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2010                                                                   

Another year is upon us and I have been working all winter again so in need of a

 good rest and good sailing.     "South Africa looking towards Cape Town."

Lots to do this year, blast off the bottom and gelshield, fit enclosure, and arch for the solar panel. So we have booked ferry for 29th March to give us an early start. As its the first winter we have owned the boat we have been working all winter collecting parts and equipment to fit her out so we can enjoy the "live aboard time".

 A hard working 2 weeks, blasted off the hull 6 months ago, 5 coats of gel shield, 2 coats of tie coat, 2 coats of antifouling, polished the hull, rebuilt leg and prop, resealed the saildrive leg, and back into the water. The weather was good apart from the wind which enabled us to complete the work early so we had a week in La Roche-Bernard.

Next job to fit the new enclosure and polish the top sides. The enclosure was a sucess and we both just sat grinning at each other  when we finished it, so a little celibration was called for. This was a project that we worked on with C&J Material to get the maximum light into the cockpit and it must fold back on its self to go sailing.

 It's been a lot of work but we will get the benefits later, started work below fitted 2 gas struts to the table seat / locker so Linda can get in it at sea, Attached a line through the stern seat to save it falling overboard, also fitted music radio with Long Wave and USB front loading so I can put a 4 gig stick of music in and it goes all day. Looking for a temporary aerial I found that the length of the bottom back stay was just the right gain for long wave reception, so took the RG58 cable through the bilges to the stern bracket. What did we get when switching on, "Cricket"!!!!!! but it was clear as crystal.

Next task was the solar panel that I purchased from China, 120 watt for £145 + delivery £50, it arrived in 4 days. I tried to get the back arch made in France but it was far too expensive, in the end I found a local:- www. Stainlessmarinefabricators.me.uk  here on the south coast and made the arch in 3 parts to be bolted together out there. All this was successfull and the finished system was putting in 9.2 amps in the French sunshine.

We had started off with 4 pages of things to fit, work on, clean, polish, and make good, after the solar panel was finished we decided to go sailing and catch up with friends who left a week earlier. we had a great sail down to Pornic 47 miles but took 2 hours to tack the last 2 miles, after being "told off" I put the engine on. The weather had been very good and it was coming up to our wedding anniversary we wanted to celerbrate as last year on our 40th I was sailing the then sold Scanmar around to Ostend.

After meeting up with Rob and Anne, another Barvaria we decided to eat ashore with them. Pornic is a holiday town and was full, but it is still early in the season for France but we managed to get a table in the centre of town. And what a meal it was, I feel guilty to show you, 7 fillets of beef between the 2 of us, fantastic meal, cost the earth, but great.

What a meal, Fantastic.

Off to Pornichet having been told it had been refurbished and new pontoons for visitors. Upon arriving it was clear that a lot of work had been done, we stopped going there 4 years ago because of the poor facilities, now new 40 foot pontoons for the visitors and a refurbished shower block. At 40 feet we were one of the smallest boats in the visitors section, some boats were 60 feet and had permanent crews.

The ever presence of officialdom, an early start for the marine police. We stayed for 2 days before making our way back west to Piriac.

The 25 miles back to Piriac was uneventfull but a nice sail, tried fishing all the way but no luck, we had to take it easy as the ledge to get in needed half tide, although Rob on Seren could get in an hour before me. Piriac is a very pretty town not very big but well looked after to attract the visitors. Rob had to leave us there and go back to LRB. we stayed with Paul and Gloria who had driven down by camper van to see us.

The sun was starting to get hot now so I fitted my shade over the fore hatch, this has a cooling effect in the cabin and if you get rain over night you can still leave the hatch open.

We leave Piriac for Le Crouesty 31 miles and find half the marina roped off, "sailing for schools" were there, 37 yachts with 5 to 8 youngsters on board each boat who spent 5 days sailing around the area returning to Crouesty each night. This is typical of France who are very suportive of their young peoples education and encourage events like this all around France, it is such a difference and a pleasure to see, just like the UK I don't think. (give us your money)

We spent 5 days in the area before making our way back to La Roche-Bernard as it was Pauls 70th birthday and we would be going out with them to celebrate. The meal was going to be in the panoramic restaurant above the marina, just a lovely setting, but a hard climb up to the bridge.

That weekend there was another supported event taking place, 3 days of racing by 21 disabled sailors in special boats, it was very competitive and interesting to watch.

We stayed in LRB untill Paul had got "Bridie" (his boat) ready which took 6 days, however the time was not wasted and we worked on Odysseus and meeting up with friends who had just returned from South or just come out from the UK. By the time Bridie was ready the tides for the lock were very early or late so we decided to go out on a late lock and catch a Blue bouy in the river to start off early the next day. These bouys are very useful as our 2.2 metres is just too deep for the entrance at low water. Bridie came alongside us over night and we set off for Le Crouesty early.

We are going to spend some time in the Morbihan (its an inland sea) so we need to stock up before going, off to the supermarket the other side of the marina, a long walk but we have our wheeled trolley. In July and Aug the port runs a ferry service across, FREE.

The weather was OK but we had clouds dumping rain in short bursts so oilies were called for. 1st port of call was Ile aux Moines which has a pontoon moored just off shore with water and power on but it is shallow and I was aground each low water, we sank into the mud a little, but I would not go there in Springs, or HIGHER than 60 coefficent.

