Category: France

Fi left… twice

August 8, 2023 / fiandadrian

An honest account of my experiences of going totally out of my comfort zone. The photos in this blog are a combination from me, Marie, Clothilde, Sean, Kate, Rebecca and Sylvia. Thank you.

If you had told me a year ago, I’d be ticking off a bucket list item of completing the Fastnet race in one of the hardest years of the Fastnet, breaking halyards, doing night watches and spending a week in a small space with 5 other beautiful strangers I would have laughed. But this I did.

Before I start, a little about Emma. She is a 52 foot aluminium cruising vessel with a lifting centreboard. She has a large sail at the front called a “solent”, a smaller sail just behind that called the “staysail”, a main sail that can be made smaller by reefing, and it has 3 possible reefs, each making the sail smaller – so this means we can change the sails around for the different conditions. She also has a light wind sail called an asymmetrical spinnaker which is a pretty pink and red colour and is really powerful. Inside she has 6 berths, plus the central table that can be converted into a giant bed for pyjama parties. 2 bathrooms, a generator, 2 fridges and a large freezer.

Right – Fi did some racing. Here we go.

One grey afternoon, we walked to the airport in Brønnøysund to say goodbye to Fi (me) who was leaving for some new adventures.

A few months ago, I was asked by our lovely contact at Garcia (who built Away) if I wanted to do the Fastnet (one of the worlds biggest sailing races with 500 boats in this years race). As I picked myself up off the floor, and stuttered some words at Adrian about it in no discernible order, Fi and Adrian Sailing decided to become “Fi Racing and Adrian on Dog Sitting Duty” for a short time. I said “yes” having no idea about ocean racing, but that’s what I do – say yes to opportunities. Why not? I’ve sailed Away for 2 years in ocean swells and gale force winds, around tiny islands in Sweden and Norway, around massive ships in the Kiel and the standing mast route in the Netherlands. Plus we’d done the south coast of England, the Solent and the channel, and the north coast of France – plus all the other stuff. All good training for what was coming.

First up was the La Trinite/Cowes by Actual race, which would enable us to qualify as a team to race in the Fastnet.

I left Brønnøysund bound for an evening in Paris, then on to La Trinite sur mer the next day to meet up with the mighty 52 foot Garcia Exploration, named Emma which was to be my home for the next week. I met the wonderful team, Clothilde (skipper and the lovely person who invited me), Marie, Kate, Sean, Sylvia, Rebecca and Mark (owners of Emma).

From left, Clothilde (skipper), Marie (co-skipper), Sylvia, Me, Kate. Rebecca arrived a few hours after this was taken. Don’t worry we’ll see her.

After a big day of getting to know each other and prepping, I suddenly found myself untying lines, and in the La Trinite/Cowes boat race. Sitting on the windward side of Emma I pondered my life decisions as I reached out to some super massive sail boats for a high five.

We pass the start line and headed west to get out from the harbour and its islands and into the sea. Then, heading north, we did lots of tacking as the wind was on the nose. It was hard to learn tacking on what is basically the same boat, but entirely different, whilst at the same time figuring out where I fit in this new group. My experience with groups of people over the last few years has been… Adrian – and being the borderline painfully introverted, unconfident but capable type that I am, I was suddenly thrust into a group team situation and found myself calling on resources I hadn’t called upon since my working days (team work, communication etc etc) and crikey I’m rusty. Adding to that, my life consists of picking nice weather windows to travel in our home to exotic places, spending time with Adrian and my beautiful dog. Its all quite relaxed and enjoyable, and ocean racing is… well… challenging! My first watch was from 12 midnight to 4:30AM and so I learned a lot in the dark on a new to me boat, with new to me people. To say my poor little brain was overloaded is an understatement, and to be fair, I think I did okay.

Helming upwind. The autopilot had decided not to work so there was a lot of manual helming on this race.

The next few days were a blur of night watches, dealing with no wind at all, dolphins, storms with a fully reefed Emma and shouting at ships at the same time, before we finally found ourselves gybing up the English coast, and navigating the tides through the Solent before finally getting to Cowes and the finish line, and that much anticipated glass of French wine. 3 days, 7 hours sailing and 411 nautical miles.

Whoo upwind! Still smiling even though the autopilot was out.

Yep, dodging ships at 03:30 in the morning. I shouted at one… But they moved for us.

Marie and Kate hoping we’re going to hit the tide correctly for the Solent passage.

Passing Hurst Castle through the north channel.

Clothilde calling up race control on the VHF. We arrived at 12:37 at night. No one was particularly interested as we were last.

I think I didn’t eat a hot meal for 3 days, as I was just putting food in for fuel, sleeping, trying to keep clean, and sailing. Huge challenge. I think as a team this was so great. We learned by the end of the race how to really mesh as a team and we nailed the finish. Oh my gosh, we have qualified to do the Fastnet race.

After a great sleep, we enjoyed the next day in Cowes, went to the awards ceremony and dinner, and planned to leave that night at 2am, or was it 12:30…? French time (boat time) or local time? We were all so tired, but we got the right tide to get out of the Solent, and back into the channel to get to Cherbourg for some more training and sorting out of Emma.

In Cherbourg, we were really fortunate that Mark (one of the owners of Emma) had organised for sailing great, Pete Goss, to come and mentor us for a few hours on Emma. We learned a lot from him, and these lessons we are taking into the Fastnet.

Good chats with Pete Goss! We took notes for sure! Loads of lessons to be learned and a growing to do list to prepare Emma for the Fastnet!

I get back to my home on Away, and my lovely little family a few days later, and we enjoy settling back in. It felt so good to be back in my comfort zone, Away, our home that we know how to sail without even thinking about it, that is set up exactly how we like it for sailing ease and safety. All the things I take for granted are here with me and I am oh so grateful for our world here.

We head south to Lervik in Norway and meet some wonderful new friends on the dock. Ahhh to be back cruising. It really is bliss, and whilst I know I can complete the Fastnet with Emma and her wonderful crew, Ocean racing is probably not going to be something I’m doing on a regular basis. I like chill out cruising too much – which comes with its own challenges of course! But at least I can turn on the motor in no winds, and pick the best weather window to leave, or change destinations on the fly.

Ah cruising again. Beautiful Norway with the wild flowers.

We have a reasonably leisurely trip down the Norwegian coast a day or so after I get back. Huge thanks to Norway, for demonstrating to Adrian what the La Trinite race was like – no winds, 35 knots and triple reefed etc all in just one 30 mile passage. Once in Trondheim, I had a flight booked back to Paris, and then to Cherbourg to meet back up with lovely Emma and the crew to prepare Emma for the Fastnet. Whilst I am away from Emma and the team, there is a flurry of activity at the boat to get things done, and I study tide charts, autopilot settings and spinnaker pole setups in preparation. Oh yes, and I get some tricky sailing under my belt. Good practice. Thank you Norway.

After a day in Trondheim, I pack up my backpack again and head off to Cherbourg and the lovely Emma to prepare for the Fastnet. As I write this (post Fastnet) it is actually hard to remember what happened exactly, but I’ll give it a go.

The Fastnet.

