As those who managed to follow us on the various trackers saw, we had a very quick trip back from Camaret. This was in part due to a quirk of the tides that meant that we started with the beginning of the Northerly tide from Brest and managed to hold it for around 10 hours – that meant that we travelled fast enough to keep up with the tide as it moved NE across the channel. This was of course helped by a lovely large engine and a favourable wind, all making for an average speed of around 10kn for the first 7 or so hours. After that the wind became lighter and the weather forecasts proved to be overly pessimistic (thankfully). We then managed to catch the tail end of the favourable tide from the Needles and up the Solent. All of which meant that at around 15:30 on Wed 20 Oct we enter Haslar Marina and brought Valent back to her new home.
Valent returns to Haslar
Many thanks to Richard and Sam the PYD skipper and mate who ensured that the trip was safe and enjoyable.
Now we just need to learn how to run and operate the boat on our own as a family. No pressure then!
We had a bouncy but quick crossing of Biscay. Managed to anchor last night off Camaret outside Brest. This morning we refuelled and slipped at 12:30 when the tide turned favourable for the Chanal du Four.
Quick passage through the Channel with a strong Southerly behind us. Now about 170 miles to the Needles. All being well back on Wednesday night at Haslar.
The plan is to depart our lovely anchorage at Cascais around midnight tonight (Thu 15 Oct). Whilst we will still have around 12 hours of brisk Northerlies remaining, the wind strength is consistently forecast to reduce to a very pleasant Force 2/3 and the wind is due to back round to the West, eventually becoming Southerly over the weekend. More critically, the weather forecasting is now showing either a horrendous or possibly just horrible storm coming through Biscay, up the Channel and on to the UK on Tue/Wed. By leaving a bit earlier than planned we give ourselves an extra 12 hours to make sure that we are across Biscay and into a safe place to hide when the storm arrives. If we are slow then we will stop in Cameret (near Brest). If we make good time then we will get round Ouessant (Ushant) and possibly stop in Roscoff. All will become clearer over the next couple of days as the forecast becomes more accurate and we know what speed we have made to Finisterre.
Valent at anchor in Cascais Bay
In the meantime we have had a relaxing and productive couple of days. Sam managed to strip down the outboard engine, clean the parts and after a few persuasive tugs on the starter cord the engine came to life. We were able to take advantage of our new found freedom and restock on fresh food at the supermarket – so we get a break from UHT milk, and have some fresh bread and fruit on board. I spent yesterday preparing meals for the next week as it might be a bit bouncy across the Biscay. It is much easier to only need to reheat the meal and cook some rice/pasta rather than chop up the onions and veg on a pitching and rolling boat. I prepared 2 x Chilli, 2 x Cassoulet, 1 x Bolognese and an interpretation of Lamb Navarin. That means that we are prepped until we can smell the English Channel.
Finally more boat envy. We thought that Green Eyes at twice our size was impressive, but then Wisp arrived. Wisp at 156ft is around 3 times the length of Valent and too big to enter the marina where they are used to finding berths of 100ft+ boats. Wisp is a modern classic built in 2014 by Royal Huisman, looks lovely and probably costs more to run in a year than the average cost of a house in England.
We made good progress from Gibraltar and managed to get ourselves about 300 miles closer to the UK. Unfortunately the weather for the next 3 days is forecast to be strong Northerlies – and it is no fun trying to motor/beat straight into it for several days. It makes everyone very wet, sleep is nearly impossible and cooking & eating become survival exercises of their own making. Whilst the forecast is only upto 25-30kts, when you motor into it the apparent wind will be around 35 kts and that starts giving you F8 winds over the decks, a very lumpy sea and waves crashing over the decks. All this is a way of trying to justify the fact that we are now anchored off Cascais, a lovely town just outside Lisbon.
The calm before the winds
We could have managed another 24 hours before the wind came in, but it is another 300 miles or so until we can get to the next suitable shelter on the Portuguese coast (Porto). We plan to depart Fri morning when the winds start abating, and then at the weekend the wind is going to come from the South. It is looking as though there maybe a storm on Sunday (forecast currently 45kts winds), in which case we will need to hide for a day before tackling the Bay of Biscay. All being well we will have strong Southerly winds all the way across Biscay giving us a quick passage over to the Brest area of France. If conditions are favourable we will keep going.
In the meantime we are doing lots of little jobs and finding a few others to do. We found a leak on the hot water system that was basically causing our fresh water tank to discharge into the bilges. We have now isolated the hot water and restored running cold water to the boat. From now on we just heat any required hot water on the stove (just like Dogmatix). We are now busy trying to get the outboard motor to work with increasing levels of success. I have found why the solar panels seemed to not be charging the batteries (loose connection in the cockpit) and we have replaced the sheets to the headsail with some smaller lines that might actually fit into the winches (Lewmar 65 winches, so gives you an idea of how fat the current sheets were). The electric winches are getting plenty of testing as we send people up the mast to undertake various jobs.
In the interim, we are enjoying the scenery and watching the other boats at play, including this multi million pound example called Green Eyes. She is more than twice the size of Valent. For those that like these things she is a German Frers design and built by Wally. Whilst we were having lunch it appeared that her owner flew in by helicopter, spent a couple of hours on board and then flew off again.
Green Eyes, a Wally 32.9M yacht.
Anyway, the wind has now picked up, the halyards are starting to complain and we have just changed the snubbing line on the anchor to a bridle to give us a bit more security.
We have also found that we can be tracked on VesselFinder.com but for some reason we do not appear on Marine Traffic.
Just before midday on Saturday 10 October Valent completed the first leg of the journey home with a short visit to Gibraltar. In our 90 minute stop we accomplished a lot. We were met at the fuel dock by the representatives of Freight It who had kindly acted as my forwarding agent in receiving and handling the hydrovane, hydrogenerator and satellite communications systems. These were all awaiting our arrival on the fuel pontoon. Very straightforward and impressive logistics.
While I was finalising the paperwork, Richard and Sam were getting on with the refuelling. We took on board a total of 585Ltr, or which 565 went into the tank to replenish what we had used on the predominantly long motor from Empuriabrava. We were pleased to find that we had used less than calculated, and probably means we only used 6Ltr/hr on average. More importantly that should translate to roughly 1000 miles of motoring at 1700 revs.
Gibraltar – nearly the whole of it in a single photo
The final important task was to collect some hydraulic fluid for the autohelm. The spare oil had been inadvertently removed before our departure, and the system needed topping up. Unfortunately, the quantity of air left in the system meant that after a day or so we had no autohelm and we have hand steered for the last 3 days. That meant a switch of watch system from 3hrs on 6hrs off, to 2hrs 4hrs off. It will be good to get a longer sleep tonight. Sam and Richard then spent the the first couple of hours from Gib fixing the autopilot. It turned out that as well as a lack of oil and electrical connection had come apart that meant that the arm would not drive. Once that was found, the pilot was fixed and we are now back on our way and returned to the 3hr watch pattern.
We also now have the pleasure of doing some sailing with a lovely F5 Easterly wind behind us, making good over 7kts on the Genoa alone. Peaceful and quiet. Looks like we have pleasant weather for the next couple of days, but then we may have to hide somewhere for a bit as some nasty Northerlies come through on Tue/Wed. Hopefully we can make Lisbon by then.
