Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure
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Entering The Alderney Race.....
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You are now past the strong currents !
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It is still Spring tides, so large flows for the next couple of days, and we have to be in St Malo for Friday. And there are some pretty treacherous reefs between here and there. So we will do a 20nm run tomorrow to Carteret, which leaves us about 45nm to do to get to St Malo. Winds on Thursday are forecast to be strong, so that leaves us the Carteret-St Malo passage to do on Friday, we'll likely leave Carteret at 04:30ish on Fri to get the best conditions. Carteret is at waypoint 4, St Malo is the waypoint after waypoint 8. It'll be a challenging passage....
"OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011
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said in Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure:
So we will do a 20nm run tomorrow to Carteret,
No we will not.......
Given the tidal gates to get out of Carteret into St Malo, it's basically an impossible passage to do and not have to punch through heavy currents. So the current plan is to sail from here (Dielette) to St Malo in one hit. We are not behind a gate here, so we can leave with no timing restrictions....
"OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011
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Appears that completing essential victuals is conducive to ever shorter runs and longer stops.
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@Giles
what an adventure
at least it sounds like one . -
Our main flagstaff suffered a major catastrophe before we departed. Not that I noticed it until we were well underway to France, when I remembered that I was not flying the ensign. I leave the ensign wrapped around the flagstaff when not in use and stow it as one. Could not find it anywhere, I assumed a Gozza local had nicked it. Though that would have been more likely to have been pinched if it was a St Georges Cross......
I eventually noticed it lying on the coach roof. The flag had got tangled up with the pole in the high winds that we had recently, basically forming a sail and had pulled the mount out of the roof. The conditions were so calm on the crossing, I "fixed" it on the move. Two days later it came down again. A better mounting system needs to be installed, but that will have to wait until I am home.
We did not want to travel in France without flying our ensign a) It's slightly illegal, and b) I did not want to get mistaken for being French, or worse still German or American
So necessity being the mother of invention, I got the zip ties out and bodged a temporary solution with the help of the gangway which we will not use on this trip...
"OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011
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@Giles you go by hours and not gallons burned?
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I keep track of litres per hour. I deliberately deleted the fuel burn gauge when we specced the boat. I don't want bad news when I'm at the helm. I'll go as fast as I want/need to, and worry about the consequences when I fill up. Are we having a ball? Yes, so I don't want a "piss-me-off-gauge"......
"OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011
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@Giles I used to tell the Mrs. How many dollars away a given fishing trip was (fuel/tackle/food/Launch fees/stress factor) drove her bonkers, all she wanted to know was how long it would take.
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Leaving as early as possible tomorrow is critical. We have to be in St Malo before the lock closes. It does open again in the evening, but we have to be on a train to Paris at Sparrows on Saturday morning, so really want to get in on the early tide. But we need to know what depth of water is over the annoyingly positioned sand bar between us and freedom. The marina staff are being pretty useless. So Paula and I are monitoring this tide, and making notes of what the depth at regular points around low water are. From these observations, we can extrapolate what the depth will be at certain times tomorrow morning.
We also want to go to the bar and have a drink and some food. So I've rigged up a Blink camera so I can remotely monitor the depth gauge from my phone....