I arrived in Cherbourg and went straight to Marie’s for a night of planning and cooking. My contribution would be to drink the wine and provide the entertainment whilst Clothilde and Marie created yummy smelling french dishes to be frozen for our race. After a good nights sleep after my big day of travel we were off to Emma to do some prep work – which mainly consisted of turning Emma the cruising boat into Emma “the kind of more like a race boat”, boat – i.e taking off all the non racing gear like kayaks and extra tins of food, and much to my dismay the stash of whisky and wine.

With Emma a lot lighter, and the team feeling pretty ready, we had our “photoshoot” with Garcia so they could social media the crap out of us (provided we were successful of course) and then we were off to Yarmouth where we had a berth booked for the night before the race. Oh I didn’t mention the cool jackets – how cool are the jackets!!!!! Matchy matchy!

Naturally we sent the photographer up the mast.

Clothilde and Marie at the skippers presentation.

We had some good practice coming across the channel. We picked perfect wind against tide to come into the Solent near the needles which, as we would find out, was excellent training. The forecast for the start of the race the next afternoon was looking more and more bleak.

Braids are mandatory. It may seem trivial, but it keeps the hair out of ones face.

We squeezed into Yarmouth, then squeezed through the bridge leading to the creek at Yarmouth, then squeezed up the creek, then we all held our breath as Clothilde professionally squeezed the 52 foot Emma into a space that I would not even have attempted to put Away into (Away being a full 7 feet smaller). PHEW, we were in! A night of planning, weather routing and sleeping is to be had. Oh yes, and we had to figure out how in the world to get out of the tiniest berth possible, without breaking the boat, breaking other boats, going aground or hurting ourselves.

The next morning, we have a chat again with Pete Goss who gave us some great last minute strategies and a good pep talk, then we were off, fortunately with enough water under us not to go aground, and enough people on board to shout when other boats were too close. We were so happy to get out of Yarmouth and into the 25 knots in the Solent.

Sufficiently unsqueezed in order to take a smiling photo.

Sailing downwind, we headed for the start line area, put up our storm sails up and passed the “identity gate” – right, we were ready for the start. The wind was building and building so a reefed main was up, and the staysail. Tacking towards the start line, we were 5 minutes from starting, and made our final tack to point for the line. All excited faces! And bang.

Storm sails up and passing through the identity gates.

What happened? The staysail is suddenly flapping weirdly. Shit, the halyard has broken. Kate and I run to the bow and pull down the sail, and strap it in. What to do? We can’t put out the solent, there is far too much wind and it is forecast to build and build – right storm jib it is. Finally we cross the start line and begin tacking up the Solent behind the fleet, with the storm jib. We quickly learn that the storm jib does not tack very well, and we do complicated tacking by pulling out a little solent, then tacking, then pulling the solent back in. So hard.

After a while of this the mayday calls started pouring in. People were going overboard at the needles, one boat was sinking, others had broken masts. Pip Hare passed behind us with her Imoca, with apparently the same problem as us, they had broken their staysail halyard I think… Carnage. Marie in her wisdom popped her head out from her bunk and suggested we anchor and let this system go through – Oh yeah – we can do that! And so we spent the night where we started. Yarmouth.

After an evening of anchor watch, we put a new halyard on the staysail (which by now also had a broken furler) and got going out of the Solent and into the channel. I was off watch at this time, and was sleeping. When I woke we had taken the north channel at the Solent exit, and we were passing Swanage and still tacking. As the days went on, we tacked the coast of England, choosing to go straight through the Portland race with strong wind against tide at dinner time which made for a wild ride. Happily no Beef Bourgogne was spilled.

Night watch as the sun just starts to light things up!

Probs should reef if my bunk window looks like this.

We chose to stay out in the channel at Salcombe which at the time seemed a silly idea as we lost all the wind. But we sent Clothilde up the mast to see if she could fix the staysail halyard anyways. As she was up there the wind came back, and we quickly brought her down as the wind built up to over 20 knots again. Turns out that the boats near us that stayed close to shore when we went out got smashed by this squall that came in and they retired due to weather, whereas by the time the squall got to us, it has lost some of its power and so we just enjoyed the ride out to lands end. Fortunately it was also at this time we realised that our autopilot (now named Charlie) didn’t have the right sized fuses, so with them changed we had a solid autopilot again! Phew!

At the Scilly Islands, we lost the wind again and were doing Christmas tree tacking backwards and forwards saying hello the Scilly’s a few times. We took the opportunity to update our families and of course social media. We also took the opportunity to rest a little, as we knew a new weather system was coming and it was going to be over 30 knots whilst we crossed the Irish Sea. And sure enough, I awoke the next day to a triple reefed main, staysail and a heeling over boat. And rain. We sailed in this until the fastnet rock, where it was shrouded in cloud. We saw a blob.

Trying to warm up in the PJ party. I was freezing after this watch.

After tacking around the rock, Emma suddenly came to a screeching halt. The team was looking around everywhere… What’s happened??? There were no fishing pots around. Centreboard was quickly raised. Nothing, then lowered again and suddenly we were off again. PHEW and thank goodness for our centreboard. We believe we hit a drifting fishing net and we heard another report of someone else hitting it too. It was kind of fortuitous, as because of this dramatic turn of events, we did actually get to see more of the Fastnet as the clouds cleared slightly.

A little bit more. Thank you weird fishing net.

Heading back to the Scilly islands, we enjoyed the feeling of being over halfway – although it was about this time I was a little down and thinking that this was my life now and I was never going to get back home. Its funny what the mind does. It was this evening that Marie brought out her beautiful quiche which frankly lifted my mood to no end as I had been there when she cooked it prior to the race and it looked so delicious I was looking forward to it all week! So with a full tummy, and a brighter frame of mind, I went off watch and hit my bunk, falling asleep listening to delightful giggling upstairs on deck and feeling really safe.

The next day I awoke to stories of the spinnaker falling in the water as we had broken another halyard – so no spinnaker for now – also when it was brought back on board it had a 3m tear in it. I used my now honed pole skills and got us going wing on wing for a while until we could change course and the solent did its job.

As I woke up for my next night watch, we were in the shipping lanes and we had a fun night of calling ships, dodging fishing boats, and racing to the Alderney race. The Alderney race was the final hurdle for us before the finish line, but alas, the wind didn’t want to come, so we missed it by about 30 minutes. For those of you who don’t know, the Alderney race is a tidal stream north of Alderney and it can run at over 9 knots, and if we got stuck there, we’d literally be stuck going no where. So the watch at the time made the decision to go north of the race, costing us more time, but meaning we were safe from the currents.

Arriving in Cherboug, we had the solent, the staysail AND the storm jib up to get us speed to finish. Our friends on Voyager (another Garcia) came out to meet us with all the available husbands (alas Adrian was on dog sitting duty in Norway) and cheer us on as we finished the line! We were so so so excited to see them and cross the line! Whoo hooooooo! Cheering and maybe some tears from little old me! Sails down, motor on and some choice tunes to head into harbour. My favourite was blaring Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing” as we came into harbour. YEAH YEAH YEAH!

Yeah crossing the line! Whooooooooooooo!

