Night Passages to Spain

Current (Interim) Location: 90 miles from Brest, 228 miles from A Coruña.

It's 2.08am on a very dark night. [Stops to take a look around the horizon]. I've just begun my graveyard two hour watch. We're making a course of 204° at 4.1 knots. It's slack water so no current with us and none against [amazingly the log that shows speed through the water is still working]. The iPad under the spray hood tells me we should arrive in Spain in 2 Days and 6 Hours. Gill and Linda are asleep. We have 15 knots of breeze from the SE, just as predicted. AIS shows a few fishing boats that we have already passed and a ship 8 miles off our port bow that I can't see yet.

But I'm jumping ahead of myself. After our arrival in Brest Marina and with Linda back in the UK sorting out her new U3A group and directing their builder we got stuck in to sourcing a new waterlock for the exhaust. The old one had developed a split along its seam, potentially catastrophic if it had split completely apart. I'd patched up the old one with plastic glue, sikaflex and gaffer tape but we didn't want to cross Biscay without a new one.

The offending exhaust waterlock showing glued, sikeflexed, duck taped repair.

Shaken to death, pre repair. No repaired picture - I was too pissed off!

Ordered Monday. "It will be here tomorrow". Or not. We hired bikes and cycled across town to pick it up. Not there. Cycle back. Return bikes. Chase up 300 euro deposit that the marina had not returned to our bank account. Maybe Wednesday. Or not.

We became tourists (or maybe we are all the time??) for a couple of days checking out what Brest has to offer. Its mainly a naval city but there's a bit of culture to catch up on too.

The excellent new meeting place space in Brest....

....including climbing wall.

The museum in the castle and the works of a famous figurehead carver.

At ease.

Meanwhile we are missing a lovely three day window of gentle easterly winds, just what we need to cross the notorious Biscay. Thursday comes. It's on the ferry!! You what? Anyway by now Linda's decided to rejoin us. We decide to get her to bring a waterlock on the plane with her on Friday. And she does. And of course the French one arrives then too. We told them to go away. [Ah, I can see the ship ahead now, a white pinprick of light at around 10 o'clock].

Next day we could see another depression coming through but it looked as though it will slide past us on its way to Northern Europe. We'll check tomorrow but an early start is on the cards. That evening we went out for a superb and very reasonably priced fish meal. I did enjoy my seafood platter.

Fantastic seafood platter.

So this morning we woke early and checked the forecast. Looks good. Let's go. Slipped our lines at 8am and off we went. It's been good. Lots of learnings. I've adjusted the Yankee (front sail) furler and it works much better, though still a bit stiff, we've reefed for the first time this season reasonably successfully, we've tried out various berths for sleeping and we're getting back in the rythym of things. The new crab line shaft brake snapped early on and has been replaced by some 2mm rope. Even this snapped once as we hit 8 knots but is holding firm now  Best of all, after initial problems Paul the wind steering has happily taken us along now for many hours saving electricity and saving us the 'er, er....,er, ...er' noise of the electrical autopilot. [The AIS machine (Automatic Identification System) now tells me the closest we'll get to this ship if we both carry on in our current speed and directions is 1.2 miles in 52 minutes. But it also tells me he's a fishing boat so he's likely to go in any direction. Better keep a watch out for him].

Still 15 knots of wind and we're still on a course of 204° but speed has dropped to 3.8 knots. Right, that's it for tonight. Time to do the hourly entry in the log.

Skipper and crew well wrapped up. It is only June after all.

Current (Interim) Location: 106 miles from Cedeira, Spain.

After a full day yesterday of sailing at 30° to the wind today we've had a full day of motoring directly into the wind. We've been out in the middle of the Bay of Biscay and only now at 1.07am do we start to feel land is not too far away. We've just seen our first ship for many hours on AIS but even then it was 18 miles away.

The first excitement of the day when we're still sailing was seeing Paul the newly installed wind steering moving around on his supports at the back of the boat. It turned out that the secondary vertical support brackets have play in them which was gradually getting worse. I spent an hour hanging off the back of the boat as we batted along at 6 knots trying to fix it. In the end Linda suggested we use  the bottle screw from a steering line to tension some  dyneema kite string. That's still in place and holding up well. We will need a better long term solution though.

Hanging off the back temporarily repairing "Paul".

