4 - 7 Sep at Camaret sur Mer Brittany

After a pretty dull grey lumpy 36hr down-channeler we anchored overnight at Anse des Blancs Sables in the Chenal du Four in the early hours of Sat 3 Sep. Whiskey and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ( a pattern to be repeated many times later, I'm sure).  Up at Oh!-crack-sparrow fart to catch last of tide down Le Four and into Goulet de Brest. Very busy in the bay with several races and regattas under way.

As the forecast is rather pooo-ey, we decide to roost awhile across the bay at Camaret, with its old ruined fishing boats, the fetes and tourists, and its disney-like Vauban tower. Throughout our first day and night our ears were assaulted by the constant crapalogical (sp?) noises from the worlds least tasteful fair spread along the harbour-side. Shore-side facilities were very end-of-termish and dark.
Much of our stay was rainy and blustery, and to be honest, the weather wasn't that good either.

Walks and meals and beers ashore. Much watching of the meteo and grib files. Waiting for the coat-tails of hurricane Irene to whip the Bay into a frenzy. Big swells forecast and ginagorous winds for several days to come.
We befriended (is this the correct tense?) 2 german boats, the one a minmalist wooden 26ft Wharram cat skippered by an adventurous journalist, Christian, on a soul finding solo mission of the Zen/Motessier type, the other a 30 year old Arpege skippered by the brave Merle, an elfin and bright German girl, already well known in the German yachting press, perhaps as something akin to the young Ellen Mcarthur.She was on her current mission to sail from Berlin to Portugal by any means.
 
One day, our new found friend, Christian, scoured the shore for as much natural seafood (and probably some un-natural stuff as well, if I'm honest) as he could find so that in the evening we had a mighty cook-in on the pontoon between the boats, followed by a long guitar and singing jam session. I'd never had singing jam before but it was alot better than the sneering marmite)












Seeing that not too many easy breaks were set to appear in the wake of Hurricane Irene, Merle asked if she could crew with us as far as Portugal. Seeing her enthusiasm and obvious galley skills (ho ho. nice to get the patronizing chauvinist bits in first) we readily agreed. What a good decision that turned out to be, particularly as 2 old men such as Bill & I are not designed to cope with glaring at each other's navels indefinitely.
Finally around noon on Weds 7th, the portents look good-ish, so we fuelled and watered up and set out for the long and pretty tedious upwind motor sail out to the outer Raz rocks south of Brest and Douarnenez. This flog took us until long after midnight before we could set course across the Bay for NW Spain. Of course, typically, we could not actually set course as the wind was bang on the nose, and so it stayed for the next 3 days!

(Skippers Note: A happy picture, put in to boost morale, and not truly representative as most of Biscay was grey as were the crew, apart from Merle who just smiled and worked hard. Bloody women).

26 Sep 2011. At home for the Cornwall wedding

Only seems like yesterday I flew into Heathrow from Coruna. Son Tom, & Amanda's, wedding at Tintagel in Cornwall was absolutely spiffing, apart from the Cornish aerosol rain all Sat afternoon and evening. Nice old Norman church. Key players in tails and cravats. Reception and hog roast in a large yurty type wigwammy teepee type thingy in a field overlooking rocky Trebarwith Strand. Much food, music, and liquid stuff. Everyone behaved, more or less.

The rest of the 10 days home has been a blur of sorting out, arranging stuff, and bill paying. Picked up a new lump of metal to stick inside the new feathering prop boss to adjust pitch to get better speed per revs as current performance of new prop is about the same as the liberal party conference....noisy but not going anywhere fast. Its got lots of small bits to fit. Apparently do-able undewater. Perhaps if one was a cross between Buster Crabbe and Rudolph Nureyev it might be. Must learn the Spanish for "how much to crane the boat out for 4 hours"

Friends & neighbours at home have been amazingly helpful with house & admin stuff. Can't thank you all enough. Also lots of advice from experienced blue water persons....thank you all again.

Booked Vueling flight back to Vigo this Thursday. Gives me a chance to fix leaks and tidy boat before new crew Chris joins in Baiona on Sat. Maybe even get a chance to see the town and have a beer or 3. Plan after that is a medium speed trip down Portuguese coast, picking up/changing crew as we go. Got to be at Lagos or Cape S/V by about 18 Oct to do the hop across to Madeira area.

Hopefully, next blog will be from aboard in Baiona, before departure southwards.