We had fans on the headland who took this cool pic of us crossing the line. As much sail as we had up!

Once docked, it was celebrations!!! All the families were there, friends and partners. It was mad! Even the press came down and interviewed us. As I was the only loner, I was either on the phone or asking everyone when could we please pop the champagne???????? FINALLY, photos done, kisses, cuddles and congratulations all round were done, there was a glass of bubbles in my hand.

Emma safely docked in the best spot in the marina.

Wow, what a ride. Would I do another – yes probably, but it would have to be the same amazing team I just did it with.

There was about 450 boats that started, and about 200 retired. We finished because we are TENACIOUS!

The best part of a week of my life was spent on some amazing type 3 fun. What a ride.

To Rebecca – thank you for lending us your boat for this adventure and thank you for your endless positivity and support. And especially for cooking going through some of the roughest water I’ve ever been in!

To Sylvia – I loved falling asleep in my bunk listening to you and Kate laughing and competently sailing and keeping us safe. Thank you for your tenacity and your wind dancing.

To Kate – Thanks for the great night watches and story sharing. Thanks for supporting me when I wasn’t feeling super confident. I so appreciate you!

To Marie – Thank you for your friendship and support, your clear head and good decisions. Thank you for keeping us safe, and making me laugh. You’ve taught me a lot.

To Clothilde – thank you for being the skipper and bringing such a positive attitude to everything you do. You kept morale high, kept us racing, laughing and safe the whole time. What a legend.

And we were in the press! You can read on the RORC website.

Please enjoy some of these little clips too.

Keep rollin. Going through the Portland Race wind against tide.

Copenhagen, Paris, Copenhagen, London. The team splits up and conquers all.

September 22, 2022 / fiandadrian

Fi’s in Copenhagen

By Fi – Once we got to Copenhagen, Adrian and I were keen to go touring with Tara through some of our favourite cities. Adrian was first up to go and meet Tara in Paris. So after 2 nights of decent sleep, off he went leaving me with Bernie and the delights of Copenhagen. First stop for me, friends! We had some friends who arrived just after us and who were keen to catchup and see some of the sights. I met them in the street food market, Reffen for a spot of lunch. It was so great to catch up and hear about their cruising adventures since we left them on the Kiel.

So good to catch up with fantastic people!

That evening I also caught up with our friend Morten and went back to Reffen for dinner. I swear they know me there now!

2 days were spent washing, which sounds boring but it meant the boat was lovely and fresh and Bernie’s bedding was all clean and smelling great. Very cathartic.

Copenhagen for me and Bernie was social, with some boat work and walks thrown in, but Paris for Adrian was… well… Paris.

Adrian’s in Paris

By Adrian – Its always lovely to visit Paris. We started with a bit of orientation: Louvre, Seine, Arc de Triomphe, and a stroll down the Champs Elysees.

We climbed up the arch and enjoyed watching the traffic for a while.

Of course the Jardin de Luxemborg is mandatory when one is in Paris. Even better with fresh macarons.

A walk in the park. Just like an Australian park, except totally different.

We found this tower all lit up at night with about three million people walking around it taking pictures

We try to tick off all the Paris must do’s, but alas, as we are there on a Sunday and Monday, many things are closed – however, this is Paris – there is much to see!

Found some art. Were all the chairs art?

Ate the required amount of fancy French food

and enjoyed the warm summers evenings with a dose of french onion soup, escargot and a glass of red.

Adrian’s in Copenhagen

By Adrian – Fi and I had one evening to catch up on things, before she headed off to London and I found myself alone with a fur shedding slightly neurotic spaniel.

Bernie and I went on long walks, studied industrial architecture, tackled some boat jobs

Fi’s in London

By Fi- Donning my suitably colour coordinated outfit for the cabbie, I toddled off to Copenhagen airport to fly over to my second home, London. Getting in around dinner time, I thought the most English-y thing to do would be to take Tara to the pub for a pint and a feed of proper stodge. We are staying in Notting Hill.

So matchy matchy… Bernie clearly wants to come too.

For our first full day in London, we decided to get our walking shoes on and go exploring. We looked at Kensington Palace, Hyde Park, then Covent Garden and then on to Camden Markets, finishing with a lovely dinner at a local Notting Hill restaurant called Beach Blanket Babylon.

Beautiful tribute to Diana from her sons.

We weren’t sure which country we were in here…

Inside Camden Markets has been really cleaned up.

The next day was a breakfast wander down Portabello Road to look at the markets, followed by lunch with some friends at South Bank, and also chilling out for the afternoon so we had the energy to dance the night away in Soho! We had a great lunch, and spent the evening at the Scotch in Soho, and moved on to another club later, but by that point I didn’t take note of its name. It was somewhere near Leicester square…

Girls looking slightly less sharp in the early hours.

On my final full day in London with Tara, I managed to drag my exhausted self out of bed to accompany Ta to a cool immersive art piece called Dopamine land. That night we decided to stop in our accomodation for dinner and ordered takeaway.

The next day, Tara and I parted ways. Me to get on to a plane at Stanstead Airport back to Copenhagen, and Tara to begin her long journey back home.

Arriving home to Away, as I walked down the path towards the boat, a little spaniel head popped up, jumped off the boat and ran towards me like a scene out of chariots of fire. Needless to say he was happy to see me! As was Adrian – its great to be home, and I had a great time!

Back together in Copenhagen

Once the band was back together, we took the opportunity to have some time in the amazing restaurants in Copenhagen. Naturally we went to Reffern the street food markets, but we also visited 56 degrees, Oens Have and Empircal, all the while enjoying bread and breakfast at Lille Bakery.

Copenhagen is a little like a black hole for us. We love it here and get comfortable very quickly. We do however have to move on, but the weather has been conspiring against us and is on the nose (i.e coming from the north, which is the direction we want to go). We are watching closely for a weather window to head across the north sea to Scotland where Away will spend winter. It will happen, and we are currently working on a plan to ensure we are in the right place at the right time to tick off this bucket list passage across the north sea.

Boulogne to Gravelines

April 19, 2022 / fiandadrian

Boulogne was an active fishing port with more bustle and less tourists than some places we had been along the coast.

Bernie was super excited about a French smelling town again, and especially one with lots of fishy smells. He started demanding a walk around the town as soon as daylight appeared. He wasn’t disappointed and pulled us up the hill to the old town in search of cafes and fallen chips. We returned in time for the nice gendarmes from Calais to visit the boat and stamp our passports.

We went straight out for bread and wine – and I enjoyed this for dinner.

Something more substantial for lunch the next day, 3 course meal with wine – happy to be back!

The forecast for the second day after we arrived was originally ‘a spicy day out’, then increased to ‘you won’t need extra chilli with this’ and finally ‘this is going to spoil your whole day’. We headed out to the harbour entry channel on foot and thanked the clever weather forecasting people for telling us the best day to sail. When all the fishing boats stay in port, its a good day to stay on land.

When calm conditions returned the fishing boats on the wharf opposite us left in the middle of the night (ok, maybe dawn) and returned to sell their fish on the quay opposite us in time for our morning(ish) walk. The fish shops are a famous tourist haunt for the town and sell everything off the boats fresh.

