end of the dock at Foleux marina....

....from where we had a fine view East up the Vilaine River.

Same view at dawn.

Nancy enjoys the Medieval town  of La Roche Bernard.

After a few days' work, we took off for a land trip to the Loire Valley, and stayed at this chateau converted into a fine hotel: Chateau de Beauvois.

We visited the chateaux at Chenonceau, Amboise and Clos Luce. Here's Nancy at Chenonceau.

Medieval buildings in Amboise, where we walked up the hill to....

..chateau Clos Luce where Leonardo da Vinci spent his last few years as a guest of the King Francis I.
Here in the chateau gardens are hanging prints of Leonardo's paintings.

Chateau d'Amboise taken from the old town,

Nancy did not much like the white and the red served up in a visit to a vineyard, but the sparkling wine saved the day!

And so back we went to Foleux on the Vilaine, where we just fitted onto the boat lift trailer! It did take two goes to haul us up the slope......

 .....and here we are half way up the ramp: that's 32,000 pounds - 15,000 kilos, which was at the top end of the equipment's maximum limit.

And so off to England where we visited Dad in Northampton, and Roger in London: Roger's house has a "distinctive" new coat of paint, named "Jamaican Blue".

Flying to Marco Island via Miami tomorrow.
Best regards to all,

Nancy and John

After a Scary Start, South Brittany Has Charmed Us

From Camaret we motor-sailed through the Raz du Sein, down a 3 knot current.  Normally this would be a blast, but here now came along a summer afternoon fog that Maine sailors know so well.  Visibility was down to 50 yards (about 100 feet beyond our bow, and so we crept along with radar set at 1.25 miles. 

Just after passing the rocks, visibility improved to about 100 yards as we safely passed a sailboat that had been ahead of us.  Then, at the Point, we picked up a good sized radar return a mile away and a few hundred yards on our starboard bow: but no AIS signal received.  Port we went 20 degrees and as we crept along the radar blip was staying put, so we would pass safely about 500 yards leaving it to starboard, and evidently it was a fishing boat motoring slowly.  All was good until that darned radar blip started moving quite quickly and towards our path. Port another ten degrees we went, and JFK exclaimed to Nancy, “It’s moving towards our heading! Watch out on Starboard! “

As JFK watched the radar, on the darn thing came!  Port another ten degrees. Then Nancy: ‘Watch out!  Ship on starboard!!”  Full astern went Adventuress and ground to a halt, and just 50 yards across our bows steamed way too fast “L”Horizon”  a French fishing trawler.  To say we were shaking is not an exaggeration.  Suddenly the darn bugger stopped, and we guess he had just noticed us!  On the VHF radio JFK practiced some old French he had learned as a teenager, but no reply! So we issued a “Securite” alert to all ships naming the damn culprit.  That “Securite”  is heard by the Coastguard, so it is quite an effective, as well as warranted, warning! How could a sizeable fishing boat be in dense fog, suddenly alter course and increase speed, not be transmitting AIS, and evidently not be watching radar?  Possible answer:  French. Possible adjective: Anglo-Saxon, begins also with F.

We resumed our way and the fog blessedly lifted. 

By cell phone we learned that Audierne did not have room for Adventuress and so we spent a somewhat rolly night at anchor off St Evette.  Next day we arrived at the Odet river, and its literally thousands of boats in the harbours and marinas of St Marine and of Benodet. 

We sailed past these and up the river just two miles, where we anchored safely in a peaceful bucolic landscape, with no one within a mile of us! 

Back down river by dinghy to Sainte Marine: a lovely harbour, here dried out at low tide.

Since then we have explored the South Brittany islands: Groix, Belle Ile, and Houat.  In Groix we were jammed in a sardine raft with 20 other boats.  All quite safe but definitely not to The Admiral’s liking!  Here we are rafted fore and aft on buoys: we were the last sardine in the tin, and acting on instruction from the harbour master, forced our bow between two boats just ten feet apart! By the time we had squeezed our fourteen feet of beam plus fenders into the raft, the whole darn tin was tight as a sardine's whatsit!

Then in Belle Ile we had a unique “Island Packet Minivous” in the Basin a Flot at Le Palais.  We rafted with Paul and Elaine Bragg, “Jennie B” IP380; and with Haakon and Judith Jacobsen,  “Touche” IP380, who were already there waiting for us.  So we had lined up astern the UK flag, the Danish flag, and the US flag, all flying French courtesy flags! A party night followed, with champagne on Touche, and an eye opening Chilly Supper on Jennie B. What fun!

Picture by Elaine Bragg, from the far side of the basin: lined up on Adventuress, L to R: Paul Bragg, JFK, Nancy, Judith and Haakon Jacobsen.

Here are the three Island Packets L to R  Jennie B, Touche, and Adventuress.....

and here is Nancy's selfie, capturing the moment Haakon poured out champagne....."The Widow"!

 We toured Belle Isle by bus, and enjoyed Sauzon, a classic fishing harbour on the NE coast....

...where we had traditional galettes and beer for lunch: and yes, my friends, that is Nancy's triple Belgian 8.5% beer on the right.  Fortunately, JFK was there to help her back on the bus!

The cliffs and rocks of Port Coton may be not so famous as the Needles of the Isle of Wight, but the French have all kinds of stories about throwing the invading English "Roast Beefs" back into La Mer....

and Monet painted this picture....Aigulles de Port Coton....but he was not thrown in!

And here we are anchored in a cleft just 100 yards wide in Port Gulphar: this was a classic Adventuress adventure: on our bus tour we saw this spot from the cliffs above....and next day, there we were!

Monet would have enjoyed our view from our anchorage among the rocks.

Nancy is celebrating our departure from the craggy coast and we did not even scrape a rock!

Next was a superb anchorage on the Eastern end of the island of Houat....

..where we dragged our Caribbean-sized dinghy up the beach. We definitely need a six foot "rubber ducky dinghy" for beaching in Europe!

Mind you, sometimes we need a dinghy with room for provisions...

....which we had found in the little village up the hill....overlooking idyllic bays.

 From Houat we sailed to Presqu' ile Quiberon, where we rode our bikes and admired the scenery.

Best to all,

Nancy and John

PS unlike the last time we prematurely blogged that we had no air in our diesel, this time we really don’t have any more air in our diesel! And the engine, and The Admiral, are both purring very happily.