1 Sep (Thursday) Departure from Gosport

Just after lunch on 1st Sep, skipper Mike and first mate Bill Lewis finally got RAPAREE underway for the first leg of her Atlantic circuit. Departure came after a mighty 6 month effort, with long hours of work, and much help from family and friends, and from Stewart and the team at Hornet. Raparee's refit included a refitted engine room, a new engine, propellor, and propshaft, much strengthening of rigging and chainplates, and a total overhaul of many of her systems. The non-stop sail to Brest was to be pretty much the first outing for her new or refitted systems (I had to hide my worries over this and show a brave face for the small group of wellwishers who kindly waved us off). Mid Solent we made a prearranged rendezvous with son Owen in a UKSA RIB to transfer a boat boom to him which I had picked for UKSA from Selden in Fareham the previous day. This also gave him a chance to wave us off. We then rode a healthy spring ebb Westerly well into the evening on the start of our long and relatively uneventful watchkeeping passage to Brest. The wind was frequently fickle and on the nose, and I have to confess we motor-sailed much of the distance as we zig zagged between rain and ships..

Tides are touchy on that NW corner of Brittany, so our arrival time was critical. After about 36 hrs, we just made it to the top of the Le Four channel in the early hours, with minutes to spare before the tide turned against us. WE crawled down the Four as far as we could until we could drop the pick in Blanc Sablonnes bay, just North of Gulet de Brest, at dawn. Jamesons AND rum, and a long zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz followed. We and the new engine had survived our first baptism.

14 Sep: Skipper's bithday and Finisterre Abeam!

We left the small fishing village of Camarinas on the NW corner of Spain this afternoon after a stormy 24 hrs alongside in the little marina. The wind was still up but was expected to drop soon, and in any case was from the North east so making life a little easier. Our main concern was the 3 meter Atlantic swell and the exposed nature of this coastline.......the Costa de Mortes.

Not long after leaving harbour, our 3rd mate for this leg, Merle, retired below for a bout of baking. I thought she was just having a go at bread making, but she had actually made some German type cakes, one of which she decorated with candles for the skipper's birthday,

Early in the evening, after a couple of hours of rolling along under foresail only, we had several visits by playful dolphin families. Later, as the wind fell away, we drifted past the mighty headland of Galicia's western coast, at 2000 just before a glorious sunset and a golden moonrise over the Spanish mountains.
By 2100, tonight the wind is no more so we are motoring slowly down the coast in the general direction of Vigo for the boat's 2 week layup there. We aim to get there on Friday morning and flights home are booked from Coruna on Saturday.

Must go now as night has fallen and the crew is watchkeeping, so I feel guilty doing this.

15 Sep 2011. Riding the islands and dolphins to Vigo

Overnight, after many headlands and dolphins, we finally made it motor-sailing to the River Vigo area in light winds. We decided to thread our way in pitch darkness between the headlands and islands so as to make a dawn anchorage off one of the islands at the entrance to the Ria. We crept close into a bay on the Islas de Norte, dropped the pick, sipped some whisky and crashed out. Early morning saw a clearing mist and then a beautiful panaorama of beaches and heavily forested islands. At last, were we out of the frozen north?....perhaps?

Sun 11 Sep in Vivero Ria

Just arrived in Vivero to anchor just off the beach, and here is Bill modelling the latest in onboard fashion from RAPAREE's haute couture wardrobe.

Merle got all adventurous so she volunteered to go aloft on a photogragraphic expedition.  As Raparee has mast steps, rock climbing techniques and climbing kit are used for going aloft. A departure from yachty type hauling stuff and much more exercise and fun. Perhaps relieved from the tedium of 2 boring old men she stayed aloft an awfully long time.

Skipper by this stage had allowed the crew to settle into a slough of cabin fever, but so refreshed was Merle she that when she came down, we all felt the need to up anchor and make for a run ashore...even if for only a few hours.

20 Sep 2011 arrival at Baiona

RAPAREE is now secured in the very expensive but jolly marina in the little town of Bayona, west of Vigo, in West Spain, just 50 miles N of Portuguese border. We got there on or about 15th Sep after a pleasant passage from Camarinas and a night at anchor amongst the islands.
The town is pretty, but touristy, with many little dining places and bars. The waterfront is overlooked by a huge castle, and a replica of the PINTO sits in the harbour..
We made several friends, fellow birds of passage, in the marina before Bill and I had to leave for home via an early morning bus northwards and a Vueling flight from La Coruna on Sat 18th. The evening before our departure turned into a party night with our neighbouring germans on board, and also Graham, a friend of Bill's who is working in Vigo for the EC fisheries. Graham cycled down from Vigo for the evening. There is now no whiskey, gin, rum, or beer, left onboard.
Poor Merle was left homeless by our departure, and we left her in the cockpit wrapped in her sleeping bag and plugged into her i-something. She was hoping to catch up with the Swedish/Swiss father/son combo we had met at Vivero and who were making their way to Porto.
Anyway RAPAREE will be crewed up again once Mike has returned from UK after son Tom's wedding in Cornwall.