We bought fresh fish fillets, oysters and these whelks from the market. Beautiful with some garlic butter.

We thought we might head to Dunkirk next, but found this little town (Gravelines) accessed by a drying canal that was reported to be super friendly but a little tricky to get to. Red flag to a bull… we were going. They can fit 15m boats and we are no more than 14.5 (ish). We snuck out of Boulogne just after lunch to ensure arrival at the canal entrance at high tide.

The coast was surprisingly rural as we approached Calais. I did an extensive rigging check from the front deck.

As we approached Calais the wind picked up to over 20 knots and the choppy waves from behind made it too rolly for sunning oneself on the foredeck. The ferries on the Calais-Dover run kept coming to say hello and look at our boat. I was later informed we were crossing a ferry lane.

We arrived at the entry channel which was distractingly narrow and had 2 knots of tide crossing it. It seemed like we were approaching at 45 degrees to the channel. I steered a course so we safely crabbed our way into the channel, with Fi watching the chart plotter and the seas closely, and shouting “more to starboard!” to ensure we wouldn’t hit the port side wall. After a few km of channel we squeezed through a lock gate and pulled up at pontoon 2 in the marina. Curiously all the other boats seemed much smaller than us.

Gravelines used to be a vibrant port on the coast, but silting led to its decline as a trading port. These days its more sedate with rotund older gentlemen snoozing on their boats in the emerging spring sunshine trying to recall the boat jobs they were doing today.

The town still has a moat and walled defenses. Fi jumped the moat in a single bound.

This is another example of the architecture of the Marquis de Vauban a French engineer, who was responsible for a number of fortifications along the coast, some of which we saw when we cruised in Brittany. He is thought to be one of the greatest engineers of his time. The town centre is shaped as a star with the moat around the outside.

Beautiful moat with the fortifications for the town.

Taking a bike ride through town and around the moat. Bernie was having some mandatory rest at home.

Having completed her ride through the fountain, Fi wondered about the type of water it might be….

Looking towards the sea. To the left of this picture, the canal continues to the marina. This is not quite low tide yet.

Low tide at the marina gave both of us a shock when we left one morning. We could clearly see the bottom, and boats on the inside pontoons would sink into the soft mud. We remained floating, as we were placed on the outer pontoon. This boat looked like it had been settling in the mud now for a few years.

We are keen to see a little more of this coast line, and on our next trip we visit Dunkirk in France, and also plan our next country change into Belgium, leaving behind cheese and baguettes, for chocolate and beer.

Goodbye France

October 15, 2021 / fiandadrian

By Fi

We spent a few fun days in Cherbourg catching up with new friends and tidying up the boat. We were about to enact our complex plan to get to the UK to save our remaining Schengen visa days, and to get the dog into the UK – you might remember the UK’s very strict rules on dogs entering on private yachts.

Bernie staring at our lovely neighbours who just want to eat their dinner.

We packed all our things, and one very very early morning, left the boat and drove down to Caen and got through the plethora of paperwork to get on the ferry to Portsmouth. Little Bernie had to stay in the hire car, but we enjoyed a little shut eye, some food, some random quiz and some suitably calming live music on the ferry.

We got through the UK customs uneventfully, and we were off to our airbnb in the countryside. About half way there I realised that no one that we encountered in he UK gave two hoots about the dog. I wondered if we were being WAYY too straighty-one-eighty by following all the rules perfectly. Hmmm.

We had 2 weeks in the country. We walked and walked, ran some errands to the swindleries (read chandleries) and set up a few things to make life easier once we were able to get Away in too.

Our trip to the chandleries garnered this lovely encounter in Lymington.

The Quantock hills presented us with some challenging walks, fantastic pubs and a few times, a lost dog. Bernie has discovered squirrels. He’s never seen anything like them before and is absolutely obsessed. He eventually comes back. We also think he has discovered pheasants.

Well, that’s going to need a bath later.

I’m very happy to be walking the hills. My new hiking boots are cutting the mustard too.

Bernie is loving his world and fits right in.

The weather has been magic. Rainy when its okay to, and sunny when we want it to be.

Speechless. They weren’t bothered by us or Bernie at all.

We are also lucky enough to have family and friends everywhere and so we visited Langford near Bristol for a few days to catch up with friends who generously also let us stay in their gorgeous home. Bernie had a great walk on the beach on one occasion and I am living for this face.

Speaking of seeing wonderful people, we were able to catch up with my family as well who are living in London. They came all the way out to Bath to see us and we had a great lunch and look around Bath for a day.

At the pub in Bath. Bernie is suitably well behaved under the table – not.

In the meantime Away was being looked after by the good folk at Garcia and the few warranty issues we had found were being corrected – oh and I should mention we ordered a new room for the boat – its a conservatory! Well, its a set of canvas and clears for the outside area to turn it into essentially an outside room.

Yay our new outside room! Perfect for the cooler weather.

All the work gets done on the boat and it is signed off as good to go, Bernie gets put into a kennel for a few days (much to his dismay, but frankly at this point he can take one for the team), and we head back to France for our overnight stay – which is all we have left on our visa!

Driving on to the ferry at Portsmouth bound for Caen. We have only 2 days left on our European visa!

The Channel crossing is our next challenge in Away. We had timed our trip back so that we would have benign or decent weather to get back to the UK. We were planning to sail from Cherbourg to Portland Marina, which is in the harbour which hosted the sailing events for the London Olympics back in 2012. We’d done a recky on the harbour and felt pretty good about it.

We checked out from France at the cop shop in Cherbourg, managed a last minute French grocery shop (wine) and had an early night ready to leave the next day at sparrows fart (I mean 06:00 sharp).

So at 06:30 we left.

It was sad to leave beautiful France, but alas…

And headed out into the inky blackness, leaving the jewellery box of Cherbourg behind us. There are no crab pots in the dark, so we pointed towards our destination, and come what may, in 10 hours we’d be in the UK.

Adrian caught the photo of the day when the sun started rising.

‘Come what may’ was one of the worlds busiest shipping channels, but we played this video game with life (pictured) that looks like some sort of space invaders, except its real big ships and our relatively little boat… We are the black boat shape pointed north – the big ships are the triangle shaped outlines. We navigated this fine. The ships weren’t interested in chatting to us about navigation, which is okay because being quite introverted, we didn’t want to talk to them either (although we did try to be fair).

This is the first channel of west to east traffic, then further north is the east to west channel.

And the 10 hours turned into 11 hours… and then it turned out we messed up the tides and currents, it’ll be 12 hours.

We get our “Q” flag out at the 12 mile mark so that the UK authorities know we have come from another country and need to be checked in. Is a plain yellow flag that we need to fly on the starboard side. This is the first time we have flown this flag.

Once we are checked into the UK, we fly the red ensign flag as that is the appropriate flag for the UK. When we were in France, we flew the French flag on the starboard side, and as we change to subsequent countries, we will fly their flag. It is part of the rules of being a seafarer to fly the courtesy flag of the country you are sailing in. We fly the Australian flag off the stern as Away is registered in Australia. Sydney in fact – even though it has never been there.