There are some nice walks around the Island and a village in the centre, just right for a beer. WiFi is available, line of sight to the marina office, also a "rade de port" which is a ferry service run by the marina, FREE. Chan 9 vhf.

The above right hand picture shows a cardinal bouy, all of this area between the bouy and the pontoon has less than half a metre and it's rock under there. The bouys are not clear and you need to enter the area from the east not the marina or port area. The ferries look large but draw less than a metre as they are flat bottomed.

We stayed here for 3 days and the weather was getting warmer all the time, lots of visitors on the Island as spring was nearly over, May will be gone in a week or so. Nice walk, lots of bars and friendly marina staff.

Next stop will be the port of Bono which is 5 miles up the river Auray. We usally pick up a bouy here and we can go up river to Gustan or across the river to Bono in our dinghy. You need to catch the early tide to get a bouy but the river shallows by a fish farm so I have to judge it just right, this year I touched the bottom but it is mud. Plenty of water on the bouys but a little further up river and it dries. We decided to have a BBQ ashore which turned out to be a pleasant occasion.

After 4 days our power supply was still 13.2 volts and the fridge was operating all the time (something to look at later)  Paul was saying he needed to get 240 volts and water so we decided to go up to Vannes, this meant we had to get the tide down to the entrance and catch the start of the flood up to Vannes, with lots of time to spare as I can only get into Vannes 2 hours before and after HW. I spent my time "puddle hopping" using the Lowrence plotter with a Transas chip in. touched the bottom 3 times and finally got stuck some 7 feet off the holding pontoon outside Vannes.

Vannes changes for the better each year we come, improvements to the facilities and surounding areas, more pontoons this year and FREE WiFi, get your code when booking in. We had to go out for another meal, I would like to recommend the "East Wind" which is on the right side of the marina when you are facing the town.

The soup was beetroot, quayles eggs, avocado, and spring oinion. Eating in France is still a special occasion, this is proper cooking fresh ingedients cooked and served by people with a passion, 4 courses bottle of wine 30 euros, do I need to say more!

After Vannes we go back to Ile aux Moines for a night then on to our special little bay at the back of the Island, in the summer (July) it gets packed, but now its just beautiful.

It was hot now and walking in the sun was not easy, we had a relaxing time here, swimming (22c) walking in the mornings and eating.

On one of the walks we watched fish feeding in the shallows, and I managed to take this of Paul trying to focus on the wildlife.

I got sunburnt so had to use my wet suit, only problem was I did not have my weight belt with me so I floated nicely!! the water was warm and we enjoyed our swim, (Gloria took the photo saying stomachs in boys.)

We stayed 4 days and on the 3rd day in the evening 38 canoes came into the bay to eat before setting off on their journey again. Not the easiest place to canoe tides regulary run at 6 to 9 knots between Islands.

Its getting near the time for us to start back to LRB, so we had 2 days in Le Crouesty and left for La Roche Bernard in fair winds and had a great sail all the way back ariving too early to get back over the bar so took it easy the last 5 miles.

With the boat back in it's berth we get ready to go back to UK for 3 weeks, as it gets too busy and hot in July, and I have to do my TAX Return.

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Back out in France I started by sorting the fridge out, looking at the location of the compressor it was obvious that the heat off the compressor was going up all around the fridge so heating it up and that's why it was on all the time, remember the temp is 38c in the cabin. Also the fan that was "cooling " the heat exchanger down took the hot air that was inside the locker and passed it through the heat exchanger. The fix was to turn the fan around so it took air from the cabin sole and passed it through the exchanger, then block off all of the locker at the back of the compressor with insulation, then cut a hole in the front locker cover and fix another 3" computer fan in place that extracted the hot air our off the compressor. Now the fridge runs for 12 minutes and is off for 55 minutes, a success.

Don't foreget to clean out the heat exchanger with a vacuum once a year as it get clogged with dust just like whats in your Dyson.

A bit of a motor sail around to Le Crouesty (31 mile) again and got a slot well into the marina as the whole place was packed. Last weekend of the French holiday season, sales are on in the shops so we both managed 2 pair of trousers each at bargain prices. Still putting fixes in place on the boat, managed to get a double pole switch and put the music radio into the cockpit speaker.

The Morbihan has lots of bouys to pick up or just anchor in some quiet place, and let the world go by.

 The last 2 weeks are here and we take out time getting back to our home port, meeting up with Bridie again in Le Crouesty, nice walks around the coast from there.

 Back to La Roche-Bernard and put the boat up for the winter, this year was different as we did not go south because of the storm damage earlier in the season, but the weather has been good again and we have enjoyed out time out here.

Up the river Vilaine again passed our favourite place for Penestin mussels, then into the lock, and it was manic again, but this time I took the photos of the people watching us!!! It is local entertainment on each weekend lock times and there can be hundreds of people watching, hoping for some disaster to happen.

Well the end of another great year sailing all there is to do is have a leaving party on Island Girl just back from fitting a new engine in the UK with freinds who have been sailing in France for a long time now. as you see from the photos the weather is significantly better than the UK, warmer and more stable.

All packed away but looking forward to next year.