For us the point in having a sailing boat it to use it, and to explore new places. Some boats sit in the marina either un-used or activing as a permanent project for fiddling on, but without going to sea. I like to think that we stretch Trouper’s legs as much as we can whilst holding down full time jobs.
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Baie de Quiberon (and Fastnets)
We left Concarneau for Lorient on Tuesday, with Trouper making an easy 6 knots in a gentle breeze. Lorient is a huge harbour, behind a narrow entrance and we elected to moor in Port Louis, tucked in on the eastern side of the entrance. There’s a water taxi into the centre of town and we…
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Weather
The weather has dominated the most of the last week. Douarnenez was lovely but the swell into the visitors’ pontoon for the second and third nights resulted in lot of groaning warps, if no actual discomfort (Kathryn might disagree as the groaning warps kept her awake). On Wednesday we left reasonably early and headed out…
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A long weekend
Friday evening saw one of Kathryn’s former work colleagues and her new partner join us for a few days – carrying two very welcome spare belts for the engine. Whilst chasing the coolant leak I’d noticed that the belt that drives the coolant pump and engine alternator was looking a little frayed and discovered that…
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Leaving the English Channel Behind
We left Roscoff after 4 nights on Tuesday, having waited out some weather – nothing too violent but some rain and it was a bit breezy). We spent one day doing boat admin and laundry, another exploring Roscoff (very good Crepes and local Breton Cidre) and then testing out the Bromptons with a cycle to…
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Grey in Roscoff
We left Cherbourg on Wednesday, filling up with diesel before we left at the self service pumps. The 300Euro maximum for a card transaction filled one tank and took the other to 92% so we left it at that and headed off. We took a fair tide to Cap de la Hauge and saw a…
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Lifeboating won’t let me go
I stood down form the RNLI lifeboat crew at Tower after over 20 years on the crew last month. As we left for Cherbourg we found a young man at about 0615 in the morning swimming well over 2 miles offshore. He was struggling a bit and was glad of a ride back into Chichester……
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Trouper’s Atlantic France Trip Preparations
Over the last few years I’ve invested a lot of time, effort, and a fair bit of money into getting Trouper set up for extended cruising. We’ve installed a new engine, a large Lithium Iron Phosphate battery bank with a large alternator to charge it, and a hostable array of solar panels. Our plan has…