The daffodils poked their heads through the winter grey and Away’s haul out date in La Rochelle began looming, now only weeks away. We finally broke the dock inertia and a rather active ecosystem that seems determined to attach Aways hull to the dock.

Leaving Falmouth, our first destination for the season was Guernsey to pick up our new outboard engine. Away loped along the now familiar Cornish coast under big red and into Salcombe, our jump off point for another Channel crossing.

We arrive in Salcombe and find our mooring buoy as the last vestiges of a very fresh spring day disappeared below the waves. To our relief no one was surfing the Salcombe bar today.

We had sold our dinghy over winter so the Salcombe water taxi provided a convenient way to get ashore for a final English pint. Good winds and a spritely sea were forecasted for our channel crossing to Guernsey.

Bernie confirmed the sporty conditions by being sea sick for only the second time in 5 years on a boat. Despite the sunshine it was still 5 layers cold.
We had been across the Channel enough now that the big ships went around us without Fi’s instructions, but a fishing boat ignored our radio calls. When the coast guard called them to ask their intentions as they were on a collision course with yacht Away, it turned out they were listening to the radio after all…

Instead of looming out of the sea as we approached, Guernsey hid behind a blanket of haze. We were only a mile off the coast when the rocks and lighthouses appeared. A quick count of the wrecks marked on the chart suggested this may well be a normal phenomenon.

Guernsey harbour had read our blog post about their inadequate cleats. Over the winter they had upgraded two of the pontoons, now proudly displaying this enhanced cleatage.

Our new outboard engine turned up at the dock. A kilogram lighter and almost double the power of the last one…its amazing how far technology has moved on.

Its a long day trip to Roscoff so we left at a scary o’clock.
This guy hitched a ride. Even came inside for a while until a large spaniel pointed out it wasn’t a suitable nesting spot for a small bird.
First new country of the year, but no signs of summer weather yet. Perhaps that’s a suitable nesting site?
A day off in Roscoff was spent sorting out formalities and croissants.
We set out again into a misty morning to drift further down the French coast on the tide
The coast line here is a tad rocky with an appropriate number of lighthouses to highlight the dangers
We stopped in Aber Wrac’h expecting everything to be closed on a lazy Sunday afternoon. To our surprise there were many restaurants open and decided it would be rude not to sample the local oysters. Finally, that’s a hat not designed to keep me warm!

We had a good forecast for a trip round the westerly tips of France. These can be a little tricky with tides running upward of 5 knots. We timed the first one perfectly, but approaching Pointe du Raz we notice we are going 1 knot sideways rather than 5 knots forwards. A yacht coming the other way was going 11 knots under engine and appeared to be airborne much of the time. Our review uncovered that the tidal flows are different on the chartplotter to the flows on iPad chart, which are different again to guide book. The guide book seems closest to reality so we retired to a local beach for an hour whilst we hoped the tidal flow would subside.

An hour later and we rounded the headland in quiet waters and headed for Audierne a few miles down the coast. In the morning we were welcomed to the marina, advised about local facilities, told about good dog walks and bike rides and advised to pay when when we knew how long we were staying. There was a market at the end of the pontoon and restaurants surrounding the harbour. If we didn’t have a deadline this would be an easy place to stay.

We had a ‘Bernie day’ and walked up the river to the next town, Pont Croix, and back.
Audierne showing signs summer is around the corner.
The next day we were back on the water. This ‘boat’ appeared out of the distance turned around us and flew back down the coast. It was unclear if they just wanted some sailing tips or thought we were stationary enough to use as a turning mark.
Bernie did his sunrise leaving dance after an overnight pit stop on anchor at the Isles des Glenan

With continued good conditions we decided to make some miles down the coast using all the daylight and bit extra. We anchored at Ile d’Yeu late in the dark but were on the move again the next morning. The closer we got to La Rochelle the more yachts we saw. It was a holiday weekend and it was great to see so many boats enjoying the conditions.

We have seen a lot of dolphins along this trip. The ones in the Channel had the largest groups, the biggest were in the north west, but this group won the aerial award: 9.8 for a forward flip in the piked position.
A legendary city scape where legends are made. At least in offshore racing circles. This the breakwater at Les Sables-d’Olonne where the Vendee Globe around the world race starts and finishes. If the tide is low or the sea too rough the finishing race boats divert a few minutes south to an all weather marina. We did the same…taking an hour to cover the same distance!
The final push into La Rochelle. Black skies, squalls and unforecasted wind on the beam. It ended up being a race between a 16m Dutch yacht, a German solo racing boat and the underwater garden with sails. The garden held on until the final couple of miles when even a shortcut across concerningly shallow water wasn’t enough to maintain the lead. The Dutch cheered us into the marina perhaps thinking we had come all the way from Australia?
Away wearing a grass skirt.
We enjoyed a delicious feast of sea creatures collected from the hull.
While the boat was cleaned, we visited friends who have a country cottage not far away.
Its actually a ‘bikers stopover’ and their first guests arrived whilst we were there.
Bernie sniffed out some venison
Back in La Rochelle we had a delivery!
Bernie sealed his approval with a set of muddy paw prints
Away was looking less like an underwater nature reserve and ready for a summer cruise…

Next time, we sail up a river for a picnic and use the bimini for shade…