Oh yes back to our passage. Sorry everyone… the 10 – 12 hours will actually be 14 hours of motor sailing and getting in just as the world turned dark because we used the wrong information for the strength of the tide – but we got to Portland! And we have learned some good lessons along the way.

Beautiful scenery as we sail along the coast.

I was willing the sun to stay up a little longer as we headed in to the harbour area at Portland.

So the whole family is here! And the authorities say we’re all allowed! Negative PCR tests, and Bernie has been collected from prison.

We’re here in Portland for a few days, and we are planning on changing plans at the moment. As usual.

Back to Cherbourg

September 26, 2021 / fiandadrian

We left the dock at Dinan with admiring onlookers almost as surprised as me as Away negotiated the narrow channel missing the bank and other craft by thrillingly small margins.

The first lock would drop us into the tidal area. If we had calculated correctly the gates would open to a wide navigable waterway. If not we would find a muddy puddle in which to wait for the next tide. Bernie showed his level of confidence by jumping off the boat as we sank into the lock. His name and a number of Australian colloquialisms are now well known at the lock.

The lock doors opened to a somewhat narrower channel than we had imagined, but it was at least navigable. Our 1.2m draft with the centre board up allowed us to negotiate shallow sections, although at one point our depth gauge showed 0.9m!

We arrived at the second lock just after the hourly intake of vessels, and were relieved when they re-opened the lock doors for us. We made our way into St Malo marina as the sun set over the walled town. After our first aborted attempt to dock, the young men from the lightweight racing boat next to us generously helped guide our 17 tons of aluminium past their delicate carbon fibre bow sprit.

No rest at St Malo this time as the weather was perfect the next day to head north. We left at dawn, negotiating the rocky channel to open water as the Condor car ferry caught us and quickly disappeared north at 30 knots. We tested the radar which successfully identified a number of small craft not on AIS. At one point it showed a headland not on the map, made more concerning as it was on our course. We later realised it was the ‘glow’ of the local nuclear power plant.

The pilot transferring to the pilot vessel as the ferry leaves St Malo

We had been warned our destination, Dielette, was not much more than a marina with not much to see. With such an impressive recommendation we were not surprised to find miles of perfect dog walking beach complete with Baguettery at the end, and a cafe serving hearty end of sailing trip meals and sunset drinks. The following day the quiet marina turned into a circus as a flotilla of 20 yachts carrying handicapped sailors competed for jetty space with thousands aspiring Vendee Globe kids in their oppie dinghies.

Nothing around the marina…except spaniel heaven

The Alderney race stood between us and Cherbourg. The tide here can run at 9 knots which is a recipe for a very bad day out if its against you. We planned and replanned, and then talked to the marina people, and talked to local yachties on the dock, we walked the harbour wall at low tide to spot the shallow spots, and re-planned again. At low tide we couldn’t leave the harbour (even with our newly discovered shallower draft), but we needed to leave as close to low tide as possible to hit the race just as the tide turned.

All the planning paid off and we exited the harbour with 2m depth, and motor sailed to the race arriving as the tide turned. We even took a short cut across a shoal (usually rough) area as the tide picked up and spat us out at over 4 knots. The big red sail came out and we hit 10 knots over ground with only 5 knots through the water. No need to look out for crab pots as the current would flatten them just under the surface…just enjoy the sunset. We arrived after dark, but friends directed us to a free berth, helped with the lines and even fed and wined us. The perfect end to our Normandy adventure.

Sun setting our our Normandy adventure as we approach Cherbourg

St Malo, the River Rance and stunning Dinan

September 18, 2021 / fiandadrian

By Fi

St Malo

We loved being in the relative comfort of the inner basin at St Malo. We could walk easily the couple of minutes in through the ramparts and into the old town, with its plethora of fish shops, boulangeries, boutiques and restaurants.

Adrian walking in St Malo, just inside the main walls.

The cathedral here was quiet and peaceful.

We enjoyed some food and cider, and a few walks. We noticed that at low tide, it was possible to walk out to the small island called “Grand Be”, and then on to “Fort du Petit Be” so on our last full day at St Malo, we donned our dinner wear, and went for a pre-dinner walk along the sand. The day before, we had been here at high looking at the currents, and now to our surprise, at low tide, a pool had appeared, as well as the walking track out to the island. Pretty amazing place.

The swimming pool at low tide, and behind is the walking track to the island. At high tide this just looks like the sea.

View of St Malo and the pool from Grand Be.

Happy with our walk to Grand Be and getting ready for some dinner in town.

This is Port du Petit Be, and you can see people began rushing to get off the island as the tide was coming in fast. This was a dry path 5 minutes ago.

This couple only just made it off the island. They were the last people there and we all gave them a round of applause when they made it to Grand Be safely. But we also needed to be careful that we could get off Grand Be! The tide was heading in fast so off we all shot.

After our meal we headed back to Away, and did some prep for the next day. We had decided to brave the inland waterway of the River Rance. It took a lot of planning, as again, we needed to time the tides accurately to make sure we wouldn’t go aground. The extra complicating factor here was, we have to go through 3 separate locks (see last blog post for what a lock is) and we also have to contend with 2 different sets of tides, oh and 3 bridges that we calculated we *should* fit under.

To explain, we need to get out of the basin where we were docked, which was the 09:24 lock opening, which would give us enough tidal height to get to the next lock around the corner.

The next lock is called “The Barrage” which is attached to a tidal power station. The power station uses the force of the tides to run turbines. So they have dammed the river, and added a lock on the west side for boats. We were too late for the 10:00 lock, and so waited for the 11:00.

Because the power station tries to maximise the flow of water, they actually have changed the tidal range and times within the river. So the river tides are now different to the sea tides, and it is definitely possible for us to ground ourselves in the river. So we need to also align those times, with the leaving time from the inner basin at St Malo.

So going through the Barrage lock we need to ensure enough tide and time to get to the final lock (called Chatelier lock), after which we are then in the river proper, and there is no more tide. The piece of river between the Barrage, and the Chatelier lock gets very shallow and dries out. If we hit the bottom, we need to hope we got the tides right and it is a rising tide, if not, we would have to wait for a few hours for the tide to drop out, we’d sit on the ground, then we’d float again once the water rose. We weren’t 100% confident in the information we had, but we gave it a go. This is also the section where the 3 bridges are, and so the tide couldn’t be too high, or we’d hit the bridges with our mast.

The Barrage to Chatelier lock. This area got very shallow.

We did it but still not quite sure exactly how…. Here are some of the photos. The least depth we saw on this trip up the river was 1.4m. We draw 1.2m with the centreboard up so it was pretty close.

Adrian puts it nice and simply, if the tide it too high, we hit on the top, too low and we hit on the bottom.

This map is the Rance River and is not tidal here. It stays at a depth of 1.5m or above.

Leaving the inner harbour lock, with 20 race boats.

Its really scary going under bridges. But we had the data and were confident we would fit. We took it slow anyway because it looked so awful!

So different to cruise in a river! We felt like we were canal boating again.

People were looking at us and taking photos. We waved and felt a little bashful about all the attention. It was lovely though.