Green rope and kite dyneema taking the strain off the bottom bracket.

The other big news on the day is "whales". No dolphins today but three separate sightings of whales in the deep waters in the middle of the bay, all spotted by Gilly. First a blow in the distance, then two small whales a couple of hundred metres off to starboard and finally another series of blows and a whale close by us. No idea what species but all very exciting.

It's warmer now. I still have full oilies on but for the first time I'm not cold. It's dark but the sky has finally cleared and there are stars above us. Very beautiful. We're motoring along at 6.3 knots and so far the new waterlock appears to be behaving - certainly there's still water coming out the back of the  boat. What else? The newly installed LED bow and stern lights are shining brightly, we've rerun the staysail sheets and continued to get to know Mehalah's idiosyncrasies. But mostly it's been a sociable day. Watches have overlapped, we've chatted, struggled with The Telegraph crossword and wondered what's been going on in the world. Food is good though we did have to feed the old and very mouldy cake to the dolphins (with requisite"feed the dolphins" song). And meanwhile we roll and pitch our way onward through the darkness towards Spain.

Housekeeping. Cleaning the windows

Skipper preparing mentally for landfall.

Current (Interim) Location: Cedeira anchorage, N Spanish coast near A Coruña.

We're in Spain!! Yippee!

Always a big moment. Down with the French flag, up with the Spanish.

The night continued and we motored through a lumpy sea with lightening flashing in the distance. Early in the morning to our great delight the wind veered to the east and we could sail again. Finally we spotted land and the coastline of Spain slid past to port. At the entrance to the Cedeira ria we negotiated a nasty little whirlpool before finally dropping anchor off the pretty, well protected town of Cedeira.


Current Location: Muros, Galicia

Next morning Linda packed and Gilly and I pumped up the dinghy on the foredeck and removed "Paul" from the transom. A bit of work required on him but the demountable process is basically sound. We dinghied ashore [Hello Spain] and walked into town. A low key, friendly place. Once Linda had ascertained her taxi pick up place for transfer out to A Coruna airport we went for a quick lunch. A working man's cafe, two courses for three of us came to €24, and very good food it was too. We left Linda at the roundabout waiting for her pickup from SunTransfers.com. Thanks Linda. It was great to have an extra member of crew. Despite the lack of adrenalin you saw on the Clipper Race I hope you enjoyed your time on Mehalah.

A quick lunch because we could see another short weather window to get us 'round the top left corner' of Spain. Anchor up, not fouled on the bottom, and back out through the narrows into the rolling ocean. Downwind at 4.5 knots in 10 knots of breeze. Lovely with just the Yankee up in sunny conditions. This is what it's all about.

Praying for wind.

The start of another night watch.

Until dusk came and wind dropped. We'd done 23 miles but another 75 odd to go. So it's engine on again through the night. And then the rain started, gently at first but still no wind. It got dark but soon we had dolphins playing alongside. And not just dolphins but phosphorescent dolphins. No matter how often you've seen them their appearance always makes you smile. Soon we had passed most of the Costa da Morte and headed for the "top left hand corner of Spain" or the fearful Cape Finistere. We counted off the lighthouses and soon we were approaching the corner. Now it's raining properly and there's a big fishing fleet to negotiate. We weave our way through them and finally it's a left turn into Ria de Muros. We anchor nicely in another big easy anchorage with four or five other boats. We sleep. Another night Passage completed.

Hauling nets after a long, wet night.

The following day we dinghied into the very attractive town of Muros and checked out the marina for somewhere to leave Mehalah during August. "Too expensive" Pedro said but try the travel lift down the road. He wrote down what we had to say to the guy and yes we can leave her there for a very reasonable price. Great, sorted.

And today (Thursday 27th June) we've finally started to get into a bit of cruising routine. Failed to find a launderette, purchased some cable ties and hose fittings and chilled in town. Then a few boat jobs including strengthening the dinghy engine launching system.

Strengthening the dinghy launching support.

Meanwhile Gilly was planning for the arrival of daughters Jen and Emma and partners next week and now we're off for a walk before a not to be missed Galician fish meal.

Depression(s) and Departure

Current Location: Up the River Aulne, SE of Brest.

