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.
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