Dinan

Our final destination was Dinan, a beautiful medieval town on the river, with a thriving tourist industry. It honestly looks like the inspiration for Beauty and the Beast, it is just so stunning, so get ready for all the piccies. Once we were tied up, we went for a walk through the port area, and also had a nice meal. The old town is about a 10 minute walk up a hill, and so we were saving that for the following day and more energy.

Again I have to mention, the number of people stopping by and taking photos of Away and asking us about the boat and Australia was amazing. We were busy chatting a lot of the time! Someone asked me if I spoke English, and I misheard and replied “Je suis australienne” to which they responded in French that they did not speak Australian and laughed – oh well my French is getting better and better everyday.

View from the small bridge that blocks our path from going any further – clearance is only a few metres and our mast is 20m so Dinan is as far as we can go. Away is almost directly in the middle of this photo if you look closely. We are sticking out and take up half the river.

So many historic buildings here. This ones a little… leaning.

Yes, that really is the marina office and the amenities!

After a good walk and decent sleep we tackled the hill up to the old town and were rewarded with the old town of Dinan being one of the cutest places I have ever seen. We walked up to the ramparts, and the tower overlooking the port and had a view out north towards the sea and St Malo.

Heading up the hill from the port. Cuteness overload!

This is about half way up the hill to the old town. This is the gate through the old town walls.

So cute. Top of the hill. We got some groceries and looked around.

Gorgeous old buildings give the place such character.

View from the top of the ramparts. Super beautiful. The port is on the left so Away is there somewhere. How’s the weather?!?

After our walk we also decided that the Garcia motto “nowhere you can’t go” seemed to have been fully tested here, given we couldn’t go further up the river – so we got in our dingy for a river trip. I honestly thought I was in a Renoir painting it is so beautiful. We even got to take our little dingy through the next river lock. The lockmaster was a lovely man who was only too happy to oblige emptying and refilling the lock for us.

In the lock, filling up fast as I hold on to the side.

There is a lot of these little buildings everywhere, and abbeys and farms. Just a stunning river.

At about 6PM we turned around, and headed back through the lock again, and home to Away. We had planned for a quiet day the following day as it was going to be a little dreary. We needed to plan our next steps again, because we have some commitments.

We need to get Away back to Cherbourg as Garcia have recommended they give the Away a once over and check everything now we’ve been out for a while. They also have a few items to complete for us.

To complicate this, our visas for Europe are also running out fast. We have until the 25th of September to get out of Europe. Oh, and we also have a dog…

We basically need to get to the UK. BUT, you cannot take a dog to the UK by private boat, which means we need to take him over on a ferry. BUT you can’t take a dog on a ferry unless its in a car, so we need to also hire a car. BUT you can’t take just any car, it has to be an Audi, VW or BMW if you go with one hire company, another hire company just says no and another said yes (thank goodness). BUT then we have to leave the dog in the UK somewhere in boarding.

Jersey would be easy as there is a quick ferry from St Malo (just up the river) BUT Jersey has no available boarding kennels.

Plus we need PCR tests, and Bernie needs extra medication before he can travel to be given by a vet.

Possibly this is the most complicated issue we have had to solve in our adventures thus far.

We think we have solved it by planning to take Away to Cherbourg earlier than we planned, hiring a car from Cherbourg, driving the car to Caen, getting on a ferry to Portsmouth – and after that we have a little airbnb in the countryside so we can breathe for a second, plus add more time on our European visa in the process.

And we should have more luck with dog boarding in the UK.

So with all of that planned and most of it booked (it took an entire day) we were ready to enact said plan. First stop, back to St Malo, then on to Cherbourg!

And, we are away

September 10, 2021 / fiandadrian

By Fi

We left, we left, we left, we left!!!! It was not a hard decision to leave the relative safety of the Cherbourg Marina, but it was one that seemed to take a lot of effort. It is quite hard to explain – its like the dock is magnetic and I guess because it is so safe and we were getting to know Cherbourg quite well, we were feeling comfortable, and we had to make that decision to again be uncomfortable, and to go into the unknown – but this has so many other benefits such as exploring, adventure and having new experiences. So one evening, we felt the winds and waves were okay for a sail away the following day. The following day came, and we thought the same thing about the next day, so we waited. Just till the next day 🙂

I navigated out of our berth, heart racing as I am still not comfortable with how big and heavy the boat is, and what the forces such as current and wind will do to the boat while it is stuck in a berth with only 1 or two lines attached, while Adrian is trying to detach them all in the most safe order. As it were, we were fine and we headed out from our berth at about 07:30 in the morning. Into the cloudy, cold, grey, summers day. We were headed to the Alderney race.

The Alderney race is a piece of water where the massive tides in this area run through. It can be extremely dangerous, and so understanding the tide and the wind is very important. It needs to be right. Battling against a 3 knot current, with the wind against it is uncomfortable, slow and can be very dangerous. We chose the time where the tide would push us through the race safely, and in relatively benign wind and tide conditions (around neap tides – the smallest tidal difference in the monthly calendar). Bernie likes to keep me company when we sail by sitting on me. At no other time does he do this. Perhaps he is satiating his nerves due to the race?

After dodging crab pots along the coast, we got to the race at about the right time. We still took a couple of hits from the current as it whirled around and grabbed the boat and spun it a little, but it definitely sounds worse than it felt. We were fine and have had worse. We headed south towards the Channel Islands.

We skipped through the Balliwick of Gurnsey, and past Jersey as we would need to check in to the area – and with Bernie, plus Covid, it is all just too complicated – best we stay in France for a while longer. Granville was our ultimate destination, and required some very careful planning again. Some of the spots we managed to sneak a peak at are absolutely gorgeous.

I would expect as a totally novice sailor, this area would not be the one chosen from the outset. The tides here are among the largest in the world. Granville was a tidal marina, and to keep the water in the marina, a wall (AKA a “sill”) has been built on the sea bed, so that at low tide, the water stays in the marina. We needed to time this perfectly in order to not hit the sill.

We called up Granville marina a few hours out from our arrival, and checked that they had space for a 45 ft heavy aluminium sailboat, and they did. They said they would even be there to help us dock – PHEW!!! When we motored in, we had enough water over the sill but the tide was running and there was a bit of current – so the extra help docking was welcome. We got into our berth okay, and to be honest, we went and found some wine as it had been a big trip to Granville and the tides and currents were massive, and sometimes it seems like the crab pots we are almost constantly dodging are actually attracted to our boat… It is tiring, and a tonic was in order!

With marina behind the sill, it means at low tide here, you can walk on sand, on the other side of the sill wall – I hope you can see the people walking outside the wall in these photos. When the tide is about 1/3 high, boats can go over the wall as there is enough water. So timing is everything.

On a side note, apparently we were the first Australian flagged boat they have had at the marina in their memory. We got a discount 🙂 We loved it here!

The tide here has just dipped below the wall. Eventually, everything at the bottom of this photo will be sand, with the marina and its floating boats behind. You can see Away on the right.

Sand has now appeared on the other side of the wall. This is the view from Away.

People walking at low tide at the entrance to the marina collected seafood.