Well, it’s grey and miserable but we are in a beautiful location up a river in Brittany very similar to the river Fal where we left from last Wednesday. An ideal time to catch up with the blog even though there is no internet coverage here.

The big news is that we've made it to France. On returning to Mylor we found the marina had moved Mehalah inside the wave breaker pontoon as strong easterly winds were predicted. Now that’s good service. We also found that the unhappy dinghy engine carburettor needed to be replaced as the tiny galleries could not be cleaned using the marina’s ultrasonic vibrator. This gave me some comfort in as much as there was no way I could have fixed it but concern that it might happen again somewhere more remote. At least we will have a clean system to get started with.  This and completing the Aries wind steering installation were the two main tasks left before we could depart.

The Aries work consisted of bolting on the new stainless framework and running lines from the unit to a small drum bolted to the steering wheel. Sounds simple? In theory it is, the whole process is supposed to take around 6 hours. In practice though not so easy. Over several days the unit was hung in position by way of the topping lift, marks made for where the holes should be in the transom and the holes drilled. Each bracket, of which there were four,required someone (John) holding a spanner on the outside whilst someone else, ideally a multi-limbed, double-jointed dwarf (Gill) tightened them from inside the extremely cramped lazarette (cupboard). Bad language was heard when I realised that one bracket that had taken 45 minutes to install was upside down and had to be unscrewed and reinstalled, but eventually this part of the operation was complete.

Next day the new carburettor had still not arrived.

You may remember the forward hatch leaks? Well, rather than take out the seal and replace (big job) or remove the entire hatch, replace and rebed (even bigger job) we bought some “Capt. Tolley’s Creeping Crack Remedy”! And it worked. Gilly squirted it into the leaky area, it ran into all the gaps, she waited for it to dry, did it again, and repeated. Eventually no more came dripping into the cabin and the job was done. Great job Gilly. Something that was actually easier than expected!

The magic Capt Tolley's Creeping Crack Remedy.

Whilst in the lazarette Gilly had checked the last stretch of steering chain for ‘fishhooks’ where one or more strands has snapped. You know what’s coming next. Yes, quite a few fishhooks in this inaccessible area and after some discussion we decided it really need fixing before we left.

The weather at this stage was appalling. Rain all day as a big depression swept along the English Channel. Even in this sheltered marina we saw 38 knots of wind from the side with waves breaking over the pontoon (good job we were on the sheltered side of the pontoon now). We added an extra warp for protection.

Next day the new carburettor had still not arrived and the weekend is approaching. We’re hoping to leave on Monday so time is getting tight. You can order these things on the internet and get it within a couple of days. I really don’t know why it’s taken them so long to source this thing.

Anyway Gilly was all for getting someone to replace the steering wires for us but a quick internet search showed again that the theory was simple so I voted we do it ourselves.

Usually you can disconnect the two wires that turn a quadrant bolted to the rudder stock and pull them through. Our wires of course had non removable fittings which would not go through the various pulleys and neither would the new ones go through either. So this meant removing the four pulleys, all again in the lazarette, with me now playing the (somewhat larger) dwarf role. Great, after two hours they’re off. Let’s get new ones made. Oh no, there’s an eight week wait for rigger’s time. However Gilly caught one of the riggers on his own, fluttered her eyelashes and got him to make them up that very afternoon! Which he did. And they fitted. Thanks so much Dan. How pleased he was too when she went to thank him personally for fitting our job in.

Disconnecting the forward (easy) end of the steering wires.

I think that needs replacing!

Re-installing the sheaves at the aft (difficult) end of the wires.

And then the carburettor arrived. Just in time for them to reassemble it and deliver it late on Friday evening. At the same time I needed to fix the auxiliary drum to the wheel. Required? Three non standard U-bolts in stainless steel. The fabricator is busy but can, and does, squeeze us in. But he knows we really needs these so he stings us a horrendous £108 for these tiny fittings. Ouch, ouch.

The steering drum waiting for its expensive U-bolts.

Hugh and Linda arrived next day. Linda will crew with us hopefully to Spain but the forecast shows another horrid depression coming through so we won’t be leaving for Spain, or even France for another few days yet. But not just Hugh and Linda. Linda took part in the last Clipper Round the World Race and she bought three other lady sailors she had met, Chrissie, Toni and Maria plus Chrissie’s sister Suzy. We all retired to the saloon for a VERY sailory conversation. Fascinating. Interestingly we thought they were very brave for racing hard at an angle of 45 degrees and they thought us intrepid for sailing double handed to who knows where. We had a great afternoon with them, swapping email addresses at the end when they had to return to Newquay. We ate at the excellent Pandora restaurant that evening.

