17 Sep 06 - 22 Sep 06 - Gijon Spain to Lorient France

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17 Sep 06

We decided to stay in Gijon for 2 nights. Its a quite nice city with everything that one would need. The mooring prices, despite still being in highseason, are getting more reasonable costing around Euro 47 per night, compared to the ridiculous 120 Euro + 10 Euro for electricity and water in Messina in Italy.

The marineras there (the people working in the marina) were as usual quite friendly, but the 'later' principle seemed to rule. No assistance from them when mooring and no assistance until after an hour at the refueling quay.

It was city festival while we were there, and thus lots of people on the streets, lots of music and generally a good atmosphere.

We have decided to depart from Gijon tomorrow to push on to our next destination. Online weather forecasts suggests a storm building in the Atlantic with its true peak at the 21. Sep, and if we dont want to stay in Gijon for another week, we have better get going.

Before we would depart from Gijon, I needed to figure out exactly how much fuel the main engine tanks could hold. Our fuel meter is divided into a red area of about 1/3 the scale, and the remaining being green. To be able to plan our next move, I needed to know our range. We cant sail with sails much, as the main sail is non operating, and the Genoa only useful when we get the wind in from port side (due to the damaged boom being tied to the port side of the mast).

Moving everything away from the floor, up with carpets and the floor itself, I had access to the main tank. Using a standard 30cm ruler, I could meassure it. It has been designed to fit  rather precisely into the hull, taking up as much space as possible, so its not just a simple rectangular shape. Anyway I got some good measurements, and could calculate its size to 500liters, which is somewhat smaller than I expected and had been told.

When we have been lowest on fuel, it was slightly into the red area, and we fueled about 400 liters for the main engine. Thus I know we have a reserve of about 100 liters when in red.

As we use 9 liters/hour at 1800 revs, going about 6.5 knots, its possible to calculate our max range, which indicates we can sail for about 55 hours, giving us a range of about 6.5 x 55 = 357 nm only motoring. As there is currents and we also need fuel for harbour manouvres, I must calculate with max 300nm range.

Based on this information, I knew we could get to Bilbao or San Sabastian in North Spain, if we would follow our newest plan following the coast around the Biscay. However another option also showed up... going to Lorient in France, crossing the Biscay. The distance was about 230nm, thus well within our range, and as we can do about 120nm + per 24 hours, we could do the trip in 2 days, which means we could get shelter before the storm hit us. It would save us several days comparing following the coast.

Crossing the Biscay with a somewhat crippled ship had to be thought over well though, and I had to spend the evening and the next morning making the decision of what to do.

18 Sep 06

We refueled 14 liters for the generator (not sure if it actually got completely full, but I did try several times to top it up), and 253 liters for the main engine.

At first I still hadnt made the decision of Bilbao or Lorient. The sea would tell us when we got out in it. Gijon was quite sheltered from the sea, as it was inside a bay, and thus we couldnt really make any estimates until we were out in the wet. We were out the harbour at 13:00.

Going on a bearing of 360 for an hour, we were out in the open, the winds were calm and the sea quite smooth. The decision was made. We would try to cross the Biscay again, and headed towards Lorient on a bearing of about 20 degrees.

To conserve fuel, I decided to let the engine run 1700 revs instead of the usual 1800. It affected our speed by about 1/2 knot, but should save us fuel.

Sailing was quite uneventful. In day it was quite hot, but in evenings it was getting cold.

Our autopilot has started to make fun with us again. Althought this time its the head unit in the cockpit that seems to have taken water and is getting completely confused. The autopilot control unit, gyro units, and head unit in the saloon were still working fine. So not a disaster, just an annoyance.

Our Navtex unfortunately also seems to have suffered from some water somewhere, most probably its antenna or cable outside. So we arent receiving any weather updates or security warnings any more. More to fix when we get back to DK :(

In addition our main echo sounder (depth meter) has started to asking us for entering an unlock code. As we havnt entered any in the first place, Im not really having any ideas to how to get it operating again. Its an anti theft feature which is imo more annoying than useful. The code is something that the owner would have to choose himself. The books for the instrument, where the owner would write the code contains no code. So not much to do about that.