Granville is gorgeous!! It was the seaside childhood home of Christian Dior and also a popular seaside resort town – and we could understand why! It was HOT! We had come from the relative cool and dreary weather of Cherbourg, to essentially summer! It was 28 degrees C and beautifully dry. There is a large fishing industry here, and we enjoyed walking the ramparts of the old town on the hill. We also got to walk at low tide along the expanse of beach that appears. People are collecting mussels, oysters and whelks for their dinner – or for their restaurant – we weren’t sure, but enjoyed all the shell fish. This picture is of Christian Dior’s childhood home.

More of La Plage du Plat Gousset at low tide – it is huge at low tide, and then at high tide there is no beach at all!

Some white wine and oysters in a beautiful bistro in a cobblestoned alley way in the old town. Filled with French locals – we were feeling pretty good.

After a few days, and of course the inevitable boat jobs, we were again finding ourselves in the evening pouring over charts, chart plotters, cruising guides and the “Reeds Almanac” (aka the bible) and planning our next steps. Here’s the thing – we were planning to leave on the biggest tide of the month – called “Spring” tide and the difference in height was going to be 11m. You can imagine 11m of seawater moving in and out of the area here over a 6 hour period is going to create some serious water movement. The tides here are the 3rd biggest in the world, and we were planning to go out when they were literally at their biggest. So it was with some angst, that I was looking at the tide charts and possible routes.

Leaving day came. The tide was high, the wind was from the south, and this meant that the relatively calm and safe marina that we were about to leave, was totally the opposite. The waves were coming in full force, the wind was gusting, the boats around us were bouncing around and lots of excited people were adding extra fenders and ropes to their cleats. And Adrian said to me “ok ready to untie the lines??”. To which I responded with the appropriate amount of… fear. But eventually, convinced that I was catastrophising and that we had options once we were out there, and that “out there” was better than bouncing around and hitting a dock, I untied the lines, and Adrian did a stellar job of driving out of the berth. Please note this serene photo of Away in its berth is not reflective of leaving day…

And yes, once we were out, things felt a lot better. The boat sails nicely, and we had a plan. Or so we thought. Some quick back of the hand calculations proved that I had overthought the planning, and my back of the hand calculations from the evening before were wrong by half – we were not going to make our intended destination with enough time not to hit the bottom on the way there – remember the tides are the biggest on this day, and timing was everything – and my maths let me down.

New plan – which was actually the old plan, the first plan we ever came up with, but then replaced with a dozen other plans, before settling on the current plan, which we are now replacing with the first plan – honestly, sailing is as much physical as it is mental – angsty!! Plan is now – lunch at a place called Iles Chausey (pictured) – a gorgeous outcrop of small islands, clear blue water and sunshine, followed by a leisurely sail south to St Malo, where we would time the possible 4 knot current against us perfectly to get into a massive lock to get into an inner harbour… Ok – to explain better….

Our new plan, which was the original plan…

Our boat sails nicely at 7 knots. We can go faster, we can go slower depending on conditions. 7 knots is nice. So imagine that we are going into a 4 knot current – we would only be going 3 knots which isn’t fast, or better yet that 4 knot current, is actually going side to side across us pushing us quickly sideways faster than we can go forwards – so yeah, I was concerned we wouldn’t make it so well. Already the day was pretty hectic, and here we were battling the massive currents. As it were, we saw a maximum of 2 knots going across us, and we crabbed our way in through the outside channels of St Malo. Its pretty weird watching a marker or a rock straight in front of you actually move sideways as you are technically sailing sideways due to the current. But we would make it to the big lock in time! Here is one of the obstacles we needed to dodge to get into St Malo.

As we waited a few minutes for the lock to open, I prepared our lines, and tried to work out what would happen – at time of writing, having successfully navigated the lock, I’m still not sure what actually happened. As you can see from this photo, I was pretty confident St Malo was going to be worth the angst.

A lock is essentially a small piece of water with doors on both ends – in this case sea on one side, and a safe basin on the inside. The lock keeper opens the doors at the basin side where the water is high, and lets boats in to the lock. The doors close, and the water in the lock is let out. Once the water in the lock meets the water on the sea side of the lock (where we were waiting), the outside doors open, boats go out, boats (we) go in, and then the outside doors close, and the lock fills up with water, until it reaches the same level as the inside water, then we can go into the basin. Which is what we did….

… with a giant tanker and like 7 other boats…

Did I mention this day was already pretty angsty???????? !!!!!!

Into the basin we went, and Adrian again did an absolutely perfect job with docking. We got into a spot that probably shouldn’t take a boat our size, and we didn’t break anything or hurt anyone so it is all good.

We were exhausted – and had a quick dinner and bed – and we found a bottle of wine, aptly named – Angst.

Bernie did so well, I always amazed at how chilled he is, and how a few quick cuddles with him can settle any nerves I have about tankers being so close, and shouting French lock keepers and tide and wind and all the etcs that go with sailing.

What an experience.

Bernie sitting with me on the port side.

Our few days in St Malo will be next up 🙂 Then planning for the next!

First Trip Away

August 27, 2021 / fiandadrian

By Adrian and Fi

It was time to leave the dock on our first adventure. Sitting at the dock waiting for work on the boat to be completed was not satisfying, plus there is the age old adage of letting go of the dock vacuum, so we set a date and made a plan to head 35 miles around the coast to St Vaast La Hougue. The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, or engine throttle push as the case may be.

On a grey and overcast day we cast off the lines and Fi accurately negotiated our marina exit which has barely more room than the length of the boat. We set sail as the showers loomed and we pondered if the radar was going to be helpful. Thankfully the showers stayed onshore, the winds freshened and we zipped along the coast helped by over 3 knots of current at times. The sun even decided to grace us with its presence. Speed over ground was 10.5 knots.

Sailing Away began to feel familiar, in a way – Addictive had really prepared us for this moment. No longer was Away this massive heavy scary beast, rather it became much like my (Fi) first car, simple and reliable, easy to drive and responsive. A familiar friend who we could trust.

By late afternoon we approached St Vaast harbour and managed to negotiate a small berth without crushing too many boats… phew. We did learn that tying up docking lines is very hard when the boat is in slow forward. Oops. Thankfully there are loads of wonderfully friendly locals who are more than happy to lend a hand.

St Vaast turned out to be that picture perfect French seaside town. Fishing boats tied to the wharf, fresh fish sold on the dock and a suitable number of shops selling blue and white stripped knitware, and yellow raincoats. There was even a music festival on, and what’s not to like about a Dutch bicycle band serenading the port each afternoon. Of course in order to hear a whole song, you also need to be on a bicycle…

Our bikes and a Bernie trailer allowed us to cycle a few miles up the coast to a beach side lunch spot, and a suitable Bernie beach. A yacht dried out on the sand next to the restaurant… maybe us someday soon!

We found an old fort on a dog walk around the coast and even walked out to an island that is only accessible at low tide. The tides transform from oyster beds at low tide to sail training areas at high tide.

We enjoyed our stay so much we extended a few days, but eventually it was time to leave and so we quickly headed out to deeper water away from the crab pots. Away ate up the miles delivering us back to familiar Cherbourg late afternoon.

For other new owners picking up boats in Cherbourg we would recommend a trip to St Vaast. There are some challenges as the the race off Barfleur needs 5-7 miles clearance or cross it at slack tide as we did. We saw the race from land during wind against tide conditions with breaking waves miles out from the lighthouse.

St Vaast harbour is only open for a few hours around high tide (times on their web site). We tried booking a berth online and got no response. A quick phone call confirmed that there was space and to select our own berth on arrival.

Its a great way to stretch your sail legs as sailing to St Vaast means you are going around a corner. For us it meant that we tested almost every point of sail. We clocked 9.2 knots boat speed close hauled going into St Vaast in flat water. It was awesome fun. We did reef both the Genoa and the main at one point as the apparent wind increased around the corner towards St Vaast.

Tidal flows around the Barfleur race were over 3 knots and this pushes the crab pot markers under the surface so keep a good lookout. All quite manageable with some prep and St Vaast is worth the effort.

Its also perfect as a first trip because timings from Cherbourg usually mean that you hit the race at a good time, and then you will also be in St Vaast at the right time for the gate to be open. The reverse is true going back to Cherbourg.

Make sure you visit Maison Gosselin for some great wine and in house roasted coffee beans, and eat some oysters. The market on Saturday is great. Eat all the food is our main recommendation. Walk out to both forts as the views are spectacular and walking through the oyster beds is a real experience.

So yes, St Vaast as a first experience cruising on our new boat was perfect.

Getting Away

August 15, 2021 / fiandadrian

By Fi

I’m genuinely not sure that the puns using the boat name are ever going to stop… but I expect they will have to because there are only so many variations using the word “Away” that my brain can compute.

Again, its been a while between posts but for good reason! We got Away! And its been hectic. I’ve taught the boat yard folks doing the handover with us a new phrase – “Drinking from the fire hose” – because that is how it has been feeling.

Our first two days on Away (Thursday and Friday), entailed getting to know the boat a little so we could sleep and cook and do the necessary. We also moved all our belongings (12 boxes plus suitcases) on to the boat and tried to get as much of it put into logical places. Easier said than done when the lockers are all different shapes and sizes, and also there is storage under storage, under beds, under floors etc.

We learned about the systems and did a lot of testing. Then we had the weekend to really unpack and settle in, and take the 25 minute walk to the shops over and over again for supplies, and the supplies we inevitably forget. I promise I will include some nice inside photos in a sec.

Day 3 and 4 were spent on the harbour here in Cherbourg, hoisting sails, testing the single line reefing system on our mail sail (used to reduce the amount of sail for windy conditions), testing the stay sail, the solent and the gennaker. All working so well and we love how the boat sails (thank goodness because prior to now, we didn’t actually know how it sailed).

Here you can see our beautiful red gennaker looking fabulous against the ocean and our black hull.

We also spent time doing some “close quarters manoeuvring” – or in other words, trying not to hit other peoples boats while we try to dock ours.

I was up first for close quarters work, and with the help from Kevin (our handover specialist) I parallel parked the boat a few times, using the bow thruster and getting the feel for the dual rudder system. I wasn’t allowed yet to reverse the boat into our slip, mainly because neither of us had seen it done before, and the space between the dock on one side is about 20cm, and the neighbours boat on the other side is about 20cm, so you can imagine Kevin preferred to show us how it was done, prior to either of us giving it a bash – literally. Apparently this is as tight a slip as we will see anywhere, so if we can reverse into this slip, we’re going to be well set up.

Here is Bernie and I happily looking out for crab pots while I helm on our first day sailing. Needless to say there are no photos of us doing close quarters manoeuvring we’re a little busy (read stressed).

Adrian was up the next day (our last day) to practice some manoeuvring as well, and we had a chance to ask some final questions. Not to be outdone by me, Adrian was this time allowed to reverse the boat into our slip, and did so like a champion. I have dubbed him the official reverse parker of the boat now. To be fair, a few days later I would have my own chance to reverse the boat in and would do so successfully.

Here we are after some successful docking practice. Successful meaning I managed to lasso the cleat on the dock by throwing the docking line over it from the boat while Adrian, driving the boat towards the dock, didn’t hit anything. Oh, and Bernie didn’t jump off the boat mid docking manoeuvre to say hi to everyone. Happy days.

So after completing the final systems check, both of us having helmed, docked and sailed the boat, we signed the paperwork and Away is officially our home. The next few days we spend working with Garcia on a few items that needed correcting (to be expected when building a new boat), fitting out the boat with our safety gear, moving our belongings around and around and around finding the best spots for things, and buying storage boxes – lots of storage boxes.

Again we didn’t think that would make interesting photos so here we are sailing again.

And we buy sheets and plates and storage boxes and towels and cookware and dog food and storage boxes and tools and glasses and baguettes and storage boxes and spices and a board for my magnets and hooks and storage boxes. Tiring stuff!

We also now have a book for the local area and the charts, so looking at the weather, we hope to be out exploring more of France next week or very soon thereafter. It will be excellent to get off the dock. The Fastnet race has been in town and Bernie INSISTS on jumping off and saying hello to every sailor that walks past. Horror for his introverted parents but he is having the best time. A lot of people also want to talk to us about Away and where we are from, if we like France and where we are planning to go. We feel quite popular, but it can get very busy.

Here are some nice photos of the interior and our first few days on the boat – hope you enjoy!

Going Away

June 28, 2021 / fiandadrian

We haven’t posted for a while as we have been feverishly getting ready to move to France. For those of you diligently keeping up with our travels, you hopefully remember that we are on the cusp of realising our 5 year dream of sailing the world on a sailboat. So, whilst we’ve been floating and driving around Australia over the last 18 months, progress on the new boat has continued. Most recent excitement is the logo and black wrapping around the hull. The black wrapping is a stick on plastic layer with a 5+ year lifespan.

“Away” is awaiting us, almost ready for us to live off the grid and sail the world. Here you can see the arch on the back of the boat, ready with solar panels. The electrics are currently being installed, and soon they will finalise the interior fit out, move the boat outside, and install the mast, rigging and sails.

We will arrive with enough time to see “Away” splashed in the water which we’re really excited about.

Here you can see the spare room for when you come and visit us! And we do want you to come visit us. This journey is as much for us to see the world, as it is for us to share it with our friends and family. We promise there will be a comfy mattress and pillows here for you when you come.

Bernie is coming with us too, and although he has no idea what is going on, we think he loves being with his pack, no matter what daft thing we’re doing.

We put a hot and cold running dog shower on the back of the boat for him so that when he gets back from running in the mud and salt water, he can look forward to a lovely warm wash on the stern. It also doubles as a nice outside shower for us which is an added bonus. It is in this picture, I’ll let you spot it.

We have enjoyed being back in latte sipping inner westie Sydney for a few weeks while we prepared to move, but are looking forward to cheese, wine, baguettes and the end of a northern hemisphere summer.

Bye Sydney! We are publishing this from Dubai having already crossed one of the most highly guarded borders on the planet. Our international flight left from Brisbane, Queensland requiring a short hop from Sydney. People from south of the border now get a police escort to the international terminal, although they don’t carry your luggage!