Clipper Team 1

Clipper Team 2

Well wrapped up outside the Pandora pub, River fal.

Whilst we waited for this work I start to drill the holes in the new framework that will bolt the unit all together. This proved to be the most difficult stage as the holes in the tubes needed to line up with the holes in the receiving sockets. Not surprisingly they didn’t and round section 4mm thick stainless is not the easiest thing to drill through even with Linda sitting on the other end to prevent rotation.

Awkward work at the back of the boat.

Next day after Hugh left for home it was back to hole drilling, Linda in the dinghy, me balanced on the transom steps. Finally it was finished. Just the lines to lead back. About this time Dick and Mary arrived having driven down from Plymouth in the hope of catching us. More chat and more to eat. Don’t rush. Wait for a decent weather window. Don’t go round the outside of Biscay but straight across.

Finished. At last.

And so the dinghy engine was mounted and off I went to test it. Cough, cough, splutter, stop. Row back to the boat, somewhat depressed. Realise that I had forgotten to switch the fuel on [yes, I know!]. Try again. All seems good. Another job off the list.

There followed yet another day of rain and strong winds as a further depression crossed the UK. Will they EVER stop? It’s supposed to be flaming June now. Luckily the blocks for the lines that had to be installed were inside the ‘tent’ that covers the cockpit so I lazily completed this job whilst Gill and Linda stowed and labelled things and generally prepared for the crossing. Gill spent time concockting her fourth(!) passage plan. We had spotted a potential 24 hour window that should allow us to get to Camaret in France. That evening we walked to Mylor Bridge and bought a few bits and bobs ready to leave the following morning (Wed 12th).

Right on cue the wind dropped and the rain sort of stopped. We did the last bit of washing and then we were off. At last we are leaving the UK. We slipped our lines, found the exit fairway and motored out past Falmouth. What’s this? Practically no wind. Just 4-5 knots and we need to average 5.5 knots so we started motor sailing. And motor sailing. And motor sailing. It got dark, sort of, and we crossed four traffic zones. Big ships which we had to avoid, all without major incident. We stood short watches with Linda overlapping ours. I panicked when I thought I was late for my next watch but it turned out my phone had put itself on an hour to French time whilst I slept. Ha ha! The only issues were a trickle of water from somewhere near the back of the boat and an occasional banging noise from the steering.

A nondescript day as we finally depart the UK.

The first sunset crossing La Manche.

The big event of this journey was the Chanel du Four, the first of two narrow passages where tides run strongly. The pilot book told us we were spot on time for an easy run through but our chart said otherwise. So as the sun came up we ran down the Chanel, all of us spotting the buoys as we passed and Linda ticking them off. Before we knew it we were through and time pressures were gone. We put up the sails again and ‘Paul’ our new Aries wind steering took us to Camaret. He needs tweaking but the omens so far are good. We’d arrived. Tired after little sleep but able to pick up a visitor’s mooring and relax. However after a few hours’ sleep we reviewed the weather for Biscay. Yet more depressions rolling in for days so Linda decided it made sense to return to the UK for a few days at least. Se we’re in Camaret and she needs to be in Brest TOMORROW morning to catch her 9 euro Ryanair flight!! We try buses, uber, ferries whatever. It’s only 9 miles across the water so in the end after much deliberation we decide to motor even closer so we can deliver her to the marina in Brest the following morning. With luck we can drop her off under the pretence of refuelling. But that involves negotiating the Raz de Brest, another nasty little few miles. We hit it, tired and a bit unplanned as the tide was going out against us at 3 knots and the wind was behind us. Quite exhilarating but we were tired. Not made easier as a French warship (loads of them around here in Brest) decided to set off and turn right in front of us as we slalomed our way up the Raz. Now where? Gilly had spotted what looked to be a sheltered bay but when we got there it was horrid. Blowing 18 knots right into the bay and very shallow. Discretion being the better part of valour we skedaddled across to the other side of this little inland sea (supposedly tranquil) and anchored for the night.