Fortunately we still have the forward directed echo sounder. It not only tells us whats in front of us, but also our current depth. This instrument has gotten to be quite useful for us.

Some clouds resembling Cirrus Nimbus clouds were building to the west of us, and I was starting to worry that we would have bad weather coming.

As we got the wind in from west, we tried to set the Genoa. We anyway needed to figure out if it had been damaged on the 13. It fortunately suffered no damage to the sail itself, but some sacreficial cloth had been ripped some way up. This is no major problem as its only for protection of the sail against the sun when the sail has been rolled in.

Going by engine and Genoa only we held about 7.5 knots.

19 Sep 06

We held the course going with sail all the way till the middle of the Biscay when the wind completely disappeared. Crossing the center, the wind turned around and came from east, which ment we couldnt use the Genoa any longer. The damaged boom was in the way. It was rolled in again.

The bad looking clouds fortunately turned out to be nothing. We had a pleasent ride with only slow 3m waves. Although the ship did roll on occations it was ok and certainly nothing compared to what we experienced going to Gijon.

The pressure was according to our barometer, going slightly down, from 1020 to 1015. Nothing dramatic, but nonetheless an indicator that a low preassure was developing.

We continued our course, and in night time was only 50nm from the French coast.

The waves came in from another angle now, and made the boat roll somewhat more. It made cooking more complicated and we both had to stay in the galley, one doing the cooking, the other holding the pots and pans in place.

The whole night I was awake, keeping lookout while watching one DVD after another. Every 10-15 minutes I went out to see if there was anything new to report.

20 Sep 06

At 10:30 we arrived in Kernevel marina (47N43.26, 3W22.07) (Pleasance marina is its true name if I remember correctly). The marina is sheltered inside a fjord. There are several interesting things to see while sailing in, a huge 50% decomposed wreck continuing further to the north towards Lorient city itself, and the old Nazi submarine bunkers on the opposite side of our marina.

The marina is quite full, and only barely have the depth for us. Our sounder showed 2.8 meters while going in. Its measurement is from the place on the hull of the sonar itself, which is about 60-80cm below the water surface. As we calculate with a draught of 2.85m there is just about enough for us as long there are no waves. The bottom here is mud and sand, and thus its not as such dangerous if we should touch it.

We were placed as 2nd boat next to a large trawler type private yacht. Its the only place for us, and we were happy that we did get a place.

Getting on shore would have to be via the other yacht, but when we checked it out, it was about 2meters from the quay, and thus impossible for us to get on land that way. Good we have a dingy and our gangway as our private quay for the dingy.

We went out to explorer the city. Kerneval is approx 3km from Lorient center. In the marina they have 2 restaurants/cafes, one quite well equipped boat utility shop and showers/toilets/capitanairy. Approx 300m from the marina is the busstops where the busses go every 15 minutes until 20:00 after which time they only go every 30 mins. After 21:00 the bus operation ceases which leaves only taxis as the means of transportation.

Lorient is a largish city with lots of shops and stuff. On the way to it by bus, one passes LeClerk which is the largest local supermarket. We plan to go visit there tomorrow.

We got a burger at McDonalds, shopped a few things and walked alot. We plan to stay here until the storm has passed, and then next stop is Dart marina UK which is about 200nm from here.

21 Sep 06

The storm hit quiet hard. It is difficult to walk from our boat along the concrete floating pontoons to the shore due to the winds.

Today we visited E. LeClerk (a largish supermarket), outside the city, only about 10 minutes by bus from the marina. We made quite alot of shopping for food, drinks and other stuff we wanted to have. As we were in France, we obviously had to buy some french goodies to consume, like crepes, some cakes etc.

We had to take a taxi back to the marina, as we had too much stuff to carry.

22 Sep 06

The storm has weared off. There is still a bit of wind, but far from as strong as yesterday. We knew that out in the Biscay, there would still be waves from the storm, but decided to push on anyway.

Hence we refueled diesel, 314 liters for the engine (7577 hours) and 17 liters for the generator (7794 hours), and set course for United Kingdom.