Heading west from Port Louis

Worm had about 30 gallons of rain in her this morning. Julian got most of it out with the bucket.

I was starting to take the cover off Robinetta’s main sail at half nine this morning when a very charming French man with perfect English came down the finger berth to ask if Julian and I would mind having a conversation with some students of his. He was an English teacher, and his students would be in a local café at 10:30.




We agreed it would be interesting, and I put the cover back on. It started to drizzle again, so we were glad to be in the dry talking to interested people.

We left the cafe at 11:35, and went straight back to Robinetta to get her ready to leave, (not wanting to incur another day’s mooring fee). After days of sailing in shorts and teeshirts it felt odd to be putting on waterproof trousers and jackets. Julian got the bowsprit out as we headed out of the marina, but it took longer than normal and he was still working on it as we passed the fort.

The sea state there was horrid, short steep seas as the head winds met the ebbing tide. I raised the stay sail, and tacking on it and the engine helped a little, but I was looking forward to getting into more open seas. Since Robinetta was head to wind we raised the main sail, but put three turns round the boom of reef rather than hauling it all the way up.

Yesterday’s forecast has been for light (force 2-3) South Westerly winds. Today felt like a top end 4 gusting 5, and when Julian re-checked the weather that indeed was as expected. The wind direction was pretty good for heading to Concarneau and once we were clear of the channel and could put the no 2 jib up and sail more freely to the wind the seas calmed down a lot. We were on a close reach, and it was challenging sailing, but quite fun once I had the “helping hands” to make the tiller easier to use. We were going at a good rate, over 5 knots in the gusts and nearly as much in the steadier wind.

Then we came out from behind the shelter of the Ile de Groix and the sea state increased again. Most of the waves were fine, but every couple of minutes a pair of larger ones would come at us in a challenging way.

I realised it was 13:45 and we had not had lunch yet, so suggested Julian go below and make himself something to eat before taking over the helm. Once he was below and I was alone on watch I began to realise that the sea state was not something I wanted to cope with for another 22 miles to Concarneau. That would be another five hours, and no ports of refuge if the sea state got worse. Robinetta was too small for the conditions, so we needed to turn back.

I told Julian what I thought, and he agreed. Down below it had been very obvious how rough it was getting.

We tacked, and headed for the Ile de Groix, which was another close reach. The helm felt lighter in this direction, and we slowed down to 3 knots, but the sea was still rather rough for us until we were in the shelter of Groix. It then became a rather pleasant sail.

A huge catamaran came past us, hesitated for ten minutes just off Groix, then turned round and powered right across Robinetta's bow as though to show how fast a boat could move. She carried the markings of the Route de Rhum race, all the way to Guadalupe, and looked really powerful with just one sail up.

Robinetta had the right amount of canvas for the conditions for her, and an hour saw us at the entrance to Port Tudy where we turned the engine on and got the sails down. The ferry from Lorient left harbour while we got ready to go in, then the Bro Warok preserved fishing boat headed into the harbour then out again... there were two other yachts waiting to go in too.

Port Tudy was just as crowded on a Tuesday afternoon as it had been on Sunday, and we ended up rafted 3 out on the hammer head, but this time we were not going to leave! Given the conditions a four hour sail was plenty.

We had a chat with another English sailor from a boat called Wave Function II. He had come on a broad reach all the way from the Ile de Glennan, and told us he had nearly broached twice. This made me even more certain we had done the right thing in turning back.

Locmaria harbour

We had a cup of tea, and I finally got round to eating lunch, then we went for a walk across Groix to Locmaria, a harbour on the south side of the island. The boats there were rolling horribly (the moorings are only protected by a mole, and there is no inner harbour) and we were glad of our place in Port Tudy.