A tired, but satisfied skipper.

Up at 5.30 (or 4.30 English time) we motored [again] across to Brest marina. Tied up OK using the new centre cleat spring approach and said goodbye to Linda who successfully caught her bargain flight to Southend. Full of diesel we sprung off and left again to find naval ships and ferries all over the place. Soon we were able to set our sails for a beautiful downwind run to the River Aulne where we are now. The winds were still strong but eventually we found a place to anchor. But not before we had passed a naval graveyard and, lo and behold, Jojo’s boat (Island Swift) which we had no idea was up this river.

This one's a wreck.... (rusting French warship)

....but this one's not (a surprise encounter with Jojo and Simon's Wylo, Island Swift).

That’s where we are now. After a long sleep and removing our tripping line that threatened to catch in the prop as the tide turned us we took stock. This morning we discovered that the water that gathered in the bilge was from a short split in the exhaust antisyphon gooseneck and the banging was from a loose board. Both are currently under consideration.

View from our anchorage up the Rinver Aulne.

Postscript

It's now a couple of days later and we are tied up in Brest marina. The washing is done, a few more boatie jobs have been completed and tomorrow we go to the other side of town to collect and then fit a new waterlock for the main engine. It was this that was leaking the water on our Channel crossing. It's still cold but we've done a bit of exploring, eaten some galettes and a delicious crab bisque from the fish dock. Don't say it too loudly but the forecast for the next few days is looking a bit more promising. It will be a shame if we have to leave before Linda is due to return on Friday but we've agreed if a window opens then we'll take it. We need three days of favourable wind for that to occur. Probably by tomorrow it will be looking iffy again! The question is will we get to Spain in time to meet up with Jenny and Emma? That is the question.

Sightseeing in Brest.

Mehalah, tied up in Brest marina awaiting fair weather to sail to Spain.

For earlier posts, see www.yachtmehalah.blogspot.com

Ah yes, we fixed the shaft brake too we think. Hopefully we now have a string of a suitable strength.

The test lab. What snaps what?

The final solution, crabbing line!!

...and we're off, though not very far

Current Location: Mehalah, Mylor Marina, Cornwall. Us, Ebley, Gloucestershire.

Finally it was time to leave Sutton Harbour. Fuel pontoon first, throttle seems a bit fast. Fill up with diesel, no problem. Throttle seems VERY fast before engaging gear. Something is very wrong and the harbour lock is not the time to find out that we can't control the boat! So we reverse back into our old berth and I went down to look at the engine to try and see what's wrong. Ah, the pesky Morse cable has slipped. That's my fault I'm afraid. Fixed it whilst Gilly made coffees for our friends on Cofdrop and Twenty 3. Off again, locked in and then locked out of Sutton Lock and out into Plymouth Sound, all at the sedate speed that you need in a marina. Phew!!

The twin aims of the next few days were to get the boat to the River Fal ready for jumping off to France or Spain and to try out everything we had fixed or added since October.

First off, Fowey. A gentle sail and nothing broke. We called up our friends in the Rame Head Coastwatch station and they confirmed a good radio signal and that they could see us on AIS. Rounding the corner in drizzly weather we took a visitor's mooring ball very neatly and got the dinghy ready for a trip ashore. Damn, the engine won't start and it's leaking petrol. Not good Jenny after all that work over Christmas. So we chilled out and watched the dinghy racing. I think we were a mark as they all tacked past us.

Racing all around us at Fowey.

We opted for another day in Fowey doing odd jobs. I spent time trying to fix the dinghy engine and also sorted an issue with the autopilot which was happily turning us to starboard but not to port. One of the connection blocks had come loose in the control box (we had to find the control box first)!

Fixing the autopilot contol box. Connector block had come loose.

It was the time for jobs that were pushed down the list whilst on the hard or in Sutton Harbour. Gilly spent a very energetic afternoon using neat white vinegar to clean up the blue topsides which have been painted with Awlgrip, a proprietary paint system. Very smart she looks too now. But the dinghy and Gilly smelt like a fish and chip shop at the end of the excercise!

Using the magic white vinegar to clean the blue topsides.

It's peaceful and sheltered in Fowey harbour and we enjoyed our 2 days there.

Sunset in Fowey.

