Author: Will

On the sixth of June (Tuesday) we celebrated my twelfth birthday. Although the dolphins did not show up I still had a great day, getting up early to see the sunrise and getting lots of presents.

Despite being at sea we still managed to have proper meals throughout the day. I had a chocolate bar for breakfast, burgers for lunch and pork and chips for our meal out. I even managed to have a small chocolate cake even though my birthday was 4 days away from land!

My chocolate cake

On the fifth of June (the day before my birthday) we all painted our nails (apart from my dad) they dried very quickly with the light sea breeze and the hot sun.

My nails

The boat was still decorated and balloons blown up so it was still a great birthday despite being at sea.

The boat decorated

We enjoyed a sunny week in Jersey, and Andy Willett flew out to see us bringing the spare parts for the mast winches, plus a big folder of information on the ARC+ rally which we’ll be joining in the Canary Islands (thanks Andy and great to see you!)

On Saturday 2nd June we left Jersey early in the morning, planning to get at least as far as Brest on the North West coast of France, which would take around 24 hours. We had a brisk wind behind us (force 4 – 5) all the way to Brest, but the forecast once we rounded the corner of France was for calmer winds (force 3) from a North Easterly direction – perfect for blowing us across the Bay of Biscay.

We decided that with the conditions in our favour, we would carry on, not stop at Brest, and attempt a crossing of the Bay of Biscay to reach northern Spain. This would be the first big test for us as a family – 500 miles non-stop from Jersey to Spain, three nights and four days at sea, with night watches to manage and no land in sight. Crossing the Bay of Biscay can be notoriously difficult and it is best to take advantage of favourable conditions when you have them.

In the end we all coped well with the crossing, and the girls found their “sea legs” quite quickly, happily eating meals, watching the sun set and going to sleep in their cabins. On five occasions we were visited by pods of dolphins who enjoyed swimming alongside the boat and occasionally performing a back flip!

The strong wind at the outset caused a few challenges with the sails. In summary (handing over to Will now for the technical bit) the sheets on the blue water runner (BWR) detached leaving the sail flapping uncontrollably in the wind. In addition the halyard (the rope for raising a sail) proved to be of poor quality and deteriorated to the position where we could not drop the sail. We also had some issues with the furling mechanism for this sail. Luckily the sail itself was fine, and we managed to recover the situation not once, but twice and get the sail safely down. As Oscar Wilde tried to say, to lose the BWR once may be regarded as a misfortune, but to lose it twice looks like carelessness. This meant that the sail was no longer useable for the last day. On the second day of the trip the clew (the lower corner) of the headsail detached itself so that sail could no longer be used either. We did repair it, and the repair held, but the sail just failed again further along the clew. We have now got the BWR back ready for action with a new halyard, improved sheets and a replacement furling line. The headsail unfortunately will require a sailmaker (and a new clew) and we hope to get this sorted in Cascais later this month. At least we have a number of other sails we can use. The hydro generator (which we use to generate electricity from the water while we are sailing) generated so much electricity that it caused a power surge in the boat, which fused some of the lights and burned out our internet connection box. So there are a number of things to be fixed in Spain and Portugal, but that’s the way with boats – there’s always a list of things that need fixing…

We celebrated Lucy’s 12th birthday on the last day of the crossing, Tuesday 6th June, with Lucy joining Will at the end of his night watch to watch the sun rise, followed by a birthday lunch with burgers and chocolate cake. On the afternoon of Lucy’s birthday we finally reached Spain, and are now in a marina in Muxia, a small town on the north west tip of Spain. We went out to a local restaurant that night to celebrate Lucy’s birthday – Lucy is planning to write a separate post with more details about the day.

We’re planning to be here in Muxia for a few days while Storm Oscar passes through (the weather here isn’t as nice as in the UK), before moving further south in the direction of Portugal. You can see our progress on the tracker which is shown on the blog page called How to Follow Us at Sea.

We spent a few sunny days in Cherbourg, eating plenty of pastries and baguettes and visiting the local market. The girls had the chance to practise their French, and we stocked up on lots of French cheeses and paid the obligatory visit to Normandie Wines.

On Friday 19th May we said au revoir to Cherbourg and set sail for the Channel Islands. As the wind wasn’t in a favourable direction to anchor in Alderney, our first destination was the small island of Sark, just off the coast of Guernsey. After a fast sail with the wind and tide in our favour, we reached Sark in five hours, and found a sheltered bay to anchor in. Although we shared the bay with another boat the first evening, by the next morning they had departed and we had the beautiful rugged bay to ourselves for the next few days. Lucy and Will tried a spot of fishing, but no luck yet.

We used our dinghy to reach the shore, and the girls enjoyed playing on the sandy beach and exploring the caves. A scramble across the rocks led us to a steep set of steps (not accessible at high tide) which took us to the top of the cliff and allowed us to explore the rest of this beautiful island. No motor vehicles are allowed apart from tractors, which gives the island a peaceful and relaxed atmosphere.

Watching the Sark dairy herd being milked – you can buy fresh milk from a 24 hour vending machine at the dairy

From Sark we moved on to Guernsey, which is only an hour or two’s sail from Sark. Being in a marina again gave us the chance to complete a few jobs on the boat. Will went up to the top of the mast to fill in some holes with silicone in order to stop water coming in. Lucy went up to the top of the mast just for fun!

After a few days exploring Guernsey it was time to move on again. Firstly back to Sark for one day, this time anchoring in a bay on the Guernsey side of the island. The cliffs are even higher on this side of the island – we counted 300 steps to reach the top.

Then early this morning, Sunday 28th May, we set sail for Jersey. We had a cracking sail, touching 9 knots at some points using the mainsail and genoa. We’re now in St. Helier marina, where we’ll spend a few days, and are planning a rendezvous here with Andy Willett who is bringing us the spare parts for the mast winches mentioned in our previous post. After that, we should be ready to continue our journey further South.

Many thanks to Guy and his assistant Lucy for this video taken whilst we lay at anchor in Osborne Bay on a lovely sunny Sunday in May.

Yes, it is true. We finally departed Haslar on Monday 15 May and sailed across to Cherbourg. We still have one job left to complete on Valent before we can head across Biscay, but it is good to have set off. Don’t forget if you wish to follow our progress then visit the ‘How to follow us at sea’ page where you will find the links set up for the trackers.

The last month saw us hosting friends and family and getting Valent ready – you know, important things like trying to make sure we have enough tea bags. For the same reason it was important to pop across to Cherbourg to visit the wonderful Normandie Wines and ensure that we have adequate supplies of fermented grape juice on board. We have not quite used all of the available stowage holes yet, but we have many more months to gather supplies from Portugal, Spain and the rest of the wonderful wine producing regions of France.

On the subject of visitors, we successfully got my parents down to Valent and on board. Both managed to successfully navigate the various trip hazards and steps to get into the cockpit and subsequently down below. We took them out on a short dockyard tour of Portsmouth before heading over to Osborne Bay for lunch. Billy the dog also came for the trip and seemed to adapt well to his new surroundings. We also hosted my parents for dinner the next day and they went for a tour of HMS Victory and the Mary Rose.

We also popped back to Shamrock Quay for an evening of farewell drinks and pizza with the lovely people from Willett Marine. The short visit also provided an opportunity to fix a few snagging issues, particularly the generator, plumbing issue in the aft heads and a blockage on the breather for the grey water tank. The generator turned out to be embarrassingly simple, one of the fuel taps had been turned off! I can make many excuses, produce reams of mitigation but the issue was rather basic. The plumbing was beautifully resolved through the installation of a new tap and modern connections (thank you Alan). The grey water breather required some engineering tricks and better use of a hammer than I managed. Thank you Andy for clearing the decade old blockage. A few days later I replaced the breather pipe from the now cleared vent on the tank, and hey presto the grey water tank was able to vent itself again. The result of this is that the forward heads now drain properly and I was able to fit a non-return valve into the drainage system to prevent odours coming back the wrong way from the tank. 1 week in and it is looking to be a good solution.

The following weekend Alex (Suzy’s sister) and Guy came down. We again popped over to Osborne Bay, but this time we rendezvoused with Guy’s brother Jason and his wife Jess who sailed over from Cowes. After lunch on board we did some swimming (well Lucy and Guy did), drone flying and general lounging around before deciding to stay and spend the night at anchor.

During the rest of the time we were busy getting Valent stocked and ready for departure. A large Tesco order was received with a lot of tins, the aforementioned tea bags, mayo and most importantly Nutella. Other important supplies included Marmite and Branston. Another good job was calibrating and filling the fresh water tank. Nominally this holds 1,000 litres, but the dip stick only showed empty and full. After some maths and a number of trial runs we have managed to produce a more accurate dipstick and calibrated the tank to 920 litres. Given I started empty from the point where the water pump could no longer extract water, and Valent had a slight list (due to the fuel tank on the other side being empty), this is probably an accurate representation of the useable water capacity on board.

We delayed our departure until Monday to wait to get some wind – take the free energy where we can. The forecast was for Northerly winds and I was enthusiastic about trialling out our new Blue Water Runner (BWR) on the trip to Cherbourg. This sail is specially designed for sailing downwind and is best described as 2 headsails sewn together. On the trip over the wind angle was not quite what I had hoped for but we still managed to deploy the BWR and sail for around 30 mins with it up. However much fun it was, sailing the correct course for Cherbourg was more important, and so we furled the sail away and reverted to a more conventional rig.

12 hours after setting off we arrived in Cherbourg, and as intimated by the Marina Office the marina was full and we spent the night on the waiting pontoon. The next morning we were allocated a berth just inside the harbour entrance on Pontoon H, a new experience for me in Cherbourg. Suffice to say there is not a berth with a longer walk to town or the office. A big plus however is you are well away from members of the public and so it is very quiet (until the fishing boats come steaming past operating entirely under their own regulations, particularly with regard to speed).

We will leave in a few days and plan to spend a few weeks cruising around the Channel Islands. As well as being a lovely area we need to be aware of the Brexit regulations (Schengen Visa) that only allow us to have 90 days in any 180 in the Schengen Zone (most of the European countries that are on our route). Even Gibraltar counts as Schengen and Croatia joined in January 2023. That leaves us Montenegro, Albania and the North African coast for destinations that will not impact our Schengen days.

I mentioned one final job – well we need to get the mast winches that control our Spinnaker poles repaired and reinstalled. Until then we have the poles tied down on deck where they are both in the way and unusable. The issue is waiting for 2 small spare parts that have now been on order for 6 weeks from Denmark. Again, due to Brexit the company will only ship in consolidated loads and we have to wait until they have a full consignment. We asked if we could pay for expedited delivery, but no they will not/are not set up to export that way. Once the parts arrive (hopefully next week) then they will be delivered to Willett Marine. Andy and Steve Willett are due to depart for the Channel Islands at the end of the month, and so a rendezvous is planned, the winches will be reinstalled and the pole control lines refitted – and then Biscay here we come.