Next it was a slightly longer sail to St Mawes at the entrance to the Fal river. It was slow to start with so we checked our newly repaired bilge pumps were operating [they were, thanks Dave], confirmed the autopilot was fixed and tested out yet another solution to stop the prop shaft rotating. It's a long story but basically with a hydraulic gearbox which we have discovered is the type we have then the prop shaft wants to continue rotating when we are sailing as opposed to motoring. Normally you can stop this by putting her in reverse but with a hydraulic box this does not work. It whines and vibrates as it rotates and wears the bearings. There's loads of debate as to whether stopping the rotation slows the boat down or not but we decided that for us it was more important to stop the rotation. Mark 1 solution was really neat using a modified Quashqai disk brake [thanks Chris] but we were concerned it could fail 'on' when we wanted to drive the boat forward. Mark 2 [thanks Mike] was effectively a wide jubilee clip clamped across an anode but that solution requires some delicate positioning of the band (you can see the anode in place below awaiting the band). Mark 3 was simply a piece of string from the Morse cable bracket to a bolt on the rotating shaft. It worked great until we got to 4.8 knots when the string broke. I think we need a thicker string!

'Almost' the final shaft brake solution.

We had a cracking sail as we approached St Mawes. 13 knot N wind, flat sea and a smooth, smooth ride at 6-7 knots briefly touching 8.3 knots. She sails beautifully.

After a night in St Mawes at anchor for the first time we motored up the Fal and anchored in Channel Creek below the famous National Trust house of Trelissick, just south of the pontoon we had stayed on last year. We launched our dinghy and I got its engine going again and we started off against the current to the main house entrance. After 200 yards it stopped and we just managed to catch hold of the pontoon before having to row hard back to the boat. Drat and double drat. I finally admitted defeat. Not the float, not the needle valve, petrol dripping in the water. Not good.

Back at Trelissick House with Mehalah anchored in Channel Creek.

That night we heard a nightingale singing. At least we thought we did until we realised it's a) the wrong time of the year, b) they are extremely rare in Cornwall and c) it sounded exactly like a robin's song.

Without a dinghy engine we needed to stay out of the tidal flow so next day we rowed to the edge of the bay and walked up and down the coast for few miles, taking in a coffee at Trelissick House on the way. Then back to the boat where Gill completed the steering chain servicing. Now the wheel doesn't stick at all when you turn it.

Gilly at work cleaning the muck from the steering sheaves.

All the time we were finding odd things we still needed to buy so a big internet shopping order was sent off, hoping that the various bits and pieces would get to either Ebley or Mylor marina before we set off for France. We had decided not to leave Mehalah on the pontoon this time when we returned for the last time to Ebley so we booked her into Mylor Marina just south of our anchorage. It's quite a hairy approach when you don't know it. Hundreds of moored boats, shallow water and a narrow and difficult channel, especially as we hadn't been able to recce it by dinghy first. All went well though. A beautiful but foggy early morning gave way to a flat calm morning and we picked our way through almost at high water.

Gorgeous Mylor Marina, gorgeous weather and gorgeous wife! 

Now it was time to chill, drink coffee and put the engine in for repair. Mylor is a super marina, privately owned, well run and very friendly (if a little on the pricey side). More packing and ordering of the last small bits and pieces and then a five mile walk along the coastline to Flushing close to Falmouth town. Very nice.

Next day was departure day. Final jobs and then Trevor and Karen (whose boat is called Twenty 3) arrived to take us back to their house in St Austell and to reunite us with our car. We spent a great evening with them capped off with a meal at Wreckers in Charlestown, the home of the TV programme Poldark.

Charlestown, home of Poldark of TV fame.

Next morning after an excellent fried breakfast (thanks Trevor) we drove back to Ebley via Plymouth where we picked up the shortened stainless steel bars to hold the wind steering gear.


Since then, back in Ebley we've been watching the weather forecast for a window to cross the channel and possibly head on down across Biscay to north western Spain. Friend Linda hopes to join us, weather and timing allowing and hopefully we'll meet up with JoJo and Simon (first met in Dominica) on the way. We shall see. Tomorrow we are back to Cornwall before finally setting off south hopefully on Friday or Saturday although at present it's not looking too good!

The darker the colour the windier the weather!

For previous posts see: www.yachtmehalah